Ray Sue and Josh Mills recieved their Level 1 Thai Boxing Instructorship under Ajarn Chai during the seminar last weekend. They've been training very hard (even through injuries) the past few months in preparation for the test. Both Josh and Ray looked great as they kicked their rounds in front of Ajarn Chai and the other instructors. It was an exciting and memorable night, definitely an inspiration to all the MKG students that were there.  

Congratulations to Dennis Rivera on his promotion to Apprentice Instructor under Guro Dan Inosanto. He was promoted during the seminar with Guro Dan last weekend.

Congrats also to Bob Heinemann, Tammy Sanchez, Czar Peralta, and Jenni Cea for becoming certified instructors for the MKG Women’s Self Defense Program last month.

A couple weeks ago, we held our quarterly level testing on March 26th. Congratulations to the following students on passing their test!  

Phase 1 Level 1: Rick Monce, Carlos Tampan, Matt Casanova, Baylor Paschall, Deb Wintner, Eugene Kwon, Jose Morones Jr., John Giordano, Mike Adams, Joyce Karlinsey, Jack Darcher, Julio Melendez, Mark Coulter, Tyler Wood, James Lundy, Alan Zander, Todd Fink, TJ Mino

Phase 1 Level 2: Emily McCullough, Jennifer Miner, Andre Nguyen, Matt Scott, Mariko Shimomura, Shari Leid, Britton Tweedy

Phase 1 Level 3: Alan Farr, Ben Andersen

Last month, we held both our Rounds and Levels test, within a week of each other! So congratulations to all who took a chance, trained hard, and passed! Especially to those who took both tests. Congrats also to George Newman for taking the Level 1 TBA test.

Phase 1 Level 1: Nick Helseth, Aaron Lampano

Phase 1 Level 3: Karlis Gailitis, Jason Wollschleger, Tim Heilman, Adam Shilling

Phase 2 Level 1: Audrey Dahlgren

1 Hour Test: Tim Heilman, Britton Tweedy, Kevin Carroll, Rick Monce, Leif Moa-Anderson, Shari Leid, Joyce Karlinsey, Deb Wintner, Baylor Paschall, Eleazar Hernandez

10 Round Test: Czar Peralta, Audrey Dahlgren, Adam Shilling, Andy Paves

TBA Level 1: George Newman

Special thanks to our holders for the Rounds Test: Nick Helseth, Glenn Duncan, Carlos Tampan, James Noyes, Jason Wollschleger, Karlis Gailitis, Ajani Slaughter, Nicole Marinez, Vanessa Nelson, Michelle Ferazza, Ray Sue, Angela Suryan, Matt Scott, Jenni Cea

Congratulations to Edmund Ng and Victoria (Tory) D’Alvia on receiving their awards during the holiday party. Edmund received Student of the Year and Victoria received Outstanding Improvement. Both are CORE team members and have dedicated a lot of time to not only improving their skills, but also helping out our school.

Private Lessons Are Available!

Try to find a personal trainer or other comparable services at these rates!

Our staff of instructors are available to all students for private lessons on a number of topics including Striking Arts, Grappling Arts, Weapons Training, Fitness, Self-Defense and Attribute Development. Private lessons are a great way to catch up on parts of the curriculum that require special practice or insight. Sessions can be 1/2 hour or 1 hour long and the rates for these start at $25.

Below are some descriptions of our instructors and their respective areas of expertise:

Andy Wilson - Andy is the head instructor and owner at MKG Martial Arts International and can teach lessons on all areas of the MKG Martial Arts International curriculum. Kali Weaponry, Panantukan, Grappling, Equipment Training, Wing Chun Dummy are some possibilities. Andy is generally only available in the mornings or afternoons. Hourly rate is currently $75.00 or $45.00 for 1/2 hour.

