Christmas was great.  Had the entire family in the house for the party.  Ate a lot of course.  I didn't gain any pounds though. 

Training wise, I didn't train as much.  Just ran in the treadmill every other day, but didn't get a chance to go to the dojo.  Classes are at night and that's the time to spend some time with family from out of town.

Anyway, I was driving home yesterday and found this Tae Kwon Do school by accident.  I went in to check it out and the owner is Master Jeff Durbin.

Here's a little about him: (you can also check it out his site)

Jeff Durbin began his martial arts instruction at the age of 4.  Jeff spent the bulk of his youth growing up on military bases while his father served in the United States military.  One of those bases was located in Northern Honshu Japan.  While in Japan, Jeff spent the majority of his spare time training in two different styles, Tae Kwon Do, a Korean art, and a Japanese Karate system. 

When Jeff returned to America he began to train under the world renowned master, Francis Pineda.  Master Pineda was the coach of several forms competitors who were already legends in the martial arts community.  While training under Master Pineda, Jeff began touring the United States in martial arts competition on the North American Sport Karate Association (NASKA) tournament circuit.  While competing across America, Jeff won virtually every major competition that existed and won several World, International and National titles.  Jeff retired from competition after becoming the Grand Champion at the famous Battle of Atlanta World Championship and the Las Vegas International World Championship.  Jeff has been featured in nearly every major martial arts publication or magazine as well as Sports Illustrated.

While not competing, Jeff spent his time either on screen, stage or computer-generated worlds.  Jeff was the host of an NBC talk show called “Teen T.V.” which dealt with teen issues such as drugs and abstinence.  He was selected to play the role of Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat the World Tour, a multi-million dollar stage production of the Mortal Kombat video game and movie.  Jeff has also been featured on every major news network such as ABC, NBC, CBS and FOX. 

In the computer-generated world, Jeff was a choreographer and stunt man in “The Untouchable” video game, “Age of Empires 2”, the “Action Man” T.V. show pilot,  and the “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” television show pilot where he played the roles of Michelangelo, Donatello and K.C. Jones.  Jeff has also played several roles in the movies “Beyond Vengeance” as the character Mouse, and “Leather and Iron”. Jeff holds a 4th degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do as well as a 1st degree Black Belt in Japanese Karate.

Jeff and his wife Candi have three children, Sage, Immagin and Saylor.  When not teaching or with his family, Jeff spends his spare time working as President of One Christian Ministries, an Arizona-based Christian Ministry.

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Pete Gebe

"He who know others is wise. He who knows himself is enlightened." - Tao Te Ching

doesn't everyone?  Good quote.  I need to remember that!