The Centurion

  You may be wondering how I went through nearly 30 years of my life without ever watching a classic such as The Karate Kid. I will be totally honest with you – I don’t know. It falls into several genres I ordinarily like (underdog story, action, martial arts), and I’m also pretty sure that working in the martial arts industry without having seen it is tantamount to a fireable offense.

  "Should I let my students spar?” It’s a common question among martial arts school owners. Some balk at the idea. After all, sparring is – and is supposed to be – as close to a real fight as students get, without actually getting into one.  Instructors worry that students will have one bad experience in sparring and quit, or will simply be too intimidated at the idea of sparring to participate.

  In film and TV, martial arts are too often depicted as gory, violent, and inherently aggressive – something that is simply not true. Unfortunately, this perceived image leads some parents to shy away from enrolling their children in martial arts. Although martial arts do contain a physical component, they also emphasize values more than many other sports and activities.

  Hi! If you’ve clicked your way over to this blog, it probably means you’re a new martial arts student or thinking about starting soon. That’s awesome! There are so many reasons to train: for exercise, to learn new skills, to start a lifelong hobby, and even to gain new self-respect and self-awareness.

  Samery Moras is a 4th-dan black belt taekwondo competitor. She is a five-time member of the US Collegiate National Team and member of the 2014 US World Cup Team. Samery is still active in competition, and also owns and teaches at two taekwondo schools in Utah. Her mission is to push herself to a personal best and inspire others to do the same! So when Century reached out to her and asked her to write a blog helping other competitors prep for their first tournament, she was happy to help! Here’s what Samery had to say:

  In my last blog post, I showed how you how to prevent young children from dropping out of your martial arts school. This post is Part 2 of my three-part Preventing Dropouts before They Happen series. In it, we’ll dive into preventing pre-teen and young teen dropouts.

  Do you wish you could help kids focus better in class when they’re having trouble paying attention? Do you ever have a class get sidetracked, but can’t figure out where you went wrong?

Have you ever attended a seminar, workshop or class where the presenter/teacher asks a question, and nobody wants to answer? Maybe they don’t know the answer, or they’re afraid of being wrong.

When I was a kid, my sister and a few of our friends and I would often walk to the local elementary school on weekends. It had a small playground – nothing fancy, but it was close to all our houses. One of our favorite games was to take turns inventing obstacle courses and seeing who could make it through the fastest. We probably looked crazy to anyone who happened to drive by, but it was fun. The competitive element was only part of it. What we enjoyed most was the challenge of pushing ourselves, regardless of how everyone did, and the fun of creating new courses each time.

Today, martial artists and fight-fitness athletes have more choices than ever when it comes to getting the perfect bag for their desired workouts. Freestanding bags are a popular choice for individuals and for gyms. They require no hardware, can be easily moved for storage or space-clearing, and don’t damage walls or ceilings when installed.   Century introduced the world’s first freestanding training bag, the Wavemaster®, in 1995. This game-changing product revolutionized how people practiced martial arts. Since then, we’ve invented many other great freestanding bags, like the Wavemaster® 2XL Pro, BOB® the Body Opponent Bag, and, with the greatest variety of bags, the Versys™ collection.