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

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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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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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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As a reminder, the instructors and many students will be attending the March 2008 Paul Mills International Kenpo Camp at Sam’s Town in Las Vegas this weekend so we will not have class on Thursday.

We will be participating in the more than 20 seminars offered at this three day event and will have tons of photos and updates for the blog once we get back.

Stay tuned!

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It seems like it wasn’t that long ago that I wrote about our Salt Lake City Utah Martial Arts school’s sixth year anniversary. Now, a year later, I’m scratching my head wondering how quick things have passed by.

So, without any further ado, happy seven anniversary Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio!

The past year was a great year for our Kenpo studio. We had a lot of new students join us, so much so that we had to create a waiting list last June. To all those who have been patiently waiting to get in, I thank you for hanging in there. As you know, I did this to keep the instruction and attention levels high at my studio so my students never got lost in the shuffle. Know that once you make it in, you too will get the same level of care and consideration.

We also started our monthly martial arts newsletter to which we have received a lot of great feedback and comments. Each month there are tips, news, and info you can’t find on our website. If you haven’t signed up yet, I suggest you check it out.

I also became a more active martial arts blogger so that our students could get even more information and details outside of class. It’s been great to see all of the comments our students and other people have left. All I can say is keep it up as it helps motivate me to write! I have several more posts I’m wrapping up that I think you’ll enjoy.

Several of our assistant instructors are about to test for black belt. It’s an exciting time for these people and it has been great to see their progress as they move to higher levels in the art. I can’t wait to welcome them into the black belt ranks!

I’m also impressed with the dedication and passion our students have for the art and how focused they are in class. Several students have gone up in the ranks with more testing in the near future. All I can say is - treat every class like it’s a test night as it very well could be!

To all my students, assistant instructors, and instructors - Thank you for training at my Kenpo studio and for being so loyal, dedicated, and passionate. It is truly humbling for me to be your instructor.

Here’s to another great year!

–

Ryan Wheaton
Chief Instructor
Arrowhead Martial Arts Studio
Salt Lake City, Utah

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Finally… the holidays are over! For all you hardcores that have been counting the days this is not news to you, but just in case, class starts tonight again at 7:30pm. So, dust off your gi’s and get ready to move tonight. We’ll be breaking in the New Years right!

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AMAS Students,

If it’s been longer than a year since you paid your American Kenpo Karate International association dues I am going to be collecting them this month (January).

This way I can get the majority of them turned into Mrs. Mills as opposed to trying to keep track of who needs to renew each month. As I’ve said before, I want to focus on teaching and making our classes better, instead of eating up so much time with this kind of stuff.

The renewal fee is $25 and you can just include that in this months tuition. Thanks and please let me know if you have any questions.

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Every year during the holidays, I take time to reflect back on all we have accomplished and all the things left to accomplish. It’s been a fantastic year and definitely one that I am very proud of.

We’ve come along way after six years and have experienced many great things. Each year gets better and better and I’m fortunate to have such a great group of people at my studio - instructors and students alike.

We also have new people coming after the first of the year for the trial program and will have some new people transferring in from other AKKI studios. We will welcome these new friends as we say goodbye to others.

The atmosphere at the studio isn’t like what I’ve experienced anywhere else. It’s one of humility, focus, and respect while at the same time fun, entertaining and inspiring. I treasure each class we have together and always look forward to the next. I know that won’t change in the coming year.

2008 is going to be another hallmark year with so many students close to black belt. These students are working hard to become the best they can be and to get ready to go in front of Mr. Mills and the board of examiners in Las Vegas. I know they will represent the studio well and look forward to awarding them their much deserved rank.

I also have so many ideas to teach that we weren’t able to get to in 2007. We’ll be making the time in 2008 and working on some very unique reflexive response training, street freestyle, ground, and mass attack situations and more that will definitely get your attention. Not to mention what’s in store for the website this year.

Be sure to be there on January 8th to start the year out right. With so much in store, I’d hate to have you miss any of it.

In fact, I can’t wait to get back into class, share these new ideas, and push things further in 2008!

Happy holidays and we’ll see you in class after the New Year!

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It’s pounding snow up here by the mountains and studio so for the first time EVER, I’m canceling class. I’ve had over a dozen people call, text, and email to tell me they can’t make due to the weather so class is canceled tonight. I barely made it home myself to get ready for class. Watching the news, they’re saying it’s not going to get any better so we’ll have to pack it in until the New Year.

What’s weird is there was thunder and lightning and I actually saw one car had slid and actually ran itself up some telephone wires coming out of the ground and almost flipped. It’s not pretty out there!

Sorry everyone!

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We will be closed December 24th through January 7th. Classes will resume on Tuesday January 8, 2008 at the usual time.

I’m going to be spending most of my holiday break in Montana with my wife’s family.

So what are your plans over the holidays? Simply click on the “comments” link below and let me know!

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