van.guard (van'gard) n.1.The foremost position in an army or fleet advancing into battle. 2. a. The foremost or leading position in a trend or movement. b. Those occupying a foremost position.

      The brochure I wrote for my business nearly thirty years ago states that my credentials are substantiated more by my students' progress than by my own record of accomplishment. I still maintain that.

     We all leave something behind. Hopefully we're remembered more for the good we've done than the otherwise. Who hasn't sown some bad seed? But in the meantime, hopefully having learned from our mistakes, we press on, knowing that the impact we're impressing into people's memory banks are going to stay with them for a long, long time. Do we get the credit we deserve? Probably not. Do ambitious- types cash in on our years of blazing trails? Most definitely. Do we get stabbed in the back, made objects of contention, forgotten or betrayed by the very upstarts we poured our lives into? Of course. Do we quit? Hell no. We can't. The backbone God has given us will always prove stronger and more flexible than any winds of adversity that ultimately come to distract, discredit, disable or destroy us.

       I could wax philosophic for hours on trials and tribulations or the virtues of persistence and respect, but I'm reminded this is an editorial- not a book.

       So with that in mind, I will simply introduce the next level of competitive opportunities in this region of the U.S. that will undoubtedly re-establish one of the platforms of how it all got started-traditional stand-up forms and fighting. No bouncing around for a game of tag, no clown suits, no acrobatics to the tune of 'Danger Zone."

       Hopefully, VANGUARD STANDUP FEDERATION will be a politic-free ratings organization that will not only bring traditional karate to the respect it is due, but unite competitors, kids and adults alike, into a new understanding of an age old concept-what you've learned isn't worth the embroidered stripes on your belt if you can't back it up.

       So here it is, one more time-VANGUARD STANDUP FEDERATION.

       I can't say the next big thing is here. We actually never left.

       Send in the clowns. More info soon

                                                                                                                                                                           Osu .
                                                                                                                                                                  Shihan Ellis Weber
                                                                                                                                                        Founder and Senior  instructor
                                                                                                                                                         Eaglewings Kyokushin karate