blog (Page 13)

I have a confession to make…I haven’t seen a thing since I left Oklahoma. That may sound impossible, but 2 weeks ago I was in Williams, AZ (which is the jump off town to go to the Grand Canyon) and stayed in a hotel there, but I didn’t go to the Grand Canyon. We arrived at sunset and left at sunrise to go to a school, but didn’t make the 30 minute drive up there to see one of the greatest wonders in America. Last week I was in San Diego, but I didn’t see the ocean. 3 days ago I was just outside YosemiteRead More →

This past week had me performing in the Los Angeles area of California. Whenever I have the opportunity, I like to talk with students after the program and see what they liked about it and what they learned. One day this past week I asked a student if he liked the show and his response was a bit different, “I thought it was boring” after which he turned around and walked off. I stared at the student for a moment before a classmate of his ran up and yelled, “that was awesome!” Expectation makes all the difference. Have you ever wondered how two people canRead More →

About a year ago I was invited to take part in the Kick-off for the Men’s Health Magazine FitSchools campaign. I flew out to South Carolina and performed for 1,100 students at Gettys Middle School. The rest of the day had me teaching short workshops to all the students in between various activities that Men’s Health had planned. Below is a comment that the Fitness Editor, who was in charge that day, made in a blog post at the FitSchools website. We kicked off our event with an incredible performance by Peter Nestler, a world champion rope jumper. At one point during Nestler’s performance, MichaelRead More →

The Olympics are coming to a close in a few days and I have to admit, it has been exciting! With countless Olympic and World Records broken over the past 10 days it’s almost hard to keep track of. Below are a few of the stand outs and what they did: Michael Phelps – Won 8 Gold medals in 8 events (most Gold medals in a single Olympics and the most overall Gold medals in Olympic history) Usain Bolt – Swept the 100m and 200m finals (first person in history to set World Records in both events at one Olympics) Nastia Liukin – 5 medalsRead More →

It has been a busy couple of weeks for me. I spent most of last week in Houston with my good friend Dennis Rogers. We were working on some video projects and website stuff, which obviously qualifies us for most exciting people of the year awards. I’ve got just over a week until I head out on the road for another 9-month tour. I start here in Tulsa, then head on out to Arizona. Should be fun!We now accept credit cards! After months of doing things through Paypal and Google Checkout, I’ve decided to offer regular credit card processing. Checking out is much easier andRead More →

Last week I completed another instructional DVD, Jump Rope Basics. This DVD is actually a combination of skills from our popular instructional videos. I know a lot of people aren’t necessarily looking to learn everything there is to know about jump rope, but they do want to get started so I’ve taken all the beginner skills from ‘Single Rope Skills’ and ‘Double Dutch and Chinese Wheel’ and put them on one DVD. Click Here to find out more information about this video. It’s already been sent to the manufacturer and we should have them in our hands ready to mail out on August 11th. Also,Read More →

A couple weeks ago I added a much needed, and frankly really cool, high defintion video camera to my collection of contraptions. That’s right, everything I produce from this point forward will be shot, edited and mastered in High Def. I realize that most people are still quite happy with standard definition (I certainly fall into that group myself), but I want to make sure that all the videos and products we create will be ready for the shift whenever that happens. The biggest change you’ll see right away is that all episodes of the videoKast, starting with #30, will be shot in High Def.Read More →

After finally getting home I am now officially off for the summer. It took a bit longer than I thought due to my grandmother passing away and having to fly out to California for the Memorial service. She had her 93rd birthday shortly before passing on. It got me to thinking about how much things have changed since she was young. I can’t even imagine how odd our world today would seem to someone that was born in 1915. I just marvel at it.I have some big news coming up next week, but I think I’ll wait until then to give it. Have a greatRead More →

I’m sitting in New York at one of the final schools for this school year’s tour. The students are preparing for a concert and I’m waiting for them to finish up so I can get warmed up for my show. What a great year this has been, it’s crazy to think that I’ve performed about 360 programs in the past 9 months and I’m still standing! I can definitely feel that my legs are quite tired and I need a break. This weekend I get 3 whole days off before I have a program back in Oklahoma for a library, but after that I’ll haveRead More →

I’m sure you’ve been worried about me if you read this blog somewhat consistently, since I haven’t posted in quite some time. I’ve been taking a bit of a break from some of the computer stuff for the last couple weeks so I can recoup. I finally finished the Double Dutch and Chinese Wheel Instructional DVD, it got mailed off to the printer and they’re supposed to get them shipped back to me sometime this week. They were scheduled to be mailed 2 days ago, but the printer had a problem with one of their machines and had to push back my release date forRead More →