Rick Scoppe

Shuri Ryu fifth dan Charlotte Bryant and myself just returned from the 2026 ECUSKF Cincinnati Jodo Seminar, which was hosted by the Kosho School of Karate and Seitei Jodo fifth-degree black belt Nate England. Just under 50 students and teachers attended the seminar, including the United States’ most senior instructor, seventh dan renshi Thomas Groendal […]

The latest Seitei Jodo class under Nidan Andy Wells (soon, we are sure, will earn his sandan) at the Midlands School of Martial Arts. We had seven students along with Wells sensei Monday night, Sept. 21, working kihons 1-4 and 7 (out of 12) of the system along with the first two-person kata of the

Conrad Jones (left) and Judah Clayton are the latest blue belts at the Midlands School of Martial Arts. Congratulations to the youngsters, whose instructor is Tom Bryant (center). The two boys were elevated from white stripe blue belts to full blue belts at our last class. Both have worked hard and are doing a great

Wanted to give everyone a heads up on what looks like an interesting local seminar on Sept. 26 hosted by WellWithin Martial Arts here in Columbia. Below is the seminar flyer, including information on how to obtain more information:

We had another great night of jo training Monday night (7-9 pm) at our dojo under nidan Andy Wells. We had eight students – including two new students – training several of the Seitei Jodo system’s 12 kihon along with the first kata (Ippon me Tsukizue) that, as with all 12 of the system’s kata,

For the second straight year, I, along with some of my fellow local Wing Chun students (and others from out of town), had the opportunity to train with Wing Chun Sifu Francis Fong from Atlanta along with his exceptional student, Kevin Lee, at Sifu Mark Mills’ Columbia Martial Arts & Fitness facility. The six-hour Saturday

While fifth-dan Charlotte Bryant and I have been training with Seitei Jodo nidan Andy Wells since January, last night marked the first “official” class of sensei Wells’ for his jo school, which is called Kashikan Jodo (Hall of Oak). We had eight students (including myself and Charlotte, who are not in the attached photo) come

Midlands School of Martial Arts is remembering Hanshi Ridgely Abele today, which would have been his 76th birthday. While many at our school never trained directly with Hanshi Abele, we all owe him an immense debt of gratitude – and not just for how much we learned from him training in the martial arts. He

Three of the “old guard” under Hanshi Ridgely Abele, who died in 2009, joined the Midlands School of Martial Arts for a reunion of sorts while also watching five of our students test for ranks from purple to yellow belt on Saturday The three (shown below in a photo) were Rod Gardner (far left), who

Five students passed their belt tests Saturday at the Midlands School of Martial Arts, including a family of three – William Jones (blue) and wife, Sarah, (yellow) along with their son, Conrad, (blue). Also successfully navigating their tests were Karis Johnson (purple) and her nephew, Judah Clayton (blue). Congratulations to one and all! Everyone did