Bob Heinemann - Bob is a Level 2 instructor under Sifu Rick Faye, and holds Apprentice Instructorships in Jun Fan Gung Fu and Filipino Martial Arts under Guro Dan Inosanto. He has been training at MKG Martial Arts since September 2000. He is currently the senior assistant instructor under Andy Wilson and has been teaching classes full time for the past three years. In addition to teaching classes, Bob has logged many hours teaching privates in all areas of the curriculum and has experience with students of different ages, levels and needs. Bob is generally only available in the mornings or afternoons. Bob's rate is $55.00 per hour or $40.00 for 1/2 hour.

Tammy Sanchez - Tammy Sanchez is a Level 2 Instructor under Sifu Rick Faye and has been training at MKG Martial Arts International since 2001. Tammy is the rounds class instructor at our school. Tammy's forte is Muay Thai and other kickboxing methods. Tammy is only available in the evenings or on weekends. Tammy's rate is $50.00 per hour and $35.00 per 1/2 hour.

Dennis Rivera - Dennis Rivera is a Level 1 Instructor under Sifu Rick Faye and has been training at MKG Martial Arts International since 2002. Dennis is also an assistant instructor at our school. Dennis is well rounded in our curriculum, and is only available during the evenings or on weekends. Dennis has a rate of $45.00 per hour and $30.00 per 1/2 hour.

Randy Nunez, Chris McMullin, Brian Tardiff, Josh Mills and Paul Echavarria fought 3 x 2 minutes rounds with kickboxing rules. Raphael Park fought 2 x 2 minute rounds under boxing rules. Congratulations all!

In the spirit of the event everybody went hard but no winners or losers were called. Afterwords we all went out and celebrated together. With the bad sportsmanship, rampant egos and mismatched opponents inherent in martial sports these days it was an amazing experience to bring together two schools in the spirit of friendly, positive competition.

We are planning these events every 2 months. In the future we would like to add single and double stick sparring, muay thai rules kickboxing and submission grappling matches. If you are a student of either school and are interested in competing please see your instructor to determine your eligibility.

Bob is the Senior Assistant Instructor at the Seattle Branch of MKG Martial Arts. He has been training and teaching consistently for over 5 years.

Congratulations Bob! We are all proud of you.

David Meyer, a fourth degree Black Belt under the Machados, flew in to Seattle from San Francisco Wednesday evening presumably because Brian and he were scheduled to do a seminar in Vancouver, BC this weekend. Brian did not know that David was flying in early to promote him in front of his class. (David had told many of us in advance so plans were made) Brian asked David to teach his class that evening and there were a 'suprising' number of students, friends and family who 'happened' to show up for class that night. David stopped class at around 7:45, gathered the class into a circle and took a phone call. It was John Will calling from Australia.

David put John on speakerphone at which point John and David both talked about how well-deserving Brian was of being a black belt and representing them and BJJ. Afterwords we all went out and celebrated at Zeke's Pizza.

Earning a Black Belt in BJJ is still very difficult to achieve and a great honor. It is one of the few ranks in martial arts that still means something. A black belt in BJJ not only is extremely knowlegable and experienced but can actually PERFORM at an amazingly high level. It still typically takes up to 10 years to earn this rank.

Brian has been my BJJ instructor for nearly 5 years now and I am proud to be his student. I have felt a kinship with Brian because we were in eerily similar situations when we met. Brian came in to take a grappling class at my school in September 2000. He did not have an instructor in BJJ but had started a club so that he could continue to grow and develop training partners. I had started my school in June of 2000 because I did not have an instructor in Seattle and was trying to develop training partners as well. I quickly realized that Brian was light years ahead of me in BJJ/Grappling and we quickly forged a relationship where Brian was teaching classes at my school on an ongoing basis. Brian still teaches a BJJ class at my school on Saturdays five years later!

I have seen Brian go from blue belt to Black Belt over the years. Having seen his dedication, consistency and committment to his art I am especially proud of him and to be his student.

Congratulations Brian!