The karate guy said....

Check out our new clip our promo video

2009-08-14T18:07:00.000-07:00

This is the introduction to the video. Rest to be posted soon!

Womens Self Defense--another bad guy bites the dust!

2009-07-22T20:18:00.000-07:00

In this video, Stephanie gives new meaning to the saying "make the first shot count". This was the last class in a 6 week series to empower women to take control in these dangerous situations. This class called "beyond intuition" begins again every 8 weeks. The class is held on Tuesday and Thursdays at 7:15 P:M - 8:15 P:M. child care is even provided for! See Jacqui to find out when the next session starts. Lots of fun!

Crawford Group Warmups

2009-07-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

One of the basic warmup drills the guys do. They have progressed alot since they started with me roughly 6 months ago. We focus on high intensity, short duration warmup excercises, foundation drills, sparring and self defense.

Chad and Erik using the Wavemaster

Happy Birthday Mr. Schulte!

2009-06-15T21:09:00.000-07:00

Rainer Schulte celebrated his 70th birthday last week at his house with friends and family. I made the trip to his house, and let me tell you what a great time I had. I met up with Michael Miller and his student Jason down from PA. I also made a few new friends from Germany. Andre, Peter, & Thomas were some of Mr. Schulte's original students from when he started teaching way back in the day, and it was the first time I had met Mr. Schulte's wife Bridgette. We all sat around, and ate, drank and just bs'd the night away. It was great! and Mr. Schulte's cooking? let's put it this way....he's in a lot of trouble because I have his address programmed in my gps, and as the saying goes....."I'll be back."

EAT UP!

2009-06-01T21:37:00.001-07:00

Close to 175 people packed the Bettye D. Smith Cultural Arts center this past Sunday for food, games, fun, camaraderie and a charity drive for the Guardian Angels. Food by 'Smokin Joes' BBQ was fantastic as was the facility and the weather! After eating, kids had an opportunity to play in the bounce house(thanks to bobby at kingdom kidz paty games for the donation!) or partake in one of the many games and activities we had across the street in centennial park. The kids had a blast with the snow cone machine, and a few lucky adults won some pretty nice prizes from the raffle. All of the money collected through the raffle is going to the Guardian Angels (www.guardianangels.org), we collected $800! We had a great time, and we're looking forward to next year!

Karate contracts....what's the deal?

2009-05-10T19:01:00.000-07:00

Ok. Another person apparently duped into signing a 3 year agreement for a 5 year old child? Check out this story that ran in toady's Orlando Sentinel. http://www.orlandosentinel.com/business/orl-subizdawson-column-051009051009may10,0,732400.column

The problem is not in asking for a commitment from people, but HOW MUCH of a commitment, to WHAT AGE group, and at WHAT STAGE in their training this commitment is asked of someone. Since this article addresses young children, that is what I will discuss, also because most Karate schools are made up of mainly adolescents. There is another discussion which should be had for adults signing agreements, but that is for another day.

All parents who bring their children in for Karate lessons think it is a good character building activity, and they will receive good life skills training, otherwise they wouldn't be there in the first place. The development of "life skills" are inherent in all martial arts training anyway, it's just that the better schools are able to highlight these things more along with the physical training to show more improvement in that area. Also, parents understand about commitment for their young ones before they ever step foot in a Karate school. Plus they are used to it! do they expect that they can join a soccer team, t-ball, football, e.t.c. and just do it month to month? of course not, they understand that the child once starting the activity should at least finish the season, or agreed time to participate. Karate instructors also understand the commitment involved to be proficient in an art. Most expect that the student will at some point (e.g. after a trial class, course, or some period of time) commit to the practice of the art. So, if everyones on the same page about that commitment is a good thing, whats the problem? Why this article, and why a bad taste in so many people's mouths about signing contracts at karate schools? I'll tell you why....

There are two types of agreements that Karate schools use. 1. A term based agreement or 2. A goal based agreement. 90% of schools use a term based agreement. Which sais that you agree to sign up your child to a specific block of time for lessons. Now the block of time that you sign up for differs by school of course. The reason why "Term based agreements" are largely ineffective is because most kids don't have a good understanding of "Time". Asking a 5 year old student (that is really excited after taking a few Karate classes) if he wants to commit to a 3 year agreement, is ridiculous. At this point, weather you told them it was for 2 years or 10 years would make no difference because they just want to do it at that point in time, and that is that!
A goal based agreement is a much better option. The parent signs the child up for a "beginner program" which takes them through the first three belts for their program (in my school it's orange). This takes about 6 months so it is a much more reasonable time frame to expect, but the great thing is that because young children are much better identifying colors then they are frames of time, they understand the goal they need to achieve. They understand the order of the different color belts and know what colored belts they have to achieve before completing the program. This way everybody wins. The instructor and the parents teach the child about goal setting and follow through, and the parent does not get themselves in a financial nightmare and a 3 year fight with the child everytime it is time to go to class. Because I am a parent, martial artist, and school owner, I see all sides of this issue. So, a school owner might "think" it is good business to lock people into long term agreements, but I don't think it is the "right thing" to do, and judging by the backlash in the community, it's not good business either. I think using the Goal Based agreements is the way to go, and as I've heard so many times before...."doing the right thing "is" good business."

Congrats to our new Junior Black Belts!

2009-04-27T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well, i'm pretty excited. Not just because i've now stepped into the technology age with "blogging". But this is my first blog ever, and i'm talking about Steven O'Neil and Eric Tangarife. These kids have been with me for a few years, and have been consistent in their training, good students, and just really good kids. they worked hard and tested April 25th for about 1 1/2 hours on their blocks, strikes, punches, kicks, stances, forms, sets, self defense techniques, sparring, e.t.c. from their 9-12 curriculum. Great job guys!