Hello students & parents,
Please welcome our newest students to the school:
Jason - Welcome back!
Mariano - Beginners Gongfu
Julie - Evening Taiji
Morning Taiji students - welcome back!
Happy Birthdays this month:
Mariano
Nathaniel
Kid & Adult Gongfu students only - Yep, it's still hot, and still just shirts/pants. If you haven't seen it yet, please look below.
MANDATORY UNIFORM ITEM - UNDERSHIRT
Starting in August, it is mandatory for all adult & kid gongfu students to wear an official undershirt. The new undershirts are meant for & designed for sports. No more random t-shirts/tank-tops. Store link below:
NEW REPORT CARDS (Taiji students, skip this section)
As all of us are building more seniority, learning more, getting faster, stronger and more competitive to prepare for new challenges, we will always continuously learn to adapt to get you past your plateaus. With that said, there are minor changes to report cards/points and a whole new PFT (standards were established by the Advanced Class).
REPORT CARD UPDATES:
Mandatory skills section is now listed on all report cards
The new design of the report card is more clear cut on the forms we offer
Max amount of forms you can learn at the school is 50, with 35 to max out points towards ranking
NEW PFT (Physical Fitness Test):
Kids - your PFT layout will remain the same for now
Adults - your new PFT is broken into 2 sections:
Strength/Cardio - only 3 exercises will be timed together for your fastest time:
100 Pushups > 100 Knuckle Pushups
100 Squats > 100 Hindu Squats
100 Jumping Jacks > 200 Jumping Jacks
Sit-ups - will be timed by itself within 2 minutes:
Crunches > Sit-ups (with a partner for the time being)
PFT Scoring:
It's no longer just time-based, but all exercises are converted to points and added straight to your sash ranking. This allows more range to advancing in ranking in general. Every second/sit-up counts.
Level 5 min/max points: 2000
Level 4 minimum points: 1600+
Level 3 minimum points: 1200+
Level 2 minimum points: 800+
Level 1 minimum points: 400+
Level 0: 0-399 points
You will not be demoted to lower sashes if your score is now lower, but you will be limited from the next promotion if you don't have the minimum score needed.
WHY DO WE HAVE REPORT CARDS OR PFTS:
We've built our school around being an academy, teaching all aspects of Chinese Martial Arts, and having a report card reinforces you to take your training seriously and track your progress across everything.
Our points system was made in-house, and it was meant to gamify your progress as well as helping you establish goals you'd want to go after, whether it'd be more points, skills or work on areas you're weak in.
While our goal is to build well-rounded martial artists, all of us will generally lean towards what we're naturally skilled in, whether it'd be acrobatics, fighting or forms demonstration. Don't feel at all like you need to have everything perfected to be considered a great martial artist. I myself have my own weaknesses.
We're honoring what martial arts should be about, and one of the core values of martial arts is respecting your body and making it stronger. It's why we regularly test physical fitness. We've seen far too many martial artists who practice but are overweight and/or have horrible cardio conditioning. Don't take it as body shaming, but rather you simply cannot perform high level techniques without injuring your joints, and you can't keep up with the training or perform at a competitive level if your body can't handle it.
PERSONAL ISSUES
With all respect as possible, this is just a friendly reminder that we're your resource to culture & martial arts - it's what we're truly comfortable with teaching, trained to do and ultimately what we're paid for. While there is philosophy, discipline, morals and ethics mixed into our training, and we're humbled that students trust us with private information, please remember we're not licensed therapists, life coaches, babysitters or doctors.
We deeply care about our students, but we also need to save our energy for everyone - we can't be heroes to some or else students and their families will take up our bandwidth (we're speaking from unfortunate experience). We also recognize that we're just not equipped to handle every issue and could make things worse.
Please do not be offended if we're not responsive to very personal, private texts. We will do our best to help out. Texts should be reserved to simply let us know you can't come. We appreciate students letting us know if they're unable to attend classes due to personal reasons, but we just ask you keep it brief & to the point relating to classes only.
This is not at all a passive-aggressive talking point or focused on one person - it's across the board to all students since it's been happening a lot more than usual lately. Again, we care about our students, but please keep issues you need help with to things our school is trained to handle, solve and control.
HOUSEKEEPING ITEMS
Literal housekeeping! Starting in August, all gongfu classes will participate in field day cleanings in the guan. As is the tradition in many other traditional studios, students will help with the upkeep to keep the guan clean. Schedules will be posted and field day time will only be limited to 10-15 minutes of class.
Need help with the creed? It's now in Resources on your portal, written in Pinyin for pronunciation. Use the student portal for all your references (calendar, videos, uniforms, etc)
Reminder again - absolutely no political discussions at the guan. It's all over social media and our lives. We all get it, it's a tense time. We need to keep the school neutral in all aspects, and lets save our guan for sanity-breaks from all the chaos around us.
If you've been with our school at least a month and still haven't ordered a uniform yet, let us know!
THIS MONTH'S SCHEDULE
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