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

The Midlands School of Martial Arts completed its second Seitei Jodo seminar of the year Sunday – this time a two-day affair at the Columbia Martial Arts and Fitness school, and a tip of the hat to Sifu Mark Mills, who runs the school with his wife, for allowing us to use their school. We

Gals & guys, just a friendly reminder our second Seitei Jodo seminar is on tap for next weekend, July 11-12. Fourth-dan Adam Sandor hopes to work through all 12 of the system’s kihons as well as the first five kata along with some other training drills used within the system if there is time. Below

Here’s information for our second Seitei Jodo seminar being hosted by our school. Please call (910-382-1943) or email (scmidlandskarate@gmail.com).

Seitei Jodo nidan (and Shuri Ryu black belt) Andy Wells will continue his training at our dojo from 9:30-11 a.m. on the following dates: April 4, April 18, May 9 and May 23. If you are interested, call me or drop me an email for more information. We have been working the system’s 12 kihons

Congratulations to our three new yellow belts: William Jones, his son, Conrad, and Judah Clayton, who is pictured below in group photo as well as with their principle instructor, Tom Bryant. The trio, under the watchful eyes of myself along with godans Thomas Seastrunk and Charlotte Bryant and nidan Sam Johnson, went through a 90-minute