Fight Core

CSW Camp 2009 takes the cake! I have been to every CSW camp that has ever been held. They have all been off the hook but this was the best one ever! Having a weekend this good all starts with the right company.

There was adventure from the moment we  arrived at our hotel. We got in late on Thursday night. There was an unusually large security presence at the hotel which seemed strange for such a nice area. The 5 of us crammed into a room with 2 beds. 2 of us in each bed and Kensei on the floor. When we got up Friday morning I noticed what appeared to be a huge blood stain on the box springs of my bed and then Yamasaki noticed blood splatters on my pillow. We did a little CSI action and later determined that it wasn’t blood afterall but it had us a little freaked out at first. I did my best to rub Yamasaki’s face on the stain but his Self Defense skills were too much for me to over come.

Camp was a total blast. We had a solid team there and the overall vibe was pretty cool. There are always a couple of maniacs there looking kill someone but we had identified most of them on the first day. One such maniac was Ben the Badger. An ex pro football player turned MMA fighter. He was big, fast, strong and knew what hew was doing. On top of all that he loved to bang. We ended up filming a couple of spots for DAMAGE CONTROL with him. He had skills and I figured he would make for a good segment on our show and I also thought maybe he would take it a little easier on us after we built a repoire. Well I was right on the first assumption, he showed some cool tricks but as for going any easier… no such luck.

The camp was taught mostly by Ajarn Nelson and Sensei Erik Paulson who would have been my top 2 picks out of anyone in the world for this camp. Marvin Cook also joined the Coaches for a section on boxing during day 2 which was very informative and entertaining!

On Saturday night we managed to get out to China Town for some dinner. The food kind of sucked to be honest (I’d take David’s Kitchen in Salt Lake over that place anyday) but I can’t remember the last time I laughed that hard at dinner as we told some of our favorite gym stories and teased Kensei.

Everyone made it home in one piece. We all brought back some cool new moves and upped our game. It was one of the best weekends of my life. Can’t wait for next year.