Shozen Martial Arts USA

Wealth Preservation Concepts 951-358-2330

Traditional Okinawan / Japanese style training facility.

We have been in our current location for 10 years serving the Communities of Highland, Redlands, and San Bernardino, CA as well as the San Bernardino mountain communities. The instructor staff has over 100 years of combined martial arts experience. For more detailed information please visit our website at www.shozenusa.com

World Class Martial Arts Instruction taught by World and US National Champion Black Belt Instructors

In addition to martial arts classes we offer birthday parties, "ninja nights" and other school celebrations.

Shozen Martial Arts USA is a family based business. We offer classes and programs for the entire family starting at age 3 and up in traditional Karate, Classical Jujitsu, Okinawan weapons. Program Descriptions: The Little Ninjas Program (Students attend two, 30 minutes classes per week): Ages three through six are the most important years of a child’s development. Our Little Ninjas Program has been professionally developed specifically for preschoolers to teach them important life skills with an exciting, enriching and age appropriate curriculum that is always fun. We use a unique concept, “Edutainment,’ to teach a child coordination, concentration and self-control, which are critical to success in school, relationships and life. Little Ninjas will keep children fit as well as share the benefits of good behavior, teamwork and being their best at home, at school or in any social situation. Little Ninjas will improve a child’s motor and mental skills to help him face life’s challenges. He’ll increase his confidence, be a better listener, be more ambitious to succeed, and have a positive, enthusiastic outlook. Think of the Little Ninjas Instructors as partners in reinforcing the same values taught in the home such as good manners, respect for one’s self and others, following directions the first time and much more; including, “Stranger Danger”, when to call “911”, Fire Safety and Street Safety. This is achieved through repetition and practice of what we call The Little Ninjas Primary Eight Life Skills: focus, balance, self-control, teamwork, memory, coordination, fitness and discipline. The measurement of a child’s progress is done quantitatively on a graduating scale over an eight week cycle, either by time duration or number of repetitions performed for each particular skill. Each child is “tested” weekly and awarded a life skill stripe. When eight stripes are “earned” a new belt color (rank) is earned and presented at a special review and award ceremony. Pricing options for the Little Ninjas Programs are as follows: For a six month program (the minimum required for membership) enrollment is $297 down which includes the first month’s tuition and student’s uniform and $149/month for the duration of the term. For a twelve month program enrollment is $297 down which includes the first month’s tuition and student’s uniform and $129/month for the duration of the term. Additional payment options include a 10% discount for agreements paid in full at time of enrollment. The Young Dragons Evening Karate Program: (Students attend two, 50 minute classes per week) The Little Ninjas graduate into The Young Dragons at age six. This program targets children ages six through thirteen. At this point we implement the Shozen Martial Arts “Building Successful Kids Program”. In addition to the fitness and self defense benefits of the karate classes, the “Building Successful Kids Program” provides children with decision making tools for everyday life. The Key Elements of the Successful Kids Program: The Ten Rules of Life: Effort, etiquette, character, sincerity, self-control, respect, humility, confidence, discipline and integrity are the ten rules of life. The definitions, explanations and applications are memorized and reinforced through training in the martial-arts class. While the definitions are concrete, they are, as a group, broad enough to cover nearly any situation in life. This stage of training is a very productive time for laying down thought patterns that will serve the child throughout their entire life. This is intended to develop both moral and ethical values to guide and direct a child. They are consistent with the teachings of major religions and secular moral philosophies. The explanations are included to further clarify the meaning, as well as to provide concrete examples necessary for the developing mind. Younger children—to age 11—are nearly entirely concrete thinkers, so the examples are essential to developing their understanding. Furthermore, in the laboratory of the Shozen Martial Arts USA Building Successful Kids Program, the instructor develops daily examples and calls attention to their application in the class. The applications only give students a glimpse into the potential application for each rule. Again, this is a key area for instructor direction and expansion of the fundamental ideas. For humility, “Prove yourself through accomplishments, not words” is clear and concise, but limited. Obviously, humility has far more applications as the student develops in maturity and understanding but this does serve as example of a direct application of humility. In addition to pointing out examples as they arise in class, These concepts are further developed through class discussion. For instance, asking a student to provide the definition of “character” and then asking another student to give the class an example of having character on the playground, makes a direct connection between the students’ martial arts