I love what I see happening in our schools. I not only see instructors encouraging students, but I’m also watching STUDENTS encourage students, parents encouraging parents, older students helping younger ones…it’s a beautiful thing. Let’s keep building relationships. Let’s keep growing those around us. And let’s keep serving one another. As a member of our community, in case you don’t …
Let’s Make This Our Motto
I’m going to tell on my mom… When I was learning how to drive, she used to tell me, “Do as I say, don’t do as I do!” 🤣 I don’t remember the exact things she was telling me not to do…perhaps it was shaking her fist at “idiot drivers,” (her words ) maybe it was driving too aggressively…or it could have …
The Difference Between Success and Failure. #Attitude
As we get ready for our next graduation… We will begin testing again this week. I love to remind students of this simple idea: that those who succeed in life often do so, not because they are more talented than others around them, but because they simply didn’t care how many times they failed. They never gave up. They kept …
4 Reasons Students Join Our Instructor Program
4 Reasons Students Join Our Instructor Program For some of our martial arts students in Ashburn and Leesburg, VA, learning karate and being able to defend themselves isn’t enough. They want more. They want to start giving back to others around them. These students want to become instructors. When we sense this in our students, we usually invite them to …
Push’em vs Stick’em
An Intensity Tip For Our Students! We are turning things up in here! I want you guys to really think about something for a second. So, what would shake up an opponent or attacker more? To be thrown 3 feet or to be pushed 3 inches? Really think about it… In this video, I demonstrated both. You saw that when …
Practice Tip For A Jump-Back Fist–Reverse Punch
Hello everybody! So, the jump-back fist- reverse punch. I’m noticing some of my students have the hang of it and some are struggling with when to throw and land. Here’s a quick tip for those who want to improve on this combination. Skip! Try practicing the jump-back fist- reverse punch by incorporating a little skip into it. You can come …
Listen To The Sound Of Your Uniform – Part 1
Listen To The Sound Of Your Uniform Can you hear it? Students, one of the things I want you to do when you are practicing your forms is to listen to the sound of them. I was just testing a student on their universals one through nine and their techniques were really strong, really good! However, I couldn’t hear their uniform! …
Stretching For Speed
Hey everyone! I want to share another quick training tip with you, today. I want to share the importance of stretching! Stretching is a key element to becoming faster as a martial artist. The more flexible you are, the faster you’ll be able to move. And obviously, the least likely you’ll be to actually injure yourself. But if you want to …
How To Perfect Your Front Kick
A Quick Front Kick Training Tip! When students are learning the front kick for the first time, it’s very common that you see them make this mistake- their knee comes up and they shoot the kick but their standing foot comes up, too. This causes the heel to leave the ground. This is not correct because it can cause you to …
Use An Event To Improve Faster
Use An Event To Improve Faster Hey, what’s up, everybody?! Welcome to Master Alley’s Training Tips – episode number one! The training tip for today is: Use an event to improve, faster! You’re already making sure that you’re coming to class and that you’re training. You may be working towards your yellow belt, your orange belt, eventually your black belt, right? Some …