One Year Anniversary

Saturday, January 2, 2010 marked the ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of ATA Martial Arts of West Chester! We celebrated by having a party after classes. Everyone dressed up and had the opportunity to relax with their ATA instructors and friends. The party was catered by Brother's Pizza & Pasta. We had baked ziti, salad, sandwiches, and pizza. We would like to thank everyone who came and are very excited for what is to come in year two!

Reaching Towards the Sky for New Heights

On December 23rd, Master Candidate Tim Chewning from New Jersey was our special guest judge at our Belt Promotion. We had over 85 students test for new belts and patches. There were many family members here to watch their loved ones earn one more belt before the year's end! We even had a special surprise visit from SANTA CLAUS! Our first group of students is now officially blue belts! How exciting! As always, everyone did a fantastic job!

Visit from Mr. Jason Morgan(A.G.R.E.E.)

On Wednesday, September 9, 2009(9-9-09) we celebrated the importance of the number 9 in the Korean culture by inviting special guest instructor and 4th degree black belt Mr. Jason Morgan to teach Leadership class to the Junior and Adult Leadership Team. Not only did Mr. Morgan give us all a great workout, but he challenged us to follow the ATA A.G.R.E.E. campaign and begin practicing more environmental self-defense outside of ATA. He asked each student to go home and write down 9 specific goals that they can do to help save the environment over the next 9 weeks and then hand it to Miss Boulden or Mr. Jouan. The first students to complete the task receive an ATA Go Green! badge as well as an individual post on the ATA Martial Arts of West Chester blog. Keep an eye out for these Go Green ambassadors!

For more about the ATA A.G.R.E.E. campaign visit http://atagreen.blogspot.com/.

Ice Cream Party

This past Friday night was our first annual Ice Cream Party! Mr. Jouan & Miss Boulden brought the ice cream and each family brought a topping to share! We had a wide range of goodies including chocolate syrup, M & Ms, gummie bears & even nerds! The students and their families really enjoyed creating their own masterpieces. The evening concluded with a few rounds of musical chairs and limbo. A great time was had by all!

Summer--New Belts, New Leaders, New Schedule

This past weekend was a busy weekend at ATA Martial Arts of West Chester. Friday night we had our End of the School Year Parent's Night Out. It was a lot of fun! We did many martial arts workouts as well as playing kickball & dodgeball outside, eating pizza, and playing ninja reflex on the Wii. The children had a blast!
On Saturday morning we had our belt promotions for Tiny Tigers and then promotions for Junior, Teen, & Adult students immediately following. We had over 50 students acheive new ranks and reach new goals. We were very grateful to have Deputy Anthony Schubbeio from the West Chester Sheriff's Department to be our attitude judge.
Also, a special congratulations to Mr. Walker Holman for being the first student at ATA West Chester to earn his Junior Leadership collar. We are very proud of everyone who promoted and a special thank you to all the parents and families who make this all possible for your children and self.
After the belt promotions on Saturday, we did our annual Father's Day Workout. The dads did a great job and were very intense. The students loved training side by side with their dads and holding targets.
Monday started our new schedule! We now have intermediate classes for all the students who promoted to the camo belt level! We are very excited!

Mother's Day Workout

On Friday, May 8th, we had our first Mother's Day workout here at ATA West Chester. We had many students, moms, and even grandmothers come to the class. The students, moms, and grandmas did basic techniques and self-defense, held targets for one another, and even had the chance to put together the first four techniques of Songahm 1!! Some of the moms and grandmas can kick really high! We were very impressed.

A few of the moms and grandmas are attending regular class this week. All month of May any ATA mom can train for free in any beginner class! We look forward to seeing some new white belts in class. It is great to train with your family!!

We will see you at the next event, our open house, this Saturday, May 16th from 12PM-4PM. We will have many exciting classes and free WaWa food! We cannot wait!

Celebrating the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's 25th Year Anniversary!

This past Saturday Mr. Jouan , Miss Boulden, fellow instructors from Region 110A, and a few students went to Citizen's Bank Park before the Phillies game(Go Phillies!) to help build excitement for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle's 25th Year Anniversary! Michaelangelo, Raphael, Donnatello, & Leonardo were all there posing for pictures. They also brought their party bus which served as a free mobile museum. The turtles are bringing themselves and the party bus to many other major US cities. The next stop on their tour will be in Detroit.