training and the rest of their life. By breaking down each section, definition, explanation and application this ensures a thorough internalization of the ideas behind each section, and a progression of understanding from the fundamentals of definition through to the practicality of application. This is how material is best mastered in the child-learner. The Eight Levels of Conflict Response (also taught with definition, explanation and application) in order from hardest to easiest: Avoid, communicate, ignore, walk away, neutralize, counter, strike back and destroy are the eight level of conflict response. These are the concepts that teachers, school districts and parents appreciate the most. This guide gives the child concrete methods of approaching and resolving all conflicts in which they could find themselves. On its surface, it appears only to apply to physical confrontations—the sort kids are apt to get into on the playground that start with words, progress to pushing, and fighting. Certainly, attention to these tools can help a child to stop conflicts long before they progress to this point. However, the real value of this is in the deeper levels of conflict response, resolution and avoidance. Notice that the first level of conflict response is “avoidance”, and its explanation is the 10 rules of life. This connects what the children have already learned from the 10 rules of life to the 8 levels and reinforces their use, and expands these concepts into thought processes the kids can understand. The Eight Levels of Conflict Response provides instructors with a clear way to communicate exactly what is meant by “we learn to fight so we never have to”, and gives the student concrete tools to accomplish just that. Furthermore, the students begin recognize that the 8 levels of conflict response apply not only to physical confrontation but actually apply nicely to any conflict, including the kinds that adults have at work with co-workers, and that we often have within ourselves as we approach conflicting goals and demands on our time and efforts. Finally, the last four levels provide the students with a direct and reasonable application of the physical skills they are learning. In this way, the children are not taught to be perpetually passive—and thus likely victims—because they learn to recognize when it becomes necessary to resort to use of their martial arts training to terminate an attack on their well-being. The Six Core Principles: These are the qualities developed best in sparring, and not coincidentally these principles are studied at about 24 months, when most students are starting to grow exponentially in sparring skill. This directly connects the student’s physical development to development of mental abilities and personal spirit. Explanation Skill: This principle applies to sparring, of course, but the key here is actually in making improving ones skills a personal habit in and outside of a martial arts school. One skill that instructors can help students improve directly is their martial arts ability. However, there are many other skills that children can learn and refine in the context of the YD program. These include academic skills, conflict resolution and leadership. Tact: In sparring, this is the development of tactical ability. In life, however, tactical ability is the capacity to take the correct action at the correct time. This applies to dealing with people, where tact is essential to achieving ones objectives as a leader. All YD kids are being trained to be leaders. Boldness: Boldness can be extremely difficult to develop in some students. In other students, it will be difficult to balance their boldness against the development of tact. This is not the opposite of fear, but giving into fear is what limits boldness. Boldness is like the “no fear” shirts that we often see. Everyone has fear, and fear is a reasonable emotion. Boldness is in learning to control that fear and move ahead “fearlessly” which does not mean “without fear” but rather “as though you have no fear”. Those who truly have no fear are simply sense-deprived. Quickness: This seems relatively straight forward, and it is. However, it is also deeper than it appears. Physical quickness is essential to sparring effectively. However, mental quickness is essential to effectively dealing with conflict in life. Mental quickness helps in the development of timely tactics and evaluating the overall situation. Mental quickness allows the student to see, evaluate, plan and take advantage of the briefest of opportunities, both in sparring and in life. Ferocity: Ferocity is the attribute most closely tied to effective self-defense. With a maximum of ferocity, even those with a minimum of skill, strength, or speed can overwhelm and dissuade an attacker. In every day life, ferocity is the intensity with which we go about our daily tasks. Those who take on challenges with ferocity do so with their entire being, and thus use every aspect of their self to achieve success. Practicality: Being practical is doing what will be effective, rather than what doing what one feels like doing, or just acting without thinking. Practicality is also adapting the art to ones own abilities and attributes. Often, aspiring martial artists make the mistake of trying to move and act just like their teacher. This is workable if your teacher happens to be your height, build and gender. Outside of the martial arts school, however, nobody is sufficiently similar to their instructor to try to do everything the same. Practicality is about adjusting and developing ones self to be the most efficient and effective possible. To