Pyramid of Power.

Our students forming a pyramid of power. Teamwork! Click picture to enlarge.

UPCOMING EVENTS

UPCOMING EVENTS

8/30 3:00- 4:00 Ice Cream Day for White Belts (+ Adv. White Belts) and Black Belts only! This is an opportunity for our newest students and our Black Belts to get to know each other. Come join us at Fantasy Delight in Aurora.

9/13 Leadership Seminar – 4:00 to 5:30 –
Point Sparring – All Students May Attend.

9/20 Kata Seminar – 4:00 to 5:30 –
This is for students 13 years of age and older.

9/27 Cleveland Metro Parks Zoo – 1:30 to 5:30 –
All Students and their family and friends are invited to join us for this fun event!
CIT and 4-7 Intermediate Class is Closed so we can go to the zoo!

Our next Graduation is scheduled for Saturday, October 4th, 2008 at 11:30am at Harmon Middle School in Aurora. Mark your calendars!

The Academy will be closed on Monday, September 1, 2008 in observance of Labor Day. Have a fun and safe holiday with your family and friends.

The next graduation is scheduled for Saturday, October 4, 2008 at 11:30 AM at Harmon Middle School in Aurora. Make sure to tell friends and family early so they can set the date aside.

Pictures from Sparring for Weekend Summer Camp and Classes

These are some of the students from class and camp this weekend. These pics were taken after sparring and capturing belts from the other students. Click the picture to enlarge.

PREPARATION!

PREPARATION!

"No surprises for the ninja," is a well known motto in Martial Arts. Knowing that preparation is the most efficient means for dealing with danger, we train to develop a sense of seeing into the future. We want to by ready for anything that could happen! As a student of Martial Arts, your challenge is to train or prepare, for any imaginable type of danger, not just in self-defense, but in all types of life situations. The earlier you sense danger, the more likely you will emerge the winner!

1. what are some areas in which PREPARATION is especially important?

2. how do we know HOW to prepare for different situations?

3. how do we know WHEN to prepare?

4. how can we improve our preparation skills IMMEDIATELY?

Grreat Sparring Matches today!

Way to go to Mrs. Carrasco, Mr. Boyer, Brandon Howard, Alex Pigat, Hannah Boyer, Peter Lebas, Mr. Matt, and Mr. Paul Nugent who all won multiple belts during our point sparring matches today! You are Awesome.

Sincerely,
Scott Shoen

P.S. Hope you are all playing karate at home and with friends.

Congratulations to Chad Vermillion as our newest Black Belt Leader.

Chad you are making so much progress and really showed excellent focus in your first class as a black belt leader. Keep up the great work and you will be a black belt in no time.

Sincerely,
Scott Shoen

P.S. See you all at 3:00 this Saturday for Summer Camp at the school.

Wiston Swarts has asked to be in Black Belt Club.

Sir, your parents and I will be evaluating you behavior and progress to see if you can join Black Belt Leadership Club. I bet you will be able to do it. Keep up the good work to impress your family.

Tune in this Thursday to see our Student on TV.

Andrew Kondik will be performing in march band on FSN Fox Sports Network at 7:00 pm this Thursday. We all love it when one of our students especially a black belt is on TV. We will be cheering for you and our local team too.

Sensei Shoen

P.S. Do you have a special talent outside karate? Just let us know and we may feature it at our Graduation. We want to see those leadership skills paying off outside the academy future Black Belts.

Amon Clark is our Newest Black Belt Leadership Member!

Congratulations Amon on making the commitment to becoming an awesome Black Belt Leader. Mrs. Barna, our current Black Belt Leaders, and I all know you can do it! Hope to see you later today at your first intermediate class. You're going to do great!

Sincerely,
Scott Shoen

Belts of Many Colors!

Today in our Intermediate 8-12 year old class Matthew Vince won our point sparring tournament but there was a twist.

I remember hear from my Sensei the story of any old spear master in China who would always take the belts of his defeated opponents and wear them. While the opponents would lose a belt they would learn a lesson in spear fighting so both gained something from the encounter. After a while he had a reputation for being an excellent fighter and it was hard to miss with all the belts around his waist.

I like this story because it shows that we can gain something from every challenge we face in life win or lose.

So today Matthew got to wear the belts of each student he vanquished in sparring, while the other students got a lesson in how effective his viscous reverse punch could be in battle. Pretty cool, Sir. We will likely do the same in all the classes next week. See you all there.

Your Sensei,
Scott Shoen

P.S. Brandon Howard earned his brown belt and second chevron today. Way to go, Sir!

Last Day of outside Classes for this month!

We had some great classes outside with Samuel, Miriam, Brandon, and Connor really standing out with their great effort! Mr. McCoy also had his first Black Belt Leadership Class.

Anabella Strano also shared that she had a nightmare and saw monsters and witches but she was not scared because she knew they were only paper tigers. Wow! Way to use the lesson of the week. I hope we can all be so brave confronting our own paper tigers.

See You All Next Week,
Scott Shoen

Way to go Cameron Schnell you made it in the Newspaper!

Cameron showed up in our local newspaper as student of the week or month. Nice work, Sir! In the article three things really stood out for me.

1. Job or chores: I clean my room, make my bed, get the mail, and take our the garbage.

2. What would you change about yourself and why? Nothing. (Nice answer, Sir. Very cool)

3. Who, other than your parents, do you look up to most and why? Scott Shoen, my karate Sensei, because he is a leader. (Thank you, Sir and so are you!)

What an awesome job you are doing being a Black Belt Leader outside the academy. Keep it up.

Your Sensei,
Scott Shoen

Star Wars Movie Rocks, Read All About It!

Wow! I just got back from the Star Wars movie with Lexi, Alexis, Connor (and his friend), Sam Iammarino (and his friend Connor), Samuel, Miriam, Brandon, and Matthew Vince. Boy did we have fun. I even brought my wood sword (bokken) to show everyone. Thank to all students who brought a guest.

It was great to see the sword battles and some very cool karate moves. Samurai culture is the basis for all the Star Wars movies and much of it was seen in this movie as well. I really liked how Sky Walker takes an Apprentice and I am think of letting our Black Belts choose a padawan (Apprentice) to train in our karate ways!

Matthew Vince got to stay a little longer outside so we were able to practice Ippon one and Ippon two. Two cool drills which he did very well. Nice work, Sir!

Congratulations to our two new Black Belt Leadership Program members: Sam McCoy, Bryan Westfall.

Congratulations to our two new Black Belt Leadership Program members: Sam McCoy, Bryan Westfall. You have started a journey towards being a Black Belt Leader and with the support of your family and you will be awesome Black Belts very soon. Master Keller also sends his best wishes as you begin this amazing journey.

Your Sensei,
Scott Shoen

More excitment outside with great classes.

We had a new student, Benjamin Andexler take his first class today and he did wonderful well. Welcome to group classes, Sir!

Mariah Goad and Brandon Patton both have decided they want to be Black Belt Leaders. Way to go!

Both our 8-12 and Black Belt Classes did some very tough kata training. We don't get tough doing easy stuff. Nice job!

Mr. Kowalski is going back to college for his Junior year. You can do it Black Belt Leader.

I want to thank Mrs. Barna for all she has been doing to help our students this week. You are awesome and we all thank you for you help.

Your Sensei,
Scott Shoen

P.S. Star Wars this Saturday! I can't wait. I am even thinking of bring my sword to the movie.