Hello PMA Family!
I hope you are reading this after a wonderful Christmas or holiday time with your families. For those of us here in Tennessee, that was a white Christmas this year! My wife and 3 boys and I loved every second.
This week in between Christmas and New Year’s is one of my favorite weeks of the year. Life slows down a little bit now with Christmas over and the New Year around the corner, and with the academy shut down I have a chance to spend time with family, reflect on the past year, and plan for the new one.
When reflecting on this past year, it is hard to avoid constantly thinking about the pandemic, as it will dominate all of our memories of 2020 I’m sure for the rest of our lives. BUT there are many great things that happened this year and here are some of my favorites:
January - March: The year started out just like every other year with our students all training hard, the competition team in high gear getting ready for their spring tournament, and there were even a few promotions like Sempai b and Sempai Kristie to 2nd-degree black belt and SiHing Terry to 4th-degree black belt in FILKENJUTSU Kenpo!
March: PMA closed down for in-person training as the world was hit with the COVID-19 pandemic. We quickly put together videos for training at home, started holding classes on Zoom, and the craziest year of running this academy began! The pandemic obviously isn’t one of my favorite memories of the year, but beginning in March and lasting all year long, you guys blew me away with your dedication to your training and support of the academy. I will never forget it.
March-May: In addition to the videos on PMAVideos.com and Zoom classes, we started posting some challenges for you guys to try at home while we were getting bored. I had a blast doing these and putting together some of the videos for you! You can catch a couple of them in the End of Year video below.
Summer: PMA opened back up to in-person training in the middle of May with extra cleaning, temperature checks, social distancing, mask-wearing, and outdoor training, and once again you guys would show your resiliency. ALL SUMMER LONG our students and instructors trained in the heat with no complaints (okay, there were a couple of complaints but we’ll forgive you). Our competition team shifted their focus from Jiu JItsu (one of the least socially distanced activities you can find) to speed and strength training outside at the track and park. Grady Fox earned his Junior Black Belt! And 4 students from PMA, alongside one student from SiJo’s school, became Black Belt candidates in FILKENJUTSU Kenpo and began their preparations for their Black Belt Test - Darrel Craig, Eric Ridenour, Christine Traigis, Kyra Melton, and Ken Oakley.
Jiu Jitsu: All year long our Jiu Jitsu students had it the hardest. Kenpo is much easier to train without a partner, but Jiu Jitsu is just difficult. These guys did solo drills and movements, created their own dummies for zoom classes at home, some got to partner up with one training partner, and start attending classes in person again. Despite the difficulties, you are still here and working hard to improve in the ways that you can. We did have a handful of students earn a promotion despite the craziness - Sam Fox and Eric Ridenour earned their Blue Belts, and Dustin Retterer and Matt Armstrong earned their Purple Belts!
Fall: We found a nice rhythm with our new normal, and the progress our students were making in the areas that we are able to train right now really started to stand out. Attributes like balance, flexibility, strength, and speed were improving. Kicking skill, footwork, forms, and techniques all were looking stronger and stronger. The dedication to training was really paying off for students that opted to keep on going despite the year’s challenges. We also had Alex Torres earn his Junior Black Belt, and the competition team had their first annual “Competition Team Games” where they competed against each other in areas of strength and speed in lieu of a Jiu Jitsu tournament. We loved the event and are going to bring it back every year now!
Thanksgiving: As per tradition, we put together a fun video for you guys for Thanksgiving. Check it out if you haven’t seen it yet!
December: We wrapped up the year with another great outdoor test - our first test with Lil’ Dragons and Juniors all together, Richard Sances earning his Junior Black Belt, and Sam Fox and Miles Jackson earning their Brown Belts in FILKENJUTSU Kenpo. Then we had a blast with our second annual spirit week!
Here is our 2020 Year in Review video when you have some time to watch. I hope you enjoy it!
Here were our Top 10 songs played at PMA this past year in case you need some music for your workouts this week:
Level of Concern - Twenty One Pilots
Seve - Tez Cadey
Territory (feat. Young Bleu) - Tenille Arts
Be Free With Me (feat. Frank Moody) - Siine
Take Back the Power - Raury
Strangers - Mt. Joy
Little Things - Louis the Child, Quinn XCII & Chelsea Cutler
Caution - The Killers
Get What You Give - Felix Cartal
BANG! - AJR
Play on Apple Music - https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/pmas-top-10-songs-of-2020/pl.u-RrkqVulxgbb
In closing, we are so proud to be your martial arts school of choice, and this year has made us prouder than ever to be your instructors. Stay healthy, and rest up the rest of this week, because we start back training next Monday and 2021 is going to be great!
See you on the mat!
David Corrigan