Take a look at what the students of the Academy have been up to lately! Under the expert guidance of artist Jana Aukon and the mentoring of Peggy Sheldon-Scurlock, AMW students have begun to transform their “naked” lion into the artistic embodiment of developmental asset #40 “Positive View of One’s Personal Future”.
From raising the money to coming up with the ideas and sketches of how the lion should appear, young and old, boys and girls, are all working together to achieve a common goal. Stay tuned for future pictures of AMW’s Mountain Lion as it roars into life!

Our Lion is getting some Color!

to break a board; to break a pile; to dive into sunsets; to forgive;

to forget; to love where you’re going; to embrace where

you’ve been; to take a deep breath, close your eyes…

and begin. POSITIVELY POSITIVE. Happy 2012

There was a color belt promotion on the 17th that was full of great energy, support, and effort on the part of everyone in attendance. Congratulations go out this month to Daniel S., William S., Spencer R., Addision M., Ben P., Chloe D., Rob S., and Alana S.

Following the belt promotion was a HanaKwanzMas party and white elephant gift exchange. What an amazing time! Parents and kids, students and instructors, young and old(er) all coming together to share smiles, laughs, and build some wonderful memories. A super big thanks go out to Ms. Felsted for coordinating the event!

As I am writing this month’s review, the Academy is on recess for the week in order to spend time with family, rest, re-energize, and begin to look forward to 2012 and what we may want to accomplish with our lives in the year to come. I am fired up about 2012 and look forward to sharing great times with all of you. I know it’s going to be a GREAT year! I’ll see you there….in the studio.

Kicking off the month was the Feastinar 1.0. What’s a Feastinar? It’s part-feast and part-seminar. Shihan Ewing (Midnight Sun Martial Arts) and myself got our two schools together to exchange some knowledge of Ninjutsu and Taekwondo, make new friends, and share food with each other in honor of the month of giving thanks. It was an incredible time and on the only complaint was that we have to wait until next year to do it again! Most people wanted to do it again the following week! ☺

This month’s belt promotion was an even split of younger students and older students. Congratulations to everyone who earned some new color on your belt. This month is was: Scott G., Nicolas R., Elian Z., Wyatt K., Patricia M., Andrew D., Dallyn F., Katie C., and Zac N.

The work on our Assets Mountain Lion continued as student artists turned in a bunch of new conceptual drawings. We met and have now put them into one complete vision of how to paint up the lion. The next step is to prep the sculpture and start the painting. It’s going to be great seeing this lion come to life!

To top off the month, literally, we had our annual “Crazy Hat Day Photo”. Every student was invited to come down to the studio and bring a crazy hat. We take a studio picture as a memory of our friendship and sillier side and use that as our holiday greeting card. Look for it soon on Facebook or on the website.

December is now upon us, and as we rush about taking care of the million and one things that seem to need to be taken care of, please don’t forget to take care of the one thing that is the most important; you. Without you, the rest doesn’t matter.

See you in the studio!

At the beginning of the month, we went to the Phoenix Open Taekwondo Tournament. The following individuals put themselves out there to compete: Chloe D., Orian S., Monty G., Daniel S., Caleb C., Rob S., and Ben P. It was a REALLY long day but everyone learned some valuable lessons (win OR lose) and that made for a good time.

The weekend following the tournament was the final gathering of the AMW Eco-Warriors for 2011. A special thanks go out to those warriors: Ben P., Luba S., Katy H-M, Monty G., Kaelen M., Cody P., Zak P., Anthony M., and Caleb C. It was a gorgeous day out and good friends did a good deed for a good cause. Truly an example of living the martial way. Thank you for helping me keep our Adopt-An-Avenue looking great!

Towards the middle of the month, there was a belt promotion. Not just a belt promotion but a color belt AND black belt promotion. The black belt candidates started at 6pm Friday night and tested until 10:30am on Saturday morning when they were joined by the color belts for their promotion from 10:30am to 1pm. For the Black Belts candidates, that meant they had been training continuously for 19 hours. This was the first time we have combined a Black Belt test and a color belt promotion on the same day. The list of colored belt promoters included: Evan Y., Abby R., Jason K., Jake F., Domingo P., Dan O., Zack H., Caleb C., Sam D., and Elaina A. The Black Belt candidates were: Katy Hartz-Musgrave receiving her 1st Dan, Corbin Praet receiving his 2nd Dan, and Mechelle Felsted receiving her 3rd Dan. What an amazing day that was!

This month several students also began working with artist Jana Aukon and Asset’s committee member Peggy Sheldon-Scurlock, of the Coalition for Youth and Children, to come up with ideas for painting the Academy’s PAWS mountain lion. There’s still time to get in on this creative and exciting project if you are interested. Younger or older, you are all welcome; it’s YOUR mountain lion.

By the end of the month we needed a short break to catch our breath so nothing was scheduled with exception of the usual great classes!

We are gearing up for November already and a wonderful season of sharing and caring. I know I look forward to sharing it with you all.

See you in the studio!

Three AMW Eco-Warriors

A big thanks to all who came out to be an ECO-WARRIOR and live the life of a martial artist inside AND outside of the dojang. You have my respect ladies and gentlemen.

This month we welcomed Kevin Burlison to the AMW family. Kevin is a 2nd degree Black Belt currently attending NAU for his degree in Vocal Performance. Mr. Burlison has studied several different martial arts along his journey including spending a month in China training at the Shaolin temple. If you have not met Kevin yet, please take a moment to introduce yourself and welcome him to our martial family.

We had a great belt promotion this month with 14 people advancing in rank. Congratulation go out to: Madison L., Luba S., Monty G., Teresa A., Chloe D., Max B., Kaelan M., Kadyn S., Jonathan D., Orian S., Jackson H., Carson P., Jamie M., and Lee D.

Our Powerful Words character development word of the month for September was Self-Reliance. It’s a wonderful trait that not only grows the individual but gives moms and dads a needed break as well. I hope those lessons are carrying over into the home and schoolwork. Moms and Dads, don’t hesitate to remind your young ones of last month’s lessons if things start to slip. Repetition is the motor of learning!

The end of the month was focused on folks getting ready for the Phoenix Open Taekwondo Tournament the first weekend of October but you will have to wait until the end of October to get more on that! ☺

Now that we are all settled in to a daily routine and cooler temperatures are upon us, let’s all get to work on some serious martial arts training!

See you all in the studio.

Thanks for spending your time and energy…. giving your all … there will be days you don’t think you can step up and spar your opponent… there will be a lifetime of knowing you have. Good job everyone!

All  Ladies (12 years old and up) : Because I can’t always be around to protect you…. come to our FREE Women’s Self Defense class… Friday night ~ Sept. 9th … 7 pm … at the Academy of the Martial Way studio….
2708 N. 4th St. STE 1
Flagstaff, AZ 86004
Tel.: 928.600.8702

SO WORTH YOUR TIME and it is FREEEE!