Welcome to all of our new students and it’s great to see our old students back on the mat!

Gentle Way will be closed for Spring Break Saturday March 13, Tuesday March 16 and Saturday March 20.

Monday, March 15, 4-6 year old students can come to the 6:00-6:45 pm class.  Thursday and Friday we will have our regular class schedule. Greg DiFranza will not be teaching self-defense for adults Monday March 15 and March 22. Please, pick up a Spring Break class schedule from the front desk.

Gentle Way wants to thank Mahir (Sensei Suad’s son) for providing all the kids at our March 5 junior-student-party with free Smoothie King Smoothie drinks! Smoothie King’s Beaches location is 1230 S. 3^rd street.

That was a great refreshment after all the judo games and our dance competition. We had our own John Travolta’s in Sensei Jimi and Sensei John. Thank you all for coming and having such a great time with us.

Greg DiFranza will start a new CAM program for kids ages 4-10 late March.  The CAM program, Children Against Molesters, will teach a child and an accompanying parent self-defense and danger awareness.

Greg DiFranza developed this program using his over 20 years of experience in the police force and his experience as an instructor of self-defense tactics to police officers. The CAM program begins Wednesday March 31 from 6-6:30 pm. The fee for 6 classes is $50 for the entire family! Limited number of students, so sign up soon at the front desk.

Not only as owners of this dojo, but especially as parents, we highly recommend the CAM program for every student, their siblings and friends. We want every child to be safe! The program is about a serious topic, but Greg brings it with a lot of fun. The kids will not only have a great time doing it, it will also help them to retain the new tactics they learn. And since a parent takes the classes with the child, they can practice together at home to keep the skills up and to talk some more about potential dangerous situations.

One warning though, you may end up with a child requesting more classes. Our daughter has taken the CAM program twice before, and she’s been asking Sensei Greg all winter for more self-defense classes!

Greg DiFranza will also be teaching self-defense and danger awareness for adults and kids 10 years and up. This class starts again Monday March 29, 7:30 pm. The fee is $79 for 6 classes.

The upcoming belt test will take place during regular class hours April 19, 20, 22, and 23 with an award ceremony Saturday April 24 from 10-noon.

Students need to have attended 25 classes to take the belt test and have a certain skill level. Please, check with Sensei John if your child can take this test. Sign up is until April 10. (Semi-private classes for a fee will be available the weeks before the test)

Judo has several different belts; yellow, orange, green, blue, brown and black. Before students earn a full belt color, they can get slips on their existing belt in the same order, yellow, orange, green, blue, brown and black. (With yellow being the lowest, black the highest.) Unlike other martial arts it takes a long time for students to earn a higher belt. For the yellow belt, students need to be at least 6 years old and to have a certain skill level. Students need to be at least 16 years old to get a black belt and to have practiced judo for about 8-10 years. For teenagers and adults it will go a bit faster to achieve a different belt level. They spend more time on techniques in a class than the young kids. Not everyone will get the same results at the belt test. There are differences between students’ physical abilities, some are very athletic and love to go at it, others are more careful. Some students attend 3 times a week, so they learn more in a short period of time than students that only come once a week. This will all weigh in. And don’t forget, the main purpose of a belt is to hold your gi together.

To give you all a heads up, USA JUDO is imposing several changes in the Junior belt rank system as of this summer. Judo clubs all over the U.S. will need to implement this new system into their dojo’s. A new purple belt will be added for junior ranks between the blue and brown belt. Degrees will also be given in addition to belt colors; a yellow belt for example is the same as a 1^st degree, an orange belt is a 4^th degree, a green belt is a 8^th degree. The degrees between the whole belts are one, two and three black stripes. There will also be new age restrictions, for example a minimum age of 8 for an orange belt.

We will give you more information about this as we’ll receive it, in time for our next belt test in August.

Thank you all for being part of our dojo. It gives us great pleasure to see our students grow and improve their skills and techniques. A special thank you to all our senseis, Greg DiFranza, Hiram Cruz, Suad Zehilic, Jimi Palmer, Greg West, David Berlin and Sean Beaver for teaching with such enthusiasm and love for our sport!

Sensei John Fiege