Metamora Martial Arts

February 27, 2008

First and foremost, check this thread! It's got an important survey for this website to be completed one per household.

Also, Germantown - I'm leading up class tomorrow night because Mr. Chianakas and Deshi Adam have prior commitments. I will be reviewing a lot of tournament prep for April 5!

White belt high-schoolers will be attending class on Monday and Thursday, as Wednesday classes are being replaced with Master's and SWAT meetings.

February 25, 2008

Congratulations to Miss Amanda Dixon after being promoted to nidan tonight! She has passed her test, becoming only the second Metamora Martial Artist to accomplish this landmark, behind Deshi Adam over a year ago. Amanda's official promotion will come at a later date TBA, and will be put on the website as soon as possible. Visit the forums to congratulate Amanda!

Just wanted to throw out I was taping today after I didn't know how low I was on tape. I'm planning on a video package for the 2008 DVD release in August. Stay tuned for a teaser!

February 23, 2008

I've got some treats for everybody. First of all, check the News & Updates forum for links on gear for the tournament and an updated post to the Merchandise thread. I've provided links to six different websites for sparring gear, weapons, breaking materials, and new uniforms for April 5.

Germantown folks! I'll be leading class next Thursday because Mr. C and Deshi Adam have prior committments.

This week MetamoraMartialArts.com got clearance to provide the scanned Black Belt Magazine articles Mr. Chianakas has written. Head to Instructors and scroll down and you'll see a list of six PDF files. I'll add more as the magazines come to my mailbox.

February 21, 2008

Joshu Amanda drilled through the first part of her nidan test yesterday. Part two is coming Monday, and is the part where you will see most videotape footage since I didn't know I was out of tape. :(

More pieces of the tournament in April are coming together. I'm currently putting together handout programs for the event. Black belts were e-mailed rules on scoring for forms, weapons, and breaking tonight. Plus, the suggestions and ideas flying around are very positive and exciting! The clock is racing towards April 5!

Good news this week out of Black Belt Magazine. No, we haven't heard if we won either of the Industry Awards we were nominated for. But the magazine has agreed to allow MetamoraMartialArts.com post the articles Mr. Chianakas has written for it. I'll post another update when I scan them in and upload them.

Stay tuned to the forums over the next couple days. I plan on posting links to deals on sparring gear, if I can find any. The preferable ones will be through Century or Karate Depot, but I will also branch out to other retailers. I want to compile a list to put on the forums over the weekend.

February 17, 2008

A couple reminders for everybody...

First, there is no class tomorrow. MTHS has the day off.

Also, two important topics regarding tournament weekend. First of all, on April 4, we are planning on hosting Master Leif Becker for a breaking seminar. The only problem is, he's only coming if you respond. So get to this thread and RESPOND, otherwise our tournament weekend will not have any star power! Almost everybody I've talked to says they want this to happen, but we need you to also respond online. Also on tournament weekend, we need parents' help for the day of. Please head to this thread to offer your thoughts, opinions, etc. While in the News & Updates forum, I've recently bumped threads on sponsorship and places to advertise, so make sure to hit those if you own a business or think your boss would be interested. Details are in the their respective threads.

Conditioning as normal on Tues/Thurs, with Joshu Amanda's nidan test starting this Wednesday, 2/20!

February 13, 2008

Congratulations to our new yellow belts - Erica, Bianca, and Adair! After some talk tonight, Wednesday classes will be for the new trio of yellow belts and the rest of the white belts.

Parents: On April 5, we need help with our tournament. If you're a parent of a high school student, click here, or if you're a grade school parents, click here.

Reminder to EVERYBODY that we need input for the breaking seminar with Master Becker. If you are not replying, he will not come. It's that simple. So please respond!

There are also links at the forums that will point you in the right direction for getting signed up to Relay for Life and for two new videos from the tournament last November in Rantoul.

Finally for this update, we're hoping everybody can make it out for the first part of Joshu Amanda's nidan test NEXT Wednesday afternoon. There are no regular classes scheduled for next Wednesday in the hopes that many will attend to watch, support, and volunteer their bodies. I will be on hand snapping pictures, shooting video, and especially writing notes down to myself.

February 10, 2008

Great job last night, everybody! Thanks to Jake's sister Amanda for filming, and to the Schertz and Deters families for snapping nearly 100 pictures. I think of the four components to this website, the Gallery is my favorite. Anybody can upload pictures, and anybody is welcome to submit a comment about a picture.

Since there's been a lot of talk about voting recently, I wanted to point everybody to a thread where you can vote about a potential new merchandise line.

And remember to check the links below for Relay for Life and the two tournament weekend topics!

White belts - stripe test tomorrow!

February 9, 2008

In just under 3 hours' time we'll be meeting to get ready for our demo tonight at the basketball game! Reminder for everybody to meet at 7PM in the commons. Parents - bring your cameras because I've set up an album for you to upload them to. Pick your favorites and upload them. If you need help, there is a pinned topic in the Support/FAQ forum.

February 7, 2008

First off, remember our demo is this Saturday night! Meet at 7PM in the commons to do a couple run-throughs. 7PM is a change from the 7:20 that was typed out on the handouts.

Second, one of my favorite events of the year is creeping up. Even though I've had prior committments the past couple years, I've still helped raise money for Relay for Life. You can find a forum link in the Events section to the left. Please join and/or donate to our team! The topic at the forum goes into details.

February 5, 2008

Looks like February is giving us a lot more news than January did.

Our biggest weekend ever is coming up in two months! On Saturday, April 5, we host our first-ever open tournament. Make sure you check this thread to see what you can do to help.

The night before, we host world record breaker (literally) Leif Becker for a breaking seminar! Please respond as soon as you can.

February 4, 2008

Just wanted to remind anybody age 18 and up to vote for Super Tuesday tomorrow!

It's a busy week for me so in case I don't update again by Thursday, remember that Germantown is cancelled for Thursday night to make room for demo practice at MTHS from 6:30-7:30. The demo is Saturday night.

February 2, 2008

I scanned an image of a bear that outlines body parts in Japanese that our Japanese language teacher gave us in class last January when a bunch of Metamora Martial Artists took the course offered at ICC (I-shee-shee? haha). My original plan was to give it to two-stripe white belts so they could familiarize themselves with it before yellow but I kind of forgot about it. But when I put it here on the site I figured white belts have enough to learn anyway, so then I put it under yellow belt requirements. I don't think it will be required for yellow belts to know all the body parts, but I just wanted to put it there for them in case they wanted it.

February 1, 2008

February is kicked off with a bang and a good majority of us now have a three-day weekend! Currently I'm putting a lot of updates into this site and will be updating my personal portfolio for the folks at American Gladiators and another place in which I'm looking for a potential online job. I'll let you know how that turns out.

The February schedule is now up. Lots of things happening this month, including our first demo in months and Amanda's testing for nidan, or second-degree. Some of the classes are kind of messed up, time-wise, so make sure you get the correct schedule.