This excerpt is from a letter to aimee jurewicz before the 2003 world tournament. Enjoy!

“Learn to recognize your strengths and weaknesses. Embrace them both with equal fervor and honesty. Courage is facing your weakness and knowing that it will not be pleasant to do so. To be human is to have frailties. To be brave is to go on in spite of them, to recognize them within ourselves and face them with true Richard Lee Black Belt honesty. Honesty takes courage and to be courageous, you must first be honest with yourself. Going for your Black Belt and a World Championship will take you on a roller coaster ride of emotion. Learn to recognize the fear, frustration and insecurity you may feel along the way as simply the awakening of your chi. Understand that emotion is what gives your chi force. Well directed, it can lead you to power sources that will simply amaze your body. But you must learn to control it, harness it, and only then is it yours to direct.

Accepting and understanding that we have a weakness gives us the power to overcome it. Denying it gives it the power to overcome us, usually at the worst possible time. Grappling the hardships that threaten to overwhelm us with honesty and courage will award us heightened capability and a new found strength of will. It forges our character, sometimes through the very fires of hell, to greater capacities and inevitably new enlightenment. It brings us to a new awareness of ourselves, a true understanding of who and what we are. The clouds of doubt will suddenly clear and reveal before you a clear sky of limitless possibilities. The great weight of hidden truths is lifted from your back and freed you from the bog of illusion.

To do this, you must fully concentrate all of your energies on the process. Learn to fall in love with the process and it will free you of self made limitations. Simply give it your all, all of the time and it will clear all the obstacles from your path.

Realize that the road to success is accomplished one step at a time. The longest journey begins with the first step. Keep the goal firmly fixed in your mind, but zero in on nothing else but the best effort that is possible each step of the way. Totally commit yourself to this idea, Aimee, and the dark shadows of insecurity and fear will be swept away by the empowering belief that you are willing to do whatever it takes.

It takes guts to step out the ordinary and in to the extraordinary. The price of excellence is not without sacrifice. The willingness to sacrifice over a small period of time rewards us a lifetime of experience gained. True wisdom is crafted out of those experiences only from a true and honest effort. Giving more than we ask for in return, I have found Aimee, rewards us much more than anything we could ever hoped to have ask for. Remember, if better is possible than good is not good enough.”

BOK FU FITNESS

Warm Up:

2 times:

50 jumps rope jumps

10 pass through with staff

10 horse stance squats

10 inchworms

10 scorpions

10 samson stretch

Workout:

25 Horse Stance Squat Jumps

25 Push Ups

25 V Ups

25 Power Punches on heavy bag (each arm)

25 Box Jumps (or step ups)

25 Chicken Lunges

25 Tuck Jumps

25 Hardbow/Broken Bow Lunges

25 Wheel Kick Balance (each leg)

25 Bok Fu Burpees

Warm Down:

5 minutes on foam roller for quads/hips

5 minutes ball torture for shoulders