illustrate this principle, we like to use the parable of the shark and the bear. If a bear wishes to fight a shark, the bear is not well-served to jump into the ocean. The bear’s best bet for “winning” that fight is if the shark gets pulled into the forest. Someone skilled in practical self-defense pulls the other party into their environment instead of trying to fight someone else’s battle. Why are there only 6 core principles? These are the core principles that can be directly and effectively taught in sparring. Other aspects of the student are developed later in the Shozen Martial Arts USA Building Successful Kids program. These aspects are kept discrete and together to make their emphasis easiest at the appropriate time in the student’s training. The Eight Matters of Heart: Repose, think, read, work, play, be happy, share and rejoice. These concepts are designed to lend balance to the student who is rapidly developing physical and mental skills. Until this point, the spirit has been developed tangential to physical and mental abilities; these concepts explicitly tie the development of spirit into the practice of the arts. This material ties the preceding basic and intermediate development to the advanced material and understanding to follow. Read, Think and Work all have direct tie-ins to the 50 factors of mental performance (the last phase of development of the Shozen Martial Art USA Building Successful Kids program). The other eight matters of heart—Repose, Play, Be Happy, Share and Rejoice—teach the child that it is important to balance all aspects of life. Rest and play are essential to maintaining mental and emotional well-being. Sharing and rejoicing are the essence of adult life. Developing a child’s full potential means developing their ability to enjoy life, and help others to enjoy it as well. The 50 Factors of Mental Performance: (A list will be provided as an attachment) This serves as the capstone for complete development. The power of the mind is vastly underused. This material is designed to help the student expand and harness their maximum mental capabilities and expands on elements presented and mastered at earlier levels, thus linking every aspect of personal excellence to the others to result in the development of a well trained, highly confident, self disciplined Black Belt (Leader). At the point that the YD program has students ready to get this information, it is time to start presenting it to lower-ranked students as well. This can be done by asking, in class, for higher ranked students to define a specific factor. As this happens in class, the lower-ranked students will also be introduced to the material and learn the definitions as they go. Instructors can use games and exercises to emphasize this material. Parents and educators will be amazed as a first grader is asked to define “circumspection” and she pops off with, “the capacity to break complex problems into simpler components and evaluate their related interaction, Sir!” This is not only possible, it will become commonplace as students settle into their YD training. Children will not necessarily understand every definition. It is appropriate to discuss a definition each day, and allow the children to paraphrase its meaning. As they paraphrase the material, they will begin to “own” it, and understand it on a deeper level. As they understand each mental capacity consciously, they will internalize its meaning subconsciously. As that occurs, they will begin to develop each capacity, seeking the balance in their mental abilities. The key is in harnessing the power of the mind to improve and refine every aspect of their mental performance. Adult Karate Program: the basic program offers 2 classes per week to adults. Benefits include self –defense training, stress relieving exercise. In addition, this gives parents a great opportunity to do something with their child that strengthens family bonds. This is the only sport where and adult can train next to a child and both can give maximum effort to the exercise. However, other athletic sports like baseball, basketball, etc do not offer this same opportunity simply because a child can not keep up with an adult. For example, a young child can not react to a baseball throw full speed by an adult. Black Belt Club (BBC): This is an upgrade program offered to students in either of the Young Dragons Programs and the Adult program 30 to 60 days after enrollment. This upgrade takes the student into special classes for BBC members only including light contact sparring, grappling, and weapons training. Pricing includes a $250 registration fee and an increase to $189 per month in tuition on a four year term. We are involved in the community; we offer to do a free fund raiser for the surrounding school districts in the form of a 2 week, six class after-school martial arts program. Our instructors will go to the school free of charge and allow the school or PTA to charge $25 per child for the program. It is an opportunity for us to give back to our community as well as giving us an opportunity to educate the community about the services and programs we offer. In addition to the after-school programs, we also offer a scholarship program to families (with children who are “At Risk”) to participate in our program who would not otherwise have the opportunity due to financial reasons. We also provide free of charge to the community a quarterly women’s safety awareness and self defense course. In addition, we also offer free tactical training to any police officer. This has been a free service we have offered since 1995. (c) Shozen Martial Arts USA 2002