Tampa Family Martial Arts
A club of traditional Okinawan Goju Ryu practitioners in Tampa, Florida
Chojun Miyagi Festival 2020 - Spokane, Washington Congratulations to Joseph Valentin - Junior Shodan - September 27th, 2009
This picture was taken at the IOGKF Chojun Miyagi Festival in June 2010 in Spokane, Washington. There were hundreds of Goju ryu practitioners there, training hard for four days of internse training, comraderie, and fun. Next years event will be in Cancun, Mexico.
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Grading Results May 22, 2010
CONGRATULATIONS!!
1st Kyu Jendryx Fernandez
5th Kyu Jasmine Stanovich
8th Kyu Anthony Lord
9th Kyu Brian Hamilto
9th Kyu Shelly Gress
10th Kyu Nathan Hinnrichs
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3/27/2010
6th Annual TFMA Picnic
On March 27th, 2010, TFMA, USA Goju dojo, and Luis Lugo Martial Arts celebrated the 6th year anniversary of TFMA with some training and food at Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa. The training included sessions with Sensei Jim Chambers, Sensei Luis Lugo, and Sensei Michael Han. This was a great day of training combining three different martial arts dojos and almost 50 students. After the training, we had a picnic and shared stories. It is great to see different schools, different instructors, and different students coming together to share their knowledge with no ego - just the desire to learn. Thanks so much to Sensei Jim, Sarah, Luis, and Michael for helping put this together!
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Congratulations to
KEVIN REILLY - SHODAN
January 9th, 2010
Also promoted:
Jendryx Fernandex 2nd Kyu
Giovanni Miano 1st Kyu
Jazmine Stanovich 6th Kyu
Jeff Wood 8th Kyu
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Grading Results June 27th, 2009
Jendryx Fernandez - 3rd Kyu
Monica Nyeverecz - 6th Kyu
Jasmine Stanovich - 7th Kyu
Andres Alvarenga - 7th Kyu
Pictures can be found on the PHOTOS page of this site.
Congratulations to all of you!
AAU National Karate Championships June 2009
Ft. Lauderdale, Florida
Sensei Bob Bolton, instructor and owner of Tampa Family Martial Arts, competed in the Senior Advanced Blackbelt division and took 2nd place for his performance of Sepai kata for this coveted national title. This was the same kata the won his the 1st place title in the AAU District Championships in April 2009. There is a video of the performance on the PHOTOS page of this website.
MIYAGI CHOJUN FESTIVAL - Burrington, Ontario April 2009
In April, 2009, Sensei Bob Bolton and two students, Kevin Reilly and Jendryx Fernandez, went to the MCF 2009 in Canada. This was a four-day event with students and instructors from all over the world, all part of the IOGKF. The featured instructor was IOGKF Chief instructor Morio Higaonna. Thre were some of the top instructors from other countries, and while sensei Higaonna conducted several training sessions, the students were split off in to several groups which would be taught by country instructors and regional instructors. Some of the featured instructors were Sensei Tetsuji Nakamura from Canada, Sensei Linda Marchant of the UK, Sensei Gene Villa, Michael Han, and Herb Allen from the USA. Our student, Jendryx Fernandez, earned free tuition to the event by writing and essay about how karate has influenced his life.
PICNIC
On Saturday, February 21st 2009, Tampa Family Martial Arts and USA Goju Ryu dojo got together at Lettuce Lake Park in Tampa and had a training session involving both dojos, including students and instructors. Sensei Jim Chambers from USA Goju Ryu and Sensei Bob Bolton from TFMA decided it would be a great idea to bring both schools together with no ego's, no competition, to honor the tradition of true Okinawan Goju Ryu karate. The students trained together for over two hours using the combined methods from each dojo. Then all of the students demonstrated their katas where everyone could see the differences and the similarities. Afterwards, we had a picnic with all of the students, families, and friends and enjoyed the surroundings and talked about our schools and Goju Ryu. It was a great day and one that will be remembered by all attending.
Bringing together dojos with the common denomintor of Goju Ryu is a good experience for any practitioner. I allows us to come together and see what the dojo kun we recite at the end of each class really means. It was a time to show each other the respect that the study of martial arts has taught us and also to learn from each other.
There are a few pictures of the event on the "Photos" page of this site.
Sensei Bob