ATA & the Turtles had a great time doing many demonstrations to get the crowd fired up before the game. We gave out many free goodies including comic books, buttons, and masks. The turtles even made an appearance on the field too before the game started! How cool! Cowabunga!
For more information about the turtle's mobile tour or for more pictures, please visit www.ataonline.com/tmnt!

Regional Tournament in New Jersey

This past Saturday 10 students competed in a Regional Tournament in Lincroft, NJ. Each student did a fantastic job and went home with a trophy! We are so proud of our West Chester ATA students for trying something new and challenging themselves in their martial arts training. Tournaments are a great way to build confidence as well as measure the quality of technique and skill. We hope all of the students are excited to support the next tournament in July, and then Master Stewart's tournament in September. Let's bring home some hardware!

Sparring Seminar

Monday, April 6th was our first ever Sparring Seminar at ATA Martial Arts of West Chester. We were very lucky to have 4th degree black belt special guest from ATA Long Island, Miss Michele Boulden. Miss Michele Boulden, who is also Miss Maria Boulden's sister, did many beginner sparring drills with the students who have the ATA safety gear. The students worked on footwork, blocking and countering. Everyone worked out non-stop for the entire hour and it is safe to say that all in attendance worked up a good sweat! We know we will have some Pennsylvania State Sparring Champions in the next couple of years!

Bring-A-Buddy Break-A-Board

This past Saturday, March 21st, was our Bring-A-Buddy Break-A-Board event. It was a total blast. We had over 40 buddies in attendance. We practiced palm heels, elbows, front kicks, and side kicks. Everyone broke their boards and even got the instructors to sign them afterwards so that they may have them as a keepsake. Breaking your first wood board is a memorable milestone in your martial arts training. We are very excited to share that with the students of ATA West Chester and their buddies.

If any of the students and/or their buddies would like for us to come to their classroom for a Show & Tell about their board breaking experience, we would be more than honored to do so. We can even let you break a board right in front of your classmates! Be sure to stay tuned for our next event...

Our First Belt Promotion

Saturday, February 28th was our very first belt promotions! We promoted 25 students to orange belt. We had 6 Tiny Tigers, 13 Juniors, & 6 Adults. Mr. Jason Morgan from the Elkton, Maryland school was there helping out the Tiny Tiger testing and cheering on his 5 year old cousin who tested for her orange belt. Also, our very special guest, Master Doug Stewart, our instructor, was there to help judge the Juniors & Adults. The students were very excited to see him! Everyone had a great performance and we heard nothing but good things from parents and families who were in attendance. We are also grateful for our sponsorship and support from First National Bank and Lorgus Flower Shop. Our event was a success!

Valentine's Day Parent's Night Out

Saturday, February 14th was our first Parent's Night Out. It was such a success! We had 15 children arrive at 5:00PM and stay until 9:00PM. We worked out, played games, ate pizza, watched Kung-Fu Panda, and so much more. Everyone's favorite part was at the end of the night when we did Paper Breaks. That is when we used our martial arts techniques that we had practiced all night to break paper. Many of the kids were very surprised with their ability and power! We cannot wait for the next Parent's Night Out when we celebrate the end of the school year.

School Tour

We hope that you enjoy the video tour of the new ATA Martial Arts School! After only 2 weeks of being open we currently have over 40 students in our Tiny Tigers, Juniors, Teens & Adults Programs. Thank you for the support from the community, previous students, family, friends and ATA International Headquarters as we begin changing family's lives one black belt at a time.

Now Open!

After much hard work, ATA Martial Arts of West Chester is finally open and teaching classes! We are so excited to finally show the community what they have been waiting for! Our initial classes went well and we look forward to working with and getting to know the students more and more. Friday we had all of the Tiny Tigers train in one class, and then after that, about half of the Juniors & Adults came to train for their class. On Saturday, the rest of the Adults came. Everyone seemed to have a fun time getting to know the intructors and the new friends in their class. Master Stewart, our previous instructor from Newark, Delaware, came to observe and wish us his best wishes. We were so glad that he could be a part of our special day!

