Many people call and ask about our school philosophy. Some are trying to find out if our martial art is either a religion or in some way promotes a set of spiritual beliefs. Many seem to be looking for a better, more interesting mode of enhancing fitness and health and a way to learn while they work. The majority wants to safely learn an effective means of defending themselves and their families.

Although you might get some idea of these things by talking with someone on the telephone, your best tool for evaluation is your own perception and analysis in the class environment. By watching a class, you will find out immediately how the class looks and feels to you. You will easily determine if the people in the class seem to have similar aspirations and beliefs as you; you will see the level of intensity, the types and methods of teaching technique, and the skill level and attitudes of the students and instructors. As you watch and chat with an instructor, you will form and resolve questions that directly bear on your "philosophical" concerns.

We respect your ability to perceive accurately and to be able to recognize a training environment which is appropriate for your own personal interests.

If, however, you think it might be of value to you, let me tell you how we generally perceive ourselves and distinguish our perspective. We believe that the Orient has provided, through trial and error over more than a thousand years, a profound paradigm for self-development, which can be turned to aid the achievement of many different types of individual goals.

Our objective is to teach our system of martial art so that each student can understand how to use the training to achieve their goals. With adherence to the core traditional principles -- humility, perseverance, respect, diligence, and excellence -- and training in a repertoire of physical and mental development skills that encompasses virtually every category of martial technique and internal development, our curriculum is one of the most comprehensive in the world.

We honor the martial artists preceding us who have given us the current body of martial knowledge which serves as our link to past traditions of challenge and honor. We accept the responsibility of continuing to train and research, so that we may further extend the understanding and enlightenment they began. Some of the tools they used - breathing, meditation, rigor in thought and physical effort - we use today in exactly the same way that the ancient masters used them.

Yet we are extending the frontier of martial wisdom through modern tools of cognitive and motor learning, human information processing, biomechanics, and exercise physiology.