John's First Community Leadership Project

This is John’s first community leadership project to advance to the rank of green belt.  John is age 10 and currently a blue belt at Epic Martial Arts in Sag Harbor N.Y.  http://hamptonskarate.com

Waste kickers

My project is a beach clean up. With this project, I am trying to stop littering by removing waste and trash from Indian Wells Beach in Amagansett. I am trying to encourage others to be active in their community by discovering that cleaning up the beach can actually be an enjoyable experience. I am trying to influence friends and others to continually clean up their environment and remain active in their community.


My inspiration for this project was my love towards sea life and to prevent them from getting harmed. You hear many stories of sea animals dying because they end up eating trash. Turtles in most cases confuse plastic bags as jellyfishes and end up dying because they cant breath. Dolphins get stuck in nets and ropes that people throw in the ocean. These are few of the many animals out in the ocean that get harm because people don’t treat beaches with respect and don’t take their garbage with them.


So on Mothers day, May 13^th 2012, my cousins Alex and Christian and I, along with Sensei Michelle and my big sister Johanna went to Indian Wells Beach to clean up for an hour. I didn’t realize how much garbage we picked up. Between my two younger cousins and I, we filled a big white bag full of plastic bags, balloons, cans, bottles, and diapers. I was surprised to see how much garbage we picked up in such short amount of time and we only cleaned a small part of the beach. I do have to admit that I had a great time along with my cousins picking up garbage. I plan to keep doing this type of things in the future along with my family and friends. 


By John Saldana- Green belt candidate 5/18/12

Press Release For Epic Martial Art's Kick A Thon

Sag Harbor, New York, April 26^th, 2012-

Sensei Michelle Del Giorno and the children’s karate students at Epic Martial Arts-EAST are participating in a “Kick A Thon” on Friday June 1^st at 5 pm.   This charity event is to raise awareness and donations for their Swim Across America Team. 

Sensei Michelle, her students and their parents are expecting to complete 10,000 kicks with a pledge goal of $1,500.00!

 The mission and purpose of Swim Across America is to raise money and awareness for cancer research, treatments and support.  Students, parents and instructors of Epic Martial Arts will participate in a ½ mile open water swim on Saturday July 7^th in Gardiner’s Bay in Amagansett.

“This project is an example of how the children of our community can make a difference by participating in acts of kindness,” says Sensei Michelle. “ We are teaching our young children that they can be leaders in our community. Our students learn the value of helping others by raising awareness and donations to fight cancer.”

Epic Martial Arts is participating in the Swim Across America event in memory of Alex Koehne, a young Sag Harbor resident who passed away from cancer in March 2007.  The students are dedicating their swim to Wendy Tarlow, a parent of one of Epic Martial Art’s youngest students.  Wendy has been courageously fighting her battle with Follicular Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

“I heard about this Hamptons swim shortly after my first chemotherapy treatment in 2010,” says Wendy.  “I had no idea this was a national organization that had events all over the country with most of their proceeds going directly to cancer research.”

Sensei Michelle conducts children’s karate classes for ages 3 and up and self-defense, martial arts and kickboxing classes for teens and adults.  The students at Epic Martial Arts-EAST regularly participate in community service projects as part of their black belt training.  For more information please visit the website at www.hamptonskarate.com or call 631 725-5425.  If you are interested in sponsoring a student donations for the Kick A Thon can be made at Epic Martial Arts-EAST, 75 Main Street in Sag Harbor or to Swim Across America at www.teamtarlowsaa.com

A Karate Lesson in Self-Defense on a Typical Snow Day

Yesterday was a snow day.  Well, it would have been had there been school on a Saturday.  I opened the dojo at 9:30 am and prepared for the 10 am class.  It was great to see that some of our students were up early and ready to train in spite of the 5 inches of snowfall.  A few students expressed how excited they were to get out early, get some karate training in and then head out for a day of sledding.  This sparked a discussion on self-defense.  Last year there were two serious accidents in our area on a local hill here in the Hamptons.  It is a very popular hill for the kids in our area to get in some sledding. Because of the accidents last year, we discussed how staying focused and paying attention can help to keep us safe.  We went on to chat about how we can turn a fun activity in a dangerous situation by sledding off the trail or carelessly sledding off snow piled jumps.  The kids understood the dangers of piling too many kids on one sled, or sledding into a group of people. We continued to discuss some important safety rules for sledding as the students contributed to the discussion.  I am very proud of my students as they continue to be safe and aware in all situations and their everyday lives.  This is our self-defense and by continuing the dialogue with our karate students-this is how we avoid potentially dangerous situations.  
Sensei!

We Love BJJ at Epic Martial Arts-EAST!

Our young Karate students are so excited to get into a little grappling.  We are so lucky to have the guys from NYC Clockwork Jiu Jitsu training at Epic Martial Arts. These athletes are part of our team.  They always contribute to our Martial Arts program by giving back to our students.  

In this video, the children are learning some cool BJJ drills, like "shrimping the guard" and "escaping the full mount and escaping the guard".  The video is a little long, but I'll be sure to shorten the next one for our viewers. Peter thinks he talks too much- I disagree with him on that! Good Stuff Epic MA Team!

HamptonsKarate.com

Imitation Is the Highest Form Of Flattery!

I watch a lot of videos and read even more blogs on the subject of martial arts training.  I am always picking up new and old training methods and adapting them to my classes at Epic Martial Arts.  I have always found that most of the techniques can be broken down for the beginner student yet still be challenging for the more advanced student.  This video demonstrates basic and realistic self defense techniques.  These are techniques that I teach on a regular basis, but I never put them together in this sequence until I watched two black belts working this drill on thenewwaynetwork.com  One of the black belts was a 6th degree and the other was in training for his 4th degree graduation test!  These guys have some serious martial arts experience between the two of them.  