Walls

We are almost in the home stretch! This weekend was filled with spackling, sanding, spackling, sanding, and then more spackling. Thanks to the help of many great friends, we prepped the walls for paint this week. The colors we chose are called dark granite, anonymous, and silver dust. They are going to complement each other wonderfully.

This upcoming week is not only filled with getting fresh paint on the walls, but with many appointments, counter installation, daycare visits, and a book reading at Chester County Books & Music Wednesday at 10:00AM. We hope you are able to visit then!

Getting To Know The Community

Along with enrolling and meeting new students, we have done many other activities to get to know the community better. We have even given back to the community in ways such as ringing the bell for the Salvation Army. We stood outside the East Bradford Acme for a couple of hours this Saturday. Although it was very cold outside, it was wonderful to see the community be so generous to such a great cause! Also, we are scheduled to read at the West Chester County Public Library this Tuesday at 1:00. We are so excited to team up with such wonderful organizations.

ATA Martial Arts has also gone through many buildout phases too. We got our rough wiring inspection completed and passed on Friday. We will soon be able to begin putting up the rest of the drywall, tile, install the counters and paint. January 2nd, our official grand opening date, is only right around the corner! We will have everyone's first class as well as uniform fittings that Friday as well as Saturday. We have already started to receive sponsors, like Brothers Pizza, who will help by donating refreshments that day! Hope to see you there.

Permits

Yesterday was the day that we have been waiting for…we got our permits to build! We are very excited to continue working on ATA’s look, but even more excited to start training students. We have already started to receive many phone calls and e-mails from families who would like more information about ATA Martial Arts. Soon we will be able to invite these families into the school and give them their first lesson on becoming a black belt!

We also introduced ourselves to a few daycares in the area today. Every daycare we met was open to having ATA Martial Arts visit their facility and show the kids the positive skills that ATA teaches. Our first daycare class is this Wednesday!

Electricity!!

Today was the first day that our electricity worked!!! We solved the 3 week mystery and it was officially turned on. Once the electricity worked, we did some more cleaning and set up a small area in the front of the school where potential students and their families can learn more about ATA Martial Arts and take an introductory lesson if they wish.

We also went to West Goshen today and introduced ourselves to the stores in a local shopping center. We scheduled a book reading of the Kung Fu Panda books for Wednesday December 17th at 10:30 at Chester County Books & Music. The ladies who worked there were very welcoming. ATA Martial Arts of West Chester has also volunteered to ring the bell for the Salvation Army on Saturday December 6th from 2 until 4 at the Bradford Acme.

Today we took a trip to the West Chester Post Office and finally got the key to our mailbox on site at Bradford Plaza. We can officially receive mail at our 658 Downingtown Pike address. How exciting!!

The Cleanout

This past weekend was very productive with the help of Mr. Boulden, Mr. Welsh, Mr. Zaborsky, Mr. Curry, and Miss Curry. In a few days work, we cleaned up all of the debris from the demolition and picked up the dance floor and the carpet that was left behind. Our flooring is now ready for zebra mat placement and tile installation.

We also framed out the offices that visitors will see to the right of the workout floor when they come in. There are five: an introduction room, a student/instructor meeting room, storage room, a personal office, and a utility closet. We are so excited that we can finally see the image of ATA West Chester!

This past weekend was also filled with meeting the managers, workers, and owners of fellow storefronts in the shopping center. They all seem to be very excited that something new, like ATA Martial Arts, is coming into Bradford Plaza. They were extremely welcoming. We look forward to building lasting relationships with the shopping center as well as the entire West Chester community.

The Demolition

Today we started demolition on the school! We got more done than was expected thanks to the help of our good friends Miss Toni, Mr. Smith, Mr M and our main contractor, Mr. Boulden (Miss Boulden's dad). After today's work, most of the walls are knocked down! It was exciting to see how big 3200 square feet really is.

We were delighted and felt very welcomed today when we saw passersby in the shopping center pop their heads in our door to see what we were up to. All who stopped by were very excited to find out that ATA Martial Arts was coming into their area!

Our goals over the next few weeks are to clean up after today's demo, post "coming soon" signs in the windows, and to introduce ourselves to households, schools, and other businesses in the surrounding area. We learned a lot today about our space and are eager to learn even more as the next few weeks pass by before we are finally open and doing what we love to do....teach martial arts and life skills!