Below is a letter of recommendation, which you also find in your student manual, should you join.
1-23-08
Dear Student,
Welcome to Bak Yong Kong Soo Do! I hope that your journey with us will be long, fruitful and rewarding to you as a person and as a martial artist. I hope that some of you who read this learn as I did that martial art was meant to be an integral part of your life in some way, shape or form. For me, martial art has been a passionate pursuit for nearly 25 years and I am excited to see the benefits it brings to practitioners.
I take great pleasure in recommending to you my student, my friend and your new instructor; Mr. Jason Acklin. Mr. Acklin joined my association in 1998 and has been a loyal student ever since. As I have trained Mr. Acklin firsthand, I can tell you from personal experience that you have found a very honorable, noble instructor. I encourage you to give him your loyalty, effort and trust.
A true instructor who tries to live up to what he teaches is a rare find. In Mr. Jason Acklin; you have found just such a man. I have yet to encounter a person with better intentions, more heart or more vision than himself. He puts a great deal of time into the thinking and planning of his classes as well as his teaching skills and you will no doubt receive the benefits of his efforts.
I commend you on your decision to study this martial art under such a fine instructor. I look forward to meeting you; sharing our art with you and watching you grow as a martial artist. If you believe you can succeed, nothing can stop you and I will find myself promoting you to black belt in the near future.
With my warmest welcome,
Sijo Chad Boxx (Master Phoenix)
Founder - Bak Yong Kong Soo Do
Director - American Warrior Arts Society
Missouri State Ambassador - World Black Belt Bureau
In 1995, I decided that it would serve everyone best if we were to form our our format of martial art, since we were teaching a variety of the skills and philosophies that I'd been taught on the path to achieving instructor and various degrees of black belt in a variety of martial arts. Thus, Bak Yong Kong Soo Do (or White Dragon Way of Martial Arts) was born. Our vision has always been to retain the traditional values and mental disciplines of the martial arts while exploring and improving our progressive teaching methods. Through our art, you can learn to be competent in self-defense whether on the ground, standing up, defending against modern weapons, etc. You will learn restraints, kicks, punches, elbows, knees and more. We stress personal improvement for advancement and not competition or comparison. To move up in rank, you need only to become stronger and more skilled than you were before. Because each person has difficult physical build and different physical advantages/disadvantages, we do not expect you to keep up with anyone else, but only to do your best. This is the heart of the black belt mindset. This isn't about what you can't do; it's about what you can do. This isn't about what someone else can do, it's about what you can do.
What makes us different is that we still care about traditional values. We care about honor, integrity, confidence and ethical behavior. While many martial arts have jettisoned this type of training, we believe it is the most important part. We discuss conflict resolution, peacekeeping skills and nonviolent communication. We believe that all people can potentially become more happy, healthy, confident, tranquil and fit through our programs. We care about all of our students, and our goal is to share what we know with you, not to intimidate, hurt or impress you. It is our belief that by caring about you and the future of our art, we can share something with you that will become a part of you. Therefore we want to make your transition from beginner to black belt and beyond as comfortable and friendly as possible.
Bak Yong Kong Soo Do places emphasis on our unique, "live, integrative self-defense" program. We don't find it practical to teach you hundreds of self-defense combinations that you must practice and remember to advance. In the split second that you might need them, they would most likely be forgotten. What we do teach is striking, application and anatomy. We teach you how to defend or escape and how to disable your attacker so that you can get to help or safety. Most importantly, this is done through instruction and then interaction. We teach you how and where to strike and present you with scenarios so that you can create and practice live self-defense. This learning process teaches you the most important thing you can learn, but which is forsaken in most martial arts how to quickly think for yourself. As you progress in belts, the self-defense scenarios become more challenging, which causes you to use more advanced theories and thinking. As you create and have your techniques critiqued, your thinking process becomes refined until you have the ability to think very quickly on the spot to escape and respond with a disabling attack which facilitates your own escape.
Your training will consist of some exercise, as well as practice on all punching and striking skills. You will practice trapping (a proactive method of neutralizing an attack and creating an opening to strike your opponent), self-defense, as well as kickboxing skills. We offer what we believe to be one of the most safe and realistic sparring methods available today. Students practice sparring with gear which includes a clear face shield for face striking. Most martial art schools today still don't strike to the face, which is the primary target area in self-defense. Our sparring is performed light contact, and we have students ages 4 through 60 that participate. Sparring compliments self-defense, but is not necessary to achieve self-defense skill. Because we understand that people have different needs and goals, students are not required to participate in sparring in order to advance in rank.
Currently, we incorporate methods of Kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do, Aikido, Hapkido, Krav Maga, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Karate, Tae Kwon Do and Pai Lum Kung Fu, for the most part. We think you will find our program a unique experience. Through us, you can get in better shape, learn self-defense or even become a black belt, Master or even a school owner, teaching your own classes! Time and time again, our students have proven that our system works. We invite you to share in that success and to become part of our family.
About Sijo Chad Boxx and Bak Yong Kong Soo Do:
Greetings to you and thank you for your interest in our Black Lion Martial Arts Academy. My name is Chad Boxx. I've been training in martial arts for the better part of twenty five years at the time of this writing; twenty two of which have been teaching years. I've studied military and police programs, traditional martial arts, grappling, restraint arts, kickboxing and more. I've trained with martial art descendants of both Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. In addition, I have a long standing relationship with Master Kang Rhee, 9th degree black belt who has endorsed me as the "Missouri State Ambassador" for the World Black Belt Bureau. I am a former tournament champion in Missouri and Arkansas and a former kickboxer. I teach martial arts as a career and currently run four locations.