Look out Rhonda Rousey!!!

Here comes Brave Fighter...a 13 year old fire cracker from America's Ultimate Martial Arts Academy Combat Club Program. 2013 was an extraordinary year for the 13 yr old. She now holds 7 title belts and is listed as number 1 in the country for 13 and under and number 10 in the country for 17 and under according to the RANK ratings website. This is a major accomplishment in a male-dominated sport. This year she has moved up into the advanced division where she has faced both boys and girls in various weight classes. Most recently, she secured a win against an opponent that was 20 pounds heavier than her and in a higher age bracket. We are so proud of her evolution and contribution to the sport for the females. Following in the foot steps of the greats such as Rhonda, and Gina has never been as promises as the skills shown by this female gladiator.  We look forward to seeing her achieve great success in the sport and maybe turn pro one day!!!

Young Campers Discover D and B on Columbus Day

America's Ultimate Martial Arts & Fitness in true fun fashion hosted a Columbus Day Camp on Monday 10-14-13.

This an adventure of sorts to some and a discovery of new places for others...The destination was Dave & Busters in Farmingdale L.I.. This was a place we had been to before but the mission this time was different. It wasn't enough for us to have fun...we were on a quest for CANDY!!! and you can't use money to buy candy at D & B. So the assignment was to accumulate as many tickets as possible so we could fill our bellies with the sweet allure of the junky addictive substances on display.

So we fanned out to scoure the place for games with the highest ticket payouts. After one or two measly attempts, we finally landed on our ticket cow...THE WONDER WHEEL. I'm not sure if you've ever played it or not, but this is a game where with the swipe of your card and a tug of the handle, you can literally win up to 1000 tickets in one try.

Well with 230 credits on the card remaining and eager candy munchers behind me, we got to swiping our card and pulling the handles on both machines like we were in Atlantic City gambling at the Bogota Casino!!! The way we were jumping up and down screaming as we watched the tickets pour out of the machine with each pull, it was no wonder we soon had a small crowd develop around us hoping to duplicate our success!!!

By the time the dust settled, we each had our pockets overflowing with tickets as we skipped our way to the redemption counter to claim our earnings. When it was all said and done, our efforts netted us 1130 tickets for the relentless 20 minutes we spent at the two machines.

With card in hand and tickets redeemed, we then entered the palace of goodies with the impossible task of trying price shop so one person didn't blow the budget for everyone else. Not to mention trying not to allow our A.D.D. to kick in and get distracted with all the other big ticket prizes we couldn't afford!!!

Finally after a HALF HOUR of debating and grabbing and putting back the various offering of sweet delight they had on display....the group began making their way back to the parking lot with our glorious haul of goodies in tow...We felt like we had just completed a level of Candy Crush and WON...SWEET...TASTY!!!

Deshi Venom's BAM debut

The Sweet Science Suite: A Scientific Soul Music Honoring of Muhammad Ali. The title spells out the essential intrigue of Fred Ho’s new opus, at the BAM Harvey Theater on October 11 & 12 for the 2013 BAM Next Wave Festival. But add to the mix martial arts choreography by Emmanuel Brown, one of the stars of Broadway’s Spider-Man and a previous collaborator on Ho’s projects and the martial arts skills of our very own Deshi Venom. Deshi was apart of a 5 man cast that put on an action packed 1 hour show that thrilled the audience behind the sounds of the Green Eyed Monster Band. 

I personally enjoyed how the show expressed the diversity of martial arts while paying tribute to a Legend such as Muhammad Ali.  Manny did an EXCELLENT job with blending styles such as Capoeira, Kung fu, Tricking, Kobudo (weapons), Boxing (of course) and Karate in the performance. He also balanced the talents of each of his performers well throughout the show. 

As the show began, Deshi Venom and his cast mates appeared on stage with the presence of Broadway veterans. His acting and performance was nothing less than stellar as he transitioned from genre to genre during their hour long performance. I give him props for staying dedicated during the 3 month long process, auditioning, conditioning and learning the choreography for the show while still maintaining a full schedule at the dojo and his competition team. I know first hand that it was physically demanding for Deshi Venom to say the least!!! But through all the aches and pains and long hour days with very little sleep...he pulled through like a true Black Belt!!!  

BAMbill asked Manny and Fred a few questions.

Q: What inspired the inclusion of martial arts AND hip-hop in the choreography for The Sweet Science Suite?
Fred Ho: Since 1996, I’ve pioneered a new genre of performing arts, for which a variety of descriptors have been applied, such as “martial arts music/theater,” “manga opera,” “martial arts ballet,” etc. During that time, I was very bored by much of the performing arts—music, and especially dance—that refused to confront human conflict at the level of intensity of war and violence, and actually be bold about exhibiting such conflict.

In addition, my intention and desire to create a new Asian (Chinese) American expressive culture made me realize that Chinese—and Asian—martial arts could become the bold, new, and explosive performing arts movement expression; have tremendous appeal to young people; who, no matter how much we want to deny it, were being saturated in popular culture with the martial arts; and with which legendary, epic conflicts and clashes could be conveyed, just as they had been for centuries in Chinese (and Asian) literature, theater/opera, and legend. 

Since I was very young, black music and radical politics has greatly inspired and catalyzed my own unique role in life as both an artist and activist. My Afro-Asian political and cultural sensibility would connect urban hip-hop and the martial arts (e.g. Shaolin hip-hop), just as urban youth have been doing for several decades (cf. Wu-Tang Clan), finding Afro-Asian connectivity in a myriad of cross-fertilized forms. 

