Due to Adult Testing, there will be no regularly scheduled classes held this Saturday Feb 25th. Testing is open to the public and visitors are welcome! This will be a high ranking testing, so come in and see where the Art takes a student.

Sometimes I’ll hear from students that they think we don’t do enough stretching. Here’s my take on stretching within our classes. Stretching is very important. Flexibility is key to health and full range of movement. That said, we are a martial arts school where the curriculum goes beyond just flexibility. To spend the appropriate amount of time to get the body opened up using just traditional stretching methods within an hour long class does not leave much time for practicing other self defense movements. So. We typically start classes with martial art drills (not traditional stretching poses) done at slow speed. The idea is to use movement to warm the body up, increase the range of motion, and do it at a speed that is least likely to injure the participant – all the movements being martial techniques. We are killing 2 birds with one stone! If a student hurries through this process or doesn’t work to go through a wide range of movement, they will miss the benefit of going slow at the start.

So last night, we stretched – the traditional way. Splits, bridges, poses. A Yogi would have been happy with what they saw! Was it so wrong that they were doing chi sao while in these stretches?

Professor Fred King, Professor Dan Anderson, Sifu Allen Jackson, Sensei John Olivera, Sifu Shannon Carey, Sifu Sean Kelly, Black Belt Dan Jones, and more… What a line up! It was an honor having this level of talent come in for a morning of sparring. Lots of good lessons learned.

About 40+ brave Cleveland High School kids took on the AKF’s curriculum for 2 weeks. They represented themselves quite well showing a nice mix of enthusiasm and focus. The kids gave it their all and kept the smiles on their faces. Great group!

About a half dozen people came to mind, for myself. Looking at them through her filter cracked me up.

(This was sent to me from my wife!)

Over the course of this last week, we’ve had the adult testing list go up, one of the biggest Kajukenbo seminars in the NW was held on Saturday, and the kids have been going gangbusters on their requirements! Adult testing info will come up shortly and I’ll some pix from the seminar up as well, but let’s talk about the kids. Here’s a list of last week’s kids to move up in rank (all in 1 week!):
Kids Orange/Purple Sash                                              Kids Purple Sash

Maggie Spencer                                                                         Kyle Winney

Ruby Spencer

Wyatt Spencer

Oscar Keymolen                                                                      Kids Purple/Blue Sash

Milo Means                                                                                Cyrus Bean

Recently, a handful of AKF students competed at the Battle of the Champions Tournament on Sept. 17, 2011. Below is a list of who competed and how they did:
Kyle Young – 1st Place Int. Colored Belt Fighting
2nd Pace Int. Colored Belt Forms
Jeremy Marchant – 1st Place Adv. Colored Belt Fighting
Alex Johnson – 1st Place Adv Colored Belt Forms
All students above competed in and took home 3rd Place Team Fighting

Congratulations to all for stepping into the ring and giving their best efforts. Nice work!!