The Future is Bright
Hello Tribe!
There are 3 parts to this email. In section one, I want to talk about two of our up-and-coming Blackbelt Leaders. In Part Two, I want to talk about my little family business, generations and what’s coming next. And in part three we’ll talk about the next steps for your future at KMMA!
I am so proud of Sensei Charlie and Senpai Ayden. They are both walking and talking examples of Blackbelt Leadership Excellence, and what happens when one fully applies themselves to the Blackbelt Leadership program and process, as well as CIT (Certified Instructor Training). Join me in congratulating them both. Sensei Charlie has been promoted to full Instructor and Senpai Ayden to FIST (Future Instructor Student Teacher) and Assistant Instructor!
The future is bright for both young men!
We are truly a family business in more ways than one. My wife and I of course run the dojo, and all our children grew up in it. Sometimes I say we grew up in it too.
Now our grandson is a future blackbelt in training.
But just like two generations of our family grew up in this dojo (not including the founding one), the dojo has grown up too.
Our current Blackbelt Leadership Academy, that also happens to teach the most practical self-defense in the world, is a far cry from the little dojo I opened almost 22 years ago (October 2000).
The purpose of this section isn’t just to talk about our little family dojo and where we’ve come from though, but also to tell you about where we are going.
KMMA has made it through adolescence and is ready to grow into the grown up version of herself, empowering many more lives in the future than she has even to this day.
It’s exciting to me when I think about the fact that some of you may even be the future KMMA sensei helping us do that.
But I also wanted to share something important about us preparing for that next stage. I, and all my leaders at KMMA, are growing to become the leaders we need to be to get there from here.
As the cliché goes, “what got you here can’t get you there.”
And I share that not just to share it, because you have a next training evolution too. As a leadership academy, part of my job is to share that with you, and then help you get that training and level up!
We all have our What’s Important Next (WIN) items and should in every area of our life that’s important to us.
What are some of yours? I hope you put them on your Vision board.
Which brings us to some of our shared WIN’s!
- We are coming to the end of Blackbelt Goal Setting Season! This is the time when Basic Training students should be thinking about setting their goals for Blackbelt, qualifying, and moving on into the Blackbelt Leadership Program! It’s also the time those students that already are refocus their goals. We should do this every 3-6 month to keep our Vision and goals in front of us! We will be taking down all the Vision boards and sending them home for you to put up in your bedroom at the end of this month, but you still have about a week to get yours up if you didn’t do it yet! Come on and play all out and create, share, and then live into your Vision!
- 6 weeks left to this training cycle, leading up to the Blackbelt Retreat and testing, and also to the Blackbelt Extravaganza October 2! Make your stripe test next week and then make sure you make your 2 classes per week through September, so you’ll be eligible to test and graduate!
- We are also looking for our next generations of Sensei! If you are interested, you have specific WINs too!
- If you’re a Blackbelt already and interested email me at Grandmaster@TampaKravMaga.com
- If you’re in the Blackbelt Leadership Program already, but haven’t started the CIT yet, that’s your next step! Let Sensei Thomas know you’re interested!
- If you are Basic Training or Blackbelt Training, but not in Leadership yet, that’s what’s important next for you.
Prepare To Live; Empower To Lead!
Grand Master Stephen J. Del Castillo
Founding Master Instructor, Krav Maga Martial Arts
TampaKravMaga.com StephenDelCastillo.com
p.s. There is no better time than Blackbelt Goal Setting Season to level up! Make sure to get with Sensei Thomas or Ms. Barbara to get a progress check with me if you’d like to talk about what’s next for you!
p.p.s. We’ve been working on the next evolution of the schedule. We had a completly redesigned one that I was ready to publish and would go effective after the Blackbelt Extravaganza… then I realized that we were throwing the baby out with the bathwater (where did that expression come from anyway?). Anyways, point is, I realized that most of the schedule was good just the way it is and that we would serve you better by changing as little as possible. So that’s what we did. We made minor modifications, where neccessary, and we added more options on Friday and Saturday to help accomodate busy schedules even more! The new schedule goes into affect August 29, right after stripe test! Good luck btw! Not that you need it. Make sure to pick the new schedule up after your stripe test next week!
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About Grandmaster Stephen J. Del Castillo: Grandmaster Del Castillo is the founding Master Instructor of Krav Maga Martial Arts and has been empowering lives in Pasco and Hillsborough Counties since October of 2000. He is a 7th degree Blackbelt, MBA, author, mentor and success coach, a US Army Veteran and a proud father and grandfather. He is married to Ms. Barbara Del Castillo who helps him run the school. Grand Master Del Castillo began his training in the early 80’s and has high level blackbelts in Tae Kwon Do, Karate, Premier Martial Arts and Krav Maga Martial Arts as well as experience in kickboxing, Jeet Kune Do and Jiujitsu. He has high level instructor certifications from BBSI, IKMF, and KMG and has been featured in numerous Martial Arts publications and also Success magazine. He was a competitive sport karate and American Kickboxing instructor until he enlisted in the US Army where he served in the 82nd Airborne Division, where he won an Army Green to Gold scholarship and proceeded to ROTC and the University of Tampa. He was commisioned in 1992 and went on to serve in Germany with the 3rd Infantry Division and then in several other posts in the US until he left military service to pursue his dream of creating KMMA in 2000.
The Krav MagaMartial Arts Headquarters is in Lutz, FL at 1900 Land O’ Lakes Blvd., 33549. Krav Maga Martial Arts serves Lutz, Land O’ Lakes, Wesley Chapel, and surrounding areas.
See stephendelcastillo.com for more information and to order my book, Developing Your Superpower, Meditations on Mastery, Volume 1.
Also, check us out on Fun4TampaKids & on Go2Karate.com