Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio Blog

WELCOME TO MY MARTIAL ARTS BLOG! Keep up to date on all the latest news, tips and ideas from Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio by subscribing to my RSS feed or you can receive email updates right to your inbox. Thanks for visiting! -- Ryan Wheaton

This is a question I get a lot and thought it would be a good addition to our “Frequent Questions” page as well as post to our blog so I can address it directly:

A. Just as you want to make sure this is a good fit for you, I use this opportunity to do the same. So, no, we do not allow people to bypass the free trial as we want to have the chance to talk and work with each student before accepting them into our program. In this way we can both be sure it’s right for us.

I’m very focused on my students and do this as a way to help make sure we don’t let in any “bad apples.” I have received a lot of positive feedback from my students on this approach and am happy to report that we have a strong, great group of serious students training at out studio as a result.

More answers will be posted in the near future to help those interested to have immediate and direct access to information they care about. More soon!

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Good news! The photos from the March 2008 Paul Mills International Kenpo Camp in Las Vegas Nevada have been posted. Thank you Mr. Leonard for taking these and sharing them with everyone.

Check them out at the AMAS Flickr gallery!

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If you’re familiar with Twitter, I am happy to announce Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio is now Twittering!

Don’t know what a Twitter is? Twitter is a way for me to help you stay connected with events, happenings, and other news from our martial arts studio via short messages. It will include announcements from this blog every time a post is made (like this one!).

Check it out here:

http://www.twitter.com/amaskenpo

And don’t worry, I’ll also be posting other messages there besides just automated blog posts so check it out often. There will be things you can’t get here on the blog. You can even subscribe to get alerts as they happen.

See you there!

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Mixing Things Up In Your Training Can Help You Break Out of Indoor Boredom

I was in San Francisco California this week and happened by a park where there were many people doing Tai Chi. It got me thinking that it’s always a good idea to break out and do things different in your training.

Obviously, when we’re at the studio we practice indoors, in the same room, facing the same direction, etc. With summer coming, it’s a good time to consider getting outdoors and mixing things up a bit.

• Train in the woods
• Train in a park
• Train in a swimming pool
• In a parking structure
• Train on the beach
• Etc.

You should also wear your everyday work clothes… try things with sunglasses on… train with a backpack on…  put on your favorite hat… or whatever your regular attire is during the summer months. You should even practice at different times of the day so you’re not in “Kenpo mode” just at night (like when we have classes).

It’s all about mixing things up and doing things differently to spice up your training. Try it. It works.

How do you mix up your training? Let me know in the form of a comment below!

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Just when you thought it was over and that we couldn’t have any more news this month…

I’m also excited to announce and congratulate those that have successfully passed their next colored belt level outside of those that tested at the camp.

These students include:

1. Joseph (Purple)
2. Cory (Purple)
3. Ryan (Purple)
4. Robert (Purple)
5. Cheryl (Orange)
6. Heather S. (Orange)

UPDATE: Make it 8 people promoted! On April 8th, Steve was promoted to Green belt and James to Yellow. Congratulations you two!

These students have been working hard, training hard, practicing at home, and making class every chance they get. They have demonstrated the mental, physical and spiritual characteristics I look for at their level and made it an easy decision to promote them.

Please help me in congratulating these individuals on a job well done by leaving a comment below!

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It’s great to be back from the camp and I’m still trying to process all the information! It was an exciting time with so much knowledge and insight being freely disseminated by the senior black belts in our association.

Mr. Mills did four seminars all of which were inspiring and educational as usual. At 61, I still think he’s faster and hits harder than when I met him in the early 1990’s. He made a lot of good comments and ideas regarding velocity which we will bring back to the studio and integrate into our training.

All of the instructors did a phenomenal job relaying the concepts, principles, and theories in the AKKI. We covered everything from Yellow belt on up… from stand up to ground… joint locks to weapons… forms to techniques… Kenpo freestyle to spontaneous drills… it was all there!

Thank you to those that came to my seminars on Centerline, Wedging, and Intercepting as well as Reflexive Response Training Drills using the AKKI’s internalization patterns. Special thanks to Mr. Gough, Mr. Thomsen, and Mr. Leonard for helping me out by attacking me so well!

The colored belt test on Friday had four of our students testing and passing for their next belt levels:

1. Josh (Green Belt)
2. Jessica T. (Purple Belt)
3. Nate (Orange Belt)
4. Jessica J. (Yellow Belt)

Congratulations to those that tested! Thanks to Mr. Padigimus for pushing everyone in the technique lines during the colored belt test to perform at their maximum action potential!

The black belt test was amazing. I loved that the test group did basics then went right into techniques then forms/sets instead of doing the sets and forms first. This kicked the energy level and intensity WAAAAYYY up! Read more about the black belt promotions here.

I think this sums it up:

“Everyone who got to see Mr. Wheaton’s (students) could see he has set the bar very high in his school. All your guys put on an excellent test. Your energy and motion were a 10. Always good to see the next wave coming up it motivates us Senior to keep training hard to stay ahead of you. Congrats!”– John Herman, 6th Degree Black Belt, AKKI S. Nevada rep.

Thank you Mr. Herman and to all the AMAS students who attended and helped make this a great camp.

The September 2008 Kenpo camp will be in our back yard in Mr. Mills home town of Evanston, WY. This should take place the fourth weekend of September and will post the date when it is officially made available.

Help me in congratulating all those colored belts that tested by leaving a comment below!

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On March 28th at the Paul Mills Las Vegas International Kenpo Camp, four of my direct students at Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio successfully passed their black belt examination in front of 20+ senior black belts on the AKKI board of examiners. The chief examiner was my instructor 10th degree black belt Mr. Paul Mills (a direct student of Mr. Ed Parker).

Promoted to 1st Degree Black Belt:

1. Mr. Jess Leonard (Salt Lake City, UT)
2. Ms. Christine Malone (Park City, UT)
3. Mr. Kelly Renfrow (Tooele, UT)
4. Mr. Rex Stratton (Ogden, UT)

In addition to these four students, I also had two long time students promoted to higher levels of black belt.

Promoted to 3rd Degree Black Belt:

1. Mr. Shawn Gough (Bountiful, UT)
2. Mr. George Thomsen (Riverton, UT)

Everyone did an outstanding job and made it an extremely proud and humbling day for me. This was one of the best belt tests I have ever witnessed and was happy to have you all out there representing our Kenpo studio.

Please join me in congratulating these individuals by leaving a comment below!

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