In this video our beginner students are working a straight palm strike followed by a rear leg push kick and finishing it off with a round kick to the leg.  I started them on the heavy bag, then moved them on to striking pads and eventually added some movement.  I am looking forward to taking this same drill and working it with my younger students. Seems like I will be making another video soon of this same drill with our kids karate students at Epic Martial Arts in Sag Harbor NY.

1,000 Push-Ups for Pennies for Alex's Promise Foundation

Thank you Johanna for the video editing
HamptonsKarate.com

Children’s Karate Classes- What to Expect

*Expect there to be one or more experienced teachers on the floor in your child’s class.  

*Expect the teacher to, at times, appear to have the patience of Job. 

*Expect a bit more, Oh how shall we say it? ENERGY, every so often.

* Expect the teacher, whether gently guiding everyone along or cranking up the troops, to wear a smile (a happy one!).

 
*Expect a lot of talk about respect, about leadership, about good manners, about anger, about a whole bunch of things just about any parent would love to hear some OTHER adult talking to them about. That’s the way we do it.  

“I haven’t been a ‘karate kid’ for some time, like decades, but the experience is still in my mind like it happened yesterday. Parents, enroll your child in a good martial arts school. You’ll never regret it -- and your children will never forget it.” -- Tom Callos, www.tomcallos.com

*Expect a lot of good-sleep-inducing exercise.

*Expect some special events, as one of our primary goals is to teach our students to take what they practice on the mat and apply it to other things (like school, like work, like fun, and -- to the community).

*Expect to look back on your son or daughters martial arts lessons with great pleasure and fond memories. 

*Expect some very fun times.

For a free trial program and mark my words here, there’s no “hook” or sales pitch in this offer. This is simply a way for you to test drive our school, before ever THINKING about enrollment. 

Click here or contact us at: www.hamptonskarate.com

Press Release for Push-Ups for Pennies Campaign

Sag Harbor, New York, December 9, 2011- Sensei Michelle Del Giorno and the children’s karate students at Epic Martial Arts-EAST are participating in a campaign called “PUSH-UPS FOR PENNIES”. This is an ongoing charity event to raise awareness and donations to St. Jude’s Research Children’s Hospital in memory of Alex Koehne, a young Sag Harbor resident who passed away from cancer in March 2007.  Alex’s family has created the foundation called ‘Alex’s Promise’ in his loving memory.

Sensei Michelle and her students are performing 1 push-up for every 1-penny donated. On Thanksgiving Day, the students at Epic Martial Arts-EAST followed Sensei Michelle on You Tube via: www.epicmartialarts-east.blogspot.com as she completed 1,000 push-ups. On Christmas Day and on New Year’s Day, Sensei Michelle and her students will once again complete 1,000 push-ups!

The mission and purpose of Alex’s Promise Foundation is to completely ensure that Alex’s dream of helping young people comes true. As a tribute to his life, this foundation has been created so that his death can serve as a catalyst to benefit other young persons at critical times in their lives.

“This project is an example of how the children of our community can make a difference by participating in acts of kindness,” says Sensei Michelle. “ We are teaching our young children that they can be leaders in our community and that every penny counts in making donations to children’s cancer research”.

Sensei Michelle conducts children’s karate classes for ages 3 and up and self-defense, martial arts and kickboxing classes for teens and adults. The students at Epic Martial Arts-EAST regularly participate in community service activities as part of their black belt training.

For more information please visit the website at www.hamptonskarate.com or call 631 725-5425.  Donations for the Push-Ups for Pennies campaign can be made at Epic Martial Arts-EAST, 75 Main Street in Sag Harbor or to Alex’s Promise, PO Box 3319 Sag Harbor, NY 11963.

First Official Blog Entry for Epic Martial Arts-EAST!

Wow, here I am back to blogging. It has been quite a long time since my last blog. I am starting this new blog for Epic Martial Arts-EAST. We are a premiere Martial Arts facility in Sag Harbor NY, specializing in exciting Children's Karate Programs and Community Leadership Projects. I will be updating this blog daily with our school events and projects. Check us out at www.hamptonskarate.com

Sensei Michelle

"My Life is My Dojo"

“Dojo” means “school” in Japanese — literally, “the place where you find the Way.” And while every country has its own name for school (it’s a different word in Korean, Chinese, etc.), the important part of this statement is that your life is your school — your LIFE is the place where you find the Way.

Should you ever decide to take martial arts lessons, of any kind, I hope that you would be lucky enough to find a teacher who understands and practices the idea of my life is my dojo.

When a student is on the mat, executing punches or kicks, rolls or break-falls, leg locks or arm bars, and/or blocks and parries, all sorts of things are learned, such as the patience required to polish the maneuvers, the control you have to exercise to do it right, the teamwork it takes to participate with a your partner and classmates, and the understanding of the return one gets on effort and consistency. What a shame it would be if we failed to take those lessons “out of the dojo and into the world.”

The real lessons in our school, the valuable ones, are the ones we practice on the mat, but fully understand that we’re practicing for the purpose of making something in our life work better, smoother, and with more mastery. We practice in our school, what we wish to see in our lives. That’s what we know to be the most valuable aspect of what we do in our school.

By the way, if you’re not a student, but you’d like to see what it’s like to be one, just mention this post, and we will give you a pass to come in and try classes. Every great journey begins with some small movement in a new direction, yes?

And here’s a secret: I think, “My students are my dojo.” I learn what I need to learn by helping others to do, well...all of the above.

Sensei