Looking Back

What a crazy year it has been!

Here is a quick recap. Ontario went into an initially moderate lockdown (December 2020 to the end of March) and then morphed into a hard lockdown (April to mid-June of this year). As a result, I put my private lessons on hold for six long months. During this period, I taught online classes and did some solo training.

Man, I was so happy to resume private lessons with my students in mid-June. They were ecstatic to bang sticks and further their martial knowledge, as you can imagine. They had so much pent-up energy that I was pretty busy through last week. Many made fantastic progress over the previous six months thanks to my flow drill program.

Unfortunately, my new accountant recommended that I dissolve Bamboo Spirit during the summer. The dissolution was partially due to the COVID pandemic but ultimately due to erroneous advice by a now-deceased accountant. In short, Bamboo Spirit was structured contrary to IRS regulations. Had I been given the correct direction when Bamboo Spirit was incorporated, I would have structured it differently, and it would still be going. Long story short, the new accountant recommended that I dissolve Bamboo Spirit and move on. I had no choice. I admit that this episode bothers me since I’m very much of a “by the book” kind of guy.

Still, I learned a lot from my experiences running Bamboo Spirit. I started with no business, marketing or social media experience. Let me be clear, while I had teaching experience, I had ZERO experience with the business side of martial arts. While running Bamboo Spirit, I grew in many ways, ranging from my business to my teaching ability. I’ve come a long way since the beginning.

And yet, I feel massively disappointed that Bamboo Spirit had to be dissolved.

So here we are. Anyway, the dissolution of Bamboo Spirit is one part of 2021 that I am eager to put behind me.

But it’s not all bad. I am still teaching and tweaking how I teach the flow drills to my students.

Holiday Message

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Top Three Posts of the Year

Here is the list of the top three posts I wrote this year. This list does not include posts written in the past that are still garnering a large number of views.

Without further ado, the top post of 2021 is:

Click on the image to read the post.

I usually don’t go for “click bait” titles for my posts. But it was interesting to see the reactions out there. Some were outraged by the title, and it was evident that they had never read the post. But others immediately got the snark behind the title and seemed to enjoy it.

The second most popular post of the year was a discussion of the famous quote from the Karate Kid and Cobra Kai series:

Click on the image to read the post.

Are you looking forward to the new “Cobra Kai” season that will drop on New Year’s Eve? I am! My wife and I plan on re-watching the last few episodes of the previous season before Friday.

And rounding the list is this “how-to” post:

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I decided to re-purpose a video for a blog post, which got a decent number of views.

So if you haven’t read any of them, enjoy them!

Top Three YouTube Videos of 2021

My YouTube output wasn’t the greatest this year. Two things somewhat hampered it. First, the audio input on my iPhone 8 Plus died. Rather than pay a ransom to repair it, I bought an iPhone 12. I also figured out what caused the audio input problem on the prior iPhone and have taken steps to prevent a repeat with the new iPhone.

Secondly, Ontario was in lockdown through mid-June, so I did not have a demonstration partner to do videos with. That issue was resolved once I resumed private lessons and had a couple of volunteers. Many thanks to Alex and Eric!

All that all said, the top video of this year:

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The runner-up was based on an online class I had with a group of siblings in Florida.

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And, finally, in 3rd place was the following video:

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Wait, is there something about driveway videos? Hehehehe.

Anyway, I can say that my YouTube videos aren’t exactly setting the social media world on fire. In addition, I decided to add a vlog to my YouTube channel. While my vlogs haven’t exactly racked up the views, I will continue doing them as I enjoy them. I’m not in it to get the views. It’s just simply for enjoyment.

Lastly, while the last couple of years have been challenging for all of us, I hope that all of you have a great 2022. Let’s make it a great year!