Roundtable Discussion 007: Year’s Best

“List one exciting thing that happened to you this year (in your business/ personal life) and explain why it had such a big impact/or why it topped your list.”

We, at the CombativeCorner would love to hear your highlights!  Let us know in the comment section below.

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[Guest – Roberto “Cyborg” Abreu]

I had two moments, one when I won the worlds nogi weight and Open, which was a dream come true.  And the second, my fight against Braga Neto at the semifinals at the worlds which won as the “Best fight of the Year” by GracieMag.  I had a huge comeback after loosing by 6×0, lasting less then 30 seconds of fight after scaping of many tight chokes, I got out of a back attack and tapped him out in a beautiful triangle. It was a tough fight and an amazing finish.

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I think some of the greatest things we know were discovered by accident. This past year, I was teaching a Grade 10 girls class self-defense and I had to end the class early in order to get to another scheduled class on time. I was not sure what elemets of the curriculum to teach or not because I had to cut some stuff out for brevity’s sake.

I anazlyzed the curriculum (on the fly) and chose to teach one technique that I thought could be applied to many situations, and that in this case the girls would still be getting some high value instruction.

And man, let me tell ya…that opened up a whole new world for me. I couldn’t stop thinking about that technique, all its applications, and the greater implications for the Hybrid Fighting Method and self-defense in general. The Hybrid Fighting Method now teaches this as a primary means of defense/offense, and will continue to do so for the forseeable future. I will have video up in 2011 demonstrating these things.  (YouTube Link)

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For me there cannot be one exciting thing, every year and every day since the year of 2002, the time of my awakening I have viewed every day to be special. I have been living within the present moment since then. While living within the present moment, there is no day that is more significant than another. I do not celebrate holidays like the way common people celebrate holidays, I see everyday to be a holiday, everyday is a birthday, everyday with my wife is our wedding day. Of course there are times the mind or ego interferes and tries to bring in the future or past, but I have learned to identify this ego and become a master over it.

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The year two thousand and ten has been an amazing year.  Even though I managed to put this website together and recruit such talented and helpful contributing authors,… even though I was able to create my first audio cd (Fear Shedding) in my audio series on self-protection, my highlight was on July 2nd of this year when I proposed to my fiance, Jenny.

It was a very touching time because we were at Sunset Beach, staying with my best friend’s parent’s home.  July 5th, the year before, my best friend (of over 20 years) passed and our being at Sunset was not only time to be with his mother, but to come together as a family to recognize his life and what he meant to us.  My friend Cyprian (page) would have been enormously proud of Jenny and me, and would have been tremendously honored by my choice of using this time of mourning as a time of celebration.  I know this to be true.  And I’m looking forward to my “highlight” of marriage happening in 2011.

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Unfortunately this year has been one of the toughest we’ve faced so far. Literally from Jan. 1st till now this year been a non stop trial by fire and I honestly can’t wait for it to end. Having said that, my high point would be that I’m still here at the end of it all and looking forward to the new year. Also that I had a long list of friends and family to help distract me and get me through it all. Thanks to all of you, you know who you are!

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The highlight of 2010 is actually something that happened to my wife. She got tenure, which is a huge deal for a professor. Not only am I happy for her, but it also means I don’t have to move again in the foreseeable future. The nomadic life of an academic made finding training partners and getting classes established a little tough. Every time we moved, we’d have to spend another year just learning about the new place and making friends, only to have to move again. I finally feel like I can settle down.

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2010 has been a very hard year for me. Lost a lot of family. Also new Health issues for me have also made this a very hard year.
But we learn from the bad as well as the good.
My Top highlight of the year is that I am Married to my best friend. I am very lucky to be so happy with her. Many other good things as well came to pass this year as well.  I wish you Happy holidays. And I look forward to 2011! Keep training hard everyone!  Yours In Aiki, Robert.

 

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Happy Holidays Everyone!

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