Crazy Weekend!

This weekend Mr. Morgan invited me down to Washington D.C. to help support Hyper Martial Arts. It was a lot of fun because I got to talk to people about Hyper, which is short for "High Performance" and it's goal to give recognition to youth martial arts and martial arts athletes everywhere. It was really cool and I had a great time meeting new people and hanging out with Mr. Morgan


On Friday, we had a big Bully Defense seminar. My students invited a bunch of their friends and everyone learned the best ways to deal with bullies and how to become a better person, a champion for life. I really like teaching these seminars because bullying is something that affects a lot of kids and even teens and adults. If we can touch the lives of kids that feel like they can't do anything about bullies and teach them how to deal, I would feel so proud. I'm on a mission now to teach this course to as many kids in Cecil County as possible. I'm doing a mass bully defense course for all the kids at the Boys & Girls clubs in Cecil County next month too!


Saturday, Mike Chat came to New Jersey and 7 ATA Elkton members went up to train with him. That's pretty impressive because we all came from about 2-1/2 hours away. Training with Mr. Chat is so worth it because he's trained some awesome martial artists over the years. Taylor Lautner and Boo Boo Smith from the Twilight series trained in XMA with him, Jaden Smith prepared for The Karate Kid with Mr. Chat, and Noah Ringer became famous for the XMA training he got at his martial arts school in Texas. He was super inspiring and the class was really fun. We learned what it was like to go up a level and to perform at "Level 10" all the time! Really cool

Inner School Tournament!

This weekend we had our Inner School Tournament. It was an awesome event for the kids, teens, and adults. We had about 50 competitors and a record number of White, Orange, and Yellow belt competitors! Our students learned about "spirit" and how important that it is to cheer other competitors on. They also learned what it takes to perform in front of a group. Some of the best students at ATA Elkton are motivated by competition and the saying is true, "Pressure makes diamonds." We took a bunch of pictures of the kids in the morning and the adults later in the afternoon. The most exciting event was the Creative Division and Mrs. McDaniel's form. She was "warning me" all week that she had a surprise for us! Check out our Flikr.com page for all of the pictures! Some of the students were competing for the first time this weekend which is great because trying new things is a great way to develop confidence! Keep up the great work! Hopefully this tournament was the first of many.