I've been writing about the martial arts for so long now, I've hit many martial arts milestones.
I earned my black belt in Kobudo. I've been promoted several times in rank in Presas Arnis. We opened - and closed - a martial arts program in Texas. We opened - and closed - the Kansas City Presas Arnis Meetup. Kids and Mr. Chick have earned ranks in multiple styles.
So yeah, lots have happened since 2013.
Today is a big milestone.
Today is the 1 year anniversary of Kindred Protective Arts opening its doors.
We are one of the few traditional martial arts schools teaching kids and adults Filipino Martial Arts as the PRIMARY martial art in North America.
We have had SO MANY THINGS happen in the past year, both good and bad, with big wins and massive disasters.
Through it all, we're still here!
I just wanted to say thank you to all of you who have helped us in the past year. We've gotten some great advice, support, and just a lot of kindness from so many people.
We've even gotten support from leaders and teachers in the Modern Arnis / Kombatan / FMA world that we haven't met in person yet!
That's... well, that's really amazing, thank you.
We're working hard to grow our Arnis programs, our Force Necessary program, and our kids karate programs (thank you Sensei Judy!) so we can keep growing.
You - yes, you - are invited to visit us if you're in the area. Come check it out, have some hot tea, and bang some sticks.
We'll be here.
Here's some pics of a few of our students, and a silly little video we made for KPA.
Adults:
Some of our families in our Family class:
And that video. Yes, that's me. I'll probably play a little more with this idea soon:
Thanks, and it will be interesting to see how things are after Year 2!