Advanced Test Results

Congratulations to all of the students who tested recently for their Blue, Green, Brown and Black Belts !

I hope you are as proud of yourselves as I am of you, you certainly have a lot to be proud about!

Congratulations to brand new:

Shodan Black Belt

• Carl Williams

3rd Degree Brown Belt

• Mason Baker
• BJ Briggs
• Rachel Gold
• Erik Johnson
• DeeDee Fowler
• Karen Specht

Blue with Green Stripe

• Darcy Kemp
• James Bellitto

Blue Belt

• Kasey Goodman

Way to go everyone!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to all of the students who tested this past weekend at the school!

I hope you are as proud of yourselves as I am of you, you certainly have a lot to be proud about!

Congratulations to brand new:

Green Belts

• Ethan Guttman
• Sierra Hopper
• Anthony Coluccio

Blue Belt

• Andrew Wang

Purple Belt

• Nelly Kobozev

Orange Belts

• Walt McKelvie
• Vihaan Tandon
• Parker Woloshin
• Ted Morris
• Tannin Arceo

Yellow Belts

• Bennett Samuelly
• Nicholas Hansen

 

Way to go everyone!

Congratulations!

Congratulations to those who tested for new belts on Saturday, June 23rd:

• Tannin A: Yellow Belt
• Zach B: Yellow Belt
• Peyton G: Yellow Belt
• Ian M: Yellow Belt
• Vihaan T: Yellow Belt
• Michael B: Orange Belt
• Logan B: Blue Belt
• Sophia D: Blue Belt
• Harman Z: Blue/Stripe Belt
• Rohan S: Green Belt

What a great job all of you did, and we are so proud of you for accomplishing that next step in your journey to Black Belt! Way to go!

Thank you!

I wanted to thank you for helping to make our raffle successful! Thanks to your efforts, we were able to raise almost $300 and dozens of bags of food for Mercer Island Youth and Family Services.  For those that weren’t able to make it in for the actual raffle drawing, we still have several unclaimed prizes, so check in and see if one of your tickets won!

If you attended one of the events (buddy day, women’s self defense, or the kids party), I’d love some feedback so that we can make improvements for future events.  Thanks again and great job!

Raffle Prize HQ!

Here is a list of currently participating businesses:

 

Island Books – 2 Books (“Karate Hour” and “Eyewitness Sports”) and every kids favorite: a Flesh-eating Plant Kit

AMC Theaters – $30 Gift Card

Antica Farmacista – 2 Scented 8 oz. Candles

Emerald City Smoothie –

Great Clips – 2 Gift Baskets of Hair Care Items, one Men’s and one Women’s

Noah’s Bagels – 6 Free Bagels

Big 5 Sporting Goods – $30 Gift Card

Red Robin – $25 Gift Card

KidsQuest Children’s Museum – 4 Free Admission Passes

Yo Mercer! – 5 $10 Gift Cards

Roberto’s Pizza – 2 Large Pizzas

Au Courant – Men’s $40 Gift Card to the Den and Free T-shirt

Indulge Spa –

Shear Madness – 2 $50 Gift Cards for Woman’s Cut and Style and 1 $35  & 1 $40 Gift Card for Men’s Cut and Style

Marlene Goodman – Free 1 hour of Massage

PC-Fix – Free PC Diagnosis

Cold Stone Creamery –

Games Workshop – Lord of the Rings Miniature Figurines and Paint Set + Free Painting Lesson

Tatters – Scarf by Lunne Marine

and of course Z-Ultimate Self Defense! – Free 10-block of lessons or 3-month Starter Package AND $100 Gift Certificate

Thanks for all your help and I look forward to seeing you all at our Anniversary!

New Schedule!

One of the things that I first noticed about the school when I arrived here in January was that some of  the group classes did not appear to be set up in an optimal way to foster the learning and continued development of the students in each age group.  After much consideration, I wanted to make some updates to the group class schedule in order to accomplish two primary goals:

1. To make all of the classes more accessible so that more students are able to participate.
2. To make each class more focused and educationally relevant for the particular age group, and to enable students to work more closely with their peers.

The revisions that we’ve made were based on feedback that we’ve received as well as my personal observations, so I am hoping that it will work for all involved.  CLICK HERE to download a copy for your reference.  Regarding the group schedule, here are the changes in a nutshell:

• Little Dragons (Ages 4 – 7): Class time will begin at 5:15, rather than 5:30.  Also, the more advanced Little Dragon students will be eligible to participate in the Sparring class (see below).
• Older Kids (Ages 8 – 11): Classes will now be fully split to enable both groups to have a cohesive class format as well as do all of their learning with peers of their own experience level on Mondays and Wednesdays.  For those beginners that want to be able to work with the higher levels, and for those advanced kids that would like to act as role models for the beginners, Friday will be a combined group.  This will also enable us to add a Kids’ Sparring class to the schedule (see below).
• Teenagers (Ages 12 – 16): Teens will now have their own separate class on Mondays and Wednesdays! They will also have the opportunity to train on Saturday mornings combined with the Adults.
• Adults (Ages 17 +): Adults will be able to enjoy their own learning space on Tuesdays and Thursdays (a little earlier, so it’s not so hard to get off the couch and come to class at the end of the day), and will still have the chance to get in an earlier workout on Saturday mornings.
• Sparring Classes (Orange Belts +): Kids under age 12 will have a separate, dedicated Sparring class on Friday afternoons from 5:45 – 6:30.  For kids who are 12 and older, if they are not comfortable sparring with the adults, they may also attend this class.  Adults and Teens will be able to still have their Sparring Class on Friday evenings, although it will be a little earlier at 7:30.  Please note that in order to participate in these classes, you must bring your own protective gear.  Need gear?  Please ask!

Welcome to our blog!

Hi everyone,

Thanks for checking out the new blog for the school! We’ll be posting all kinds of things here each week to help keep you up to speed on all the dojo happenings. Information about tournaments, class schedules, links to important information, specials, and all kinds of other stuff will be here. Have a question? Leave it in the comments and we’ll respond!

–Sensei Ben