american gladiators, part II

okay, so i'm really NOT obsessed with the american gladiators, though it may look like i am, but i must mention them at least one more time (maybe more)! this time it isn't so much about them, but about my kid brother, kawika.
i just have to say that my kid brother totally rocks!! do you know where he was today? in venice beach at gold's gym.

do you know who that is behind him? it's titan, the american gladiator! today, they held the try-outs for the next season of american gladiator and my little brother tried out!! isn't that awesome!?

i called him after it was all done and i asked him how it went. before he got there he had to fill out the application which consisted of about sixty very random short essay questions (a few examples: "if you had alladin's lamp and 3 wishes what would you wish for? rule: you can't wish for money or more wishes" "write a short poem or rap" "draw a picture of yourself" huh? okay?! random!). apparently, the questions are to gauge personality.

once there, the contender hopefuls got to compete in a physical test consisting of 4 parts all completed one after another with very little rest.

• first, he had to do as many pull-ups as he could do in 30 seconds
• second, he did as many up-downs (similar to what you see football players do at practice) as he could in 30 seconds
• third, he had to do that thing where you run sideways criss-crossing your legs as you run across a ladder-like thing on the ground having your feet go in the square holes. i know i'm not doing justice to what he actually had to do. i don't know how to describe it, use your imagination!
• last, was an endurance test to see how much more he had left in him after completing the first 3 things. there were 2 cones about 15 yards apart and he had to run back and forth between the two cones touching the cones each time. he had to do that 20 times!

he said that he was pretty tired towards the end, but he pushed himself hard and it paid off! he set a new record on the pull-ups! now, you have to understand that the record is an overall record of both contenders and gladiators!!! wow! my brother beat all of the gladiators! the previous record was held by the american gladiator, titan! here's a picture of kawika(the new pull-ups record holder, my little bro) with titan(the previous pull-ups record holder, the american gladiator!) can you tell i'm just a tad bit proud?!:

when they told titan that my brother broke his record (titan's record was 35 pull-ups in 30 seconds), titan said, "oh really? did you do 36?" my brother's answer, "no, actually i did 38!" you go, beek!!

needless to say, he made the first cut! in the next few weeks they will call him in for a video interview! you know, so they can make sure his personality shines through on camera and to make sure he doesn't freeze! to this i just chuckled and said, "all you've got to do is show them the barenaked ladies video where you're on stage dancing around in a green dress!" he definitely won't have a problem with freezing on camera!!