Q: How does the story of Muhammad Ali influence the choreography?

EB: His story inspires the ideology of the choreography, specific movements in the choreography, some of the fun of it... things like that.

Q: Manny, how did you arrive at your acrobatic/martial arts style of dance?
Emmanuel (Manny) Brown: I began martial arts when I was pretty young and had been tumbling before that. I also did competitions where acrobatics and martial arts were mixed together. While in college I began dancing with a hip-hop crew, which is how that became a part of my style.

I personally spoke to both Fred and Manny who both complimented Deshi's performance and talents as a martial artist. Could this be the beginning of a NEW career for Deshi? Stay tuned...

Stepping Up to the Dodgeball Challenge

Man what more can I say, Saturday’s Dodgeball Challenge was crazy. The energy that the students came in with was electrifying. I love the competitive spirit that everybody brought to the table.

This is the type of emotion we need to bring back, and help this generation of kids learn how to compete…not just in sports but also in life...Sorry that's the teacher in me, but let me get back to the subject.

We had a little over 40 people on the floor, from the age of 3 all the way through adults in their thirties and forties.

This event started out being something that we wanted to promote to help give our existing students a chance to get out and have some fun this weekend and also allow them to introduce their friends to our facility and programs. 

This event quickly turned into the theme for an even bigger event...Adult Dodgeball!!! Who would have thought that adults want to have fun too. GO Figure.

We had numerous adults asking us to do an adult dodgeball theme which we are gladly looking to accommodate for next month in November, so get ready for it! Im thinking teams of 10 with a cash prize to the last team standing! This should be interesting, so stay tuned for more details on this later. 

It was a nonstop 3 hours of back and forth, old school dodgeball fun. I couldn't have asked for a better turnout of the event. I felt we accomplished our goal of getting kids to get out and play, but it also brought whole families out to play together as well!!!

One parent commented to me this is exactly what I needed. Funny thing is I felt the same way.

Shout out to the Feliciano Family for really having a strong showing and bringing their “A” Game!!!

We had a couple of finger jams and stings to the skin but overall everyone survived the challenge and went home wanting more. Stay tuned for the next challenge!!!

For more information on our next event, call us at 347-673-6611 or visit us at 8115 Foster Ave, Brooklyn NY 11236

Fight Fan Weekend

Tournament News Update

By Chief Instructor Anthony

 

Hey America's Ultimate Martial Arts Academy competition fans... I'm excited to bring you another update in our tournament news saga. On the weekend of the highly publicized Mayweather vs Canelo bout on PPV, our local stars Deshi Venom and Deshi Spiderman covered two events this weekend, by splitting up and travelling in separate directions to make an appearance at each event. Deshi Venom travel by car for 10 hours to compete in Detroit Michigan and Desi Spiderman traveled four hours to compete in Rhode Island. When we talk about dedication, hard work and perseverance... these two epitomize those characteristics.

Deshi Venom began his quest for victory when he left Thursday in the wee hours of the night to drive 10 hours to Detroit Michigan to the International Karate Championships. On the road to Michigan however, he and the other occupants in the vehicle he was travelling in experienced a near fatal accident when they swerved avoid another vehicle and ended up driving off the road into a soy bean field. Everyone in the vehicle escaped with NO injuries, however the vehicle sustained heavy scratches and other cosmetic damages. This didn't  deter them from completing their journey and making it safely to the event.

 

Friday night was comprised of Team GTS, Team Impex, Team KTOC, and another less popular team. The first round drew the best team on the circuit, Team Impex with Deshi Venom locked and loaded to face middle weight Avery Richard Plowden. Deshi held his own against the veteran but the team couldn't match the experience of Team Impex. Team KTOC then went on to dismantle the less popular team to earn third place for team sparring.

Saturday individual sparring divisions began with a fired up Deshi Venom behind the team sparring loss from the previous evening to wake up the division with three major fights. He started off behind on points but then earned a comeback victory for the first match. He then goes on to dismantle his second opponent with a well fought match that put him one step closer to victory. The last and final match found Deshi Venom matched up against Avery Richard Plowden again to compete for first place. Unfortunately his efforts fell short as he suffered a loss against Avery Richard Plowden to earn him second place in the middle weight sparring divisions. 

 

In addition to sparring Deshi Venom also competed in the musical kata,  taking first place in the division. He decided not to perform for runoffs in kata due to a strained hamstring. That decision

allowed him to save himself for his performance in sparring.

 

Deshi Spiderman ran through his division to earn first place in the Men's Light Weight sparring divisions. Ultimately Deshi Spiderman made it to the stage to compete against Brooklyn's own Internationally known heavyweight Ross Levine where he succumbed to the experience of Mr Levine.

 

Both are of our fighters got great experience this weekend competing against the best on both the NASKA circuit as well as the NBL circuit. Now everyone is beginning to see that these two are the new Rising Stars. What's more impressive is after their return home, they came back to the lab to then study their competition and prepare for the next event. We are so proud of these guys and what they been able to accomplish in such a short period of time.

 

Keep up the great work guys and we can't wait to see you guys in action at the next event.

 

Check them out in action by Clicking Here

If you are interested in becoming a champion, contact us at  347-673-6611 or stop by our facility at 8115 Foster Ave, Brooklyn NY 11236   

 

Chief Instructor Anthony
AmericasUltimateMA@gmail.com