Hi Everyone,

Happy New Year!  I hope you are all doing well and had an awesome holiday.  I enjoyed some time to hibernate and think strategically about the upcoming year.  2011 was a great year for the Tactical Arts Academy, and I really look forward to 2012.  I really want to thank everyone for making our school what it is.  The friendship and community we all share is what makes it most valuable to me.  Thank you all sincerely for your support.  I'm very fortunate and proud to have all of you in our small tribe.  Here is a rundown of what we have done, what we will do and a request to hear from you about whatever you would like to see us do.


What Happened in 2011

A lot of good things happened this past year.  We had several new members join the group, and a few returned from hiatus.  We added the Defensive Tactics course and held a few classes at GT Distributors.  Our number of CrossFitters doubled, and we've seen some great personal gains in the classes.  We had Grand Tuhon and Tuhon Rommel visit the school for some awesome Kali seminars.  We brought Pak Dadang Suwanda of Pencak Silat to Texas from Indonesia.

We built a new website and added features to help show you guys off.  This includes the gallery and the journal, where we post your CrossFit scores, assign your Kali homework and recognize your promotions.  I have people from other groups, cities, and countries contact me as they follow our activities online.  In addition to the Tactical Arts Academy website, we started using Facebook, Twitter and Flickr for the school.  

We added a lot of equipment.  The most noticeable items are our new pull-up rigs, but we also have more rings, weights, ropes, bands and the like.  Thanks to a generous donation, we got an AED, allowing us to train even harder.  :)  With great sadness, we finally killed our sparring dummy, B.O.B.  But in lighter news, we brought in his replacement, S.O.B. (Son of Bob).  Not only do we have a team of blacksmiths in the Philippines, but this past year, we also added our team of blacksmiths in Indonesia to set us up for any of our Pencak Silat weapons needs.  Not many schools have their own blacksmiths, so I think we are doing really well to have several!

Otherwise, we've seen everyone put in a lot of dedicated and hard work, all the while advancing in skills, fitness and personal expertise.  We've seen new friendships develop and our community strengthen.  I know the momentum from 2011 will carry us to even more accomplishments and successes in 2012.


Upcoming Plans for 2012

Thanks to the added responsibility my wife, Reiko, has taken on as well as the help from several of you, I am able to devote more time to improving our programs and pushing forward into new projects.  Aside from pursuing some of my personal goals like skydiving certification, scuba certification and more firearms instructor qualifications, there are several things in the works for you and the Tactical Arts Academy.  Here are just a few things, big and small:

- We will be introducing Crossfit Skill Levels, an optional ranking system for anyone who wants to set skill related CrossFit goals.

- Starting January 9th, we will add a new Crossfit Class at 7pm on mondays, wednesdays and fridays. Let me know if you want to come.

- We will be stocking gear for all of our classes in our lounge store.  This includes everything from timers, foam rollers, tape, and jump-ropes to live blades, sticks and training weapons.  You will be able to take what you need and you can just "put it on your tab."  No need to pay at the school.  We can handle everything by making a payment through your Zenplanner account for you.  

- Tactical Arts Academy CrossFit workout tracking notebooks are on the way from the printer.  These will be available in our store for you to keep track of your progress in CrossFit.  These notebooks are awesome!  They even have a blank to record your mood for the day.  

- Our resident producer, Jason Brenizer, will be producing videos for the web that show what we do at the Tactical Arts Academy.  We'll be looking for you guys to be the stars.

- With some help from volunteers, the members only online study tool with technical videos using software programmed by our own Alan Ondrusek will finally go live.  This will include videos of drills, techniques and more from all of our classes.

- A new student of mine, expert knife-maker, Jeff Crowner, will be producing the first Tactical Arts Academy fighting fixed blade designed to my specifications.  This blade is designed work perfectly with what we train.  I expect the first few to be ready in February.  Check out the prototype here: http://www.tacticalarts.com/documents/knife/TAA_Fighting_Knife.jpg

- A new Warrior Athlete version of the Tactical Arts Academy shirt will be coming soon.  

- Swag alert: We are designing a stainless steel water bottle with the Tactical Arts Academy logo.  The mockups look awesome so far!


Upcoming Events for 2012

- February 24-26 - We will be teaching knife survival skills at the Polite Society Tactical Conference held at the famous Rangemaster firearms academy in Memphis, Tennessee. http://www.rangemaster.com/

- March 15-18 - We are going as a small group to the Philippines for the Second Annual Asia Pacific Pekiti Tirsia Kali Conference.

- June 8-12 - We will offer our first Police and Military defensive tactics instructors course, known as the Tactical Operator Survival Program.

- August 3-5 - We are hosting the first annual Pekiti Tirsia Kali Grande Alliance Worldwide Conference to bring instructors and students together from all over the USA, Europe and more.

- Dates TBD - Short workshops will be added this year to include a variety of topics ranging from knife sharpening, kettlebells, karambits and more.

- Dates TBD - Concealed Handgun License certification course.

- Dates TBD - CPR, AED and First Aid certification course.

- Dates TBD - More seminars with Grand Tuhon and Tuhon Rommel.  

- Dates TBD - 10 Week fitness challenges including exercise, nutrition tracking, support and coaching.

- Dates TBD - We will add weekend challenges that will be a fun way to test your skills or try to hit a new personal record.  These will be short get-togethers with activities for both martial arts and CrossFit.


Help us kick some butt in 2012

Otherwise, we want to keep growing both by adding more value for you and by brining in new faces.  Please help us to grow.  I created a short survey to find out what you want from our school and to get suggestions for how we can improve.  Please take a minute and give us some feedback!
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JPHKJLV


Bring in some friends

One of the best ways for us to grow is with your help by giving us referrals.  We like referrals because it brings in more good people like you.  Please refer us to your friends, family or anyone who would be a good fit.  In about 2 weeks we will give you gift cards that you can give someone you think would be a good addition to the school.  They will get something out of it, and if they join, you will get a discount on your tuition as a thank you from us.  


Review Us Online

If you are happy with our programs at the school or have something positive to say, please give us a review using the links below.  It would really help us to have your reviews online.  Please include what classes, programs and any details of what you like about the Tactical Arts Academy.  Share your story!  On the flip side, if you are not happy with us, please don't write a review - please contact me so I can make things right for you.  :)

http://maps.google.com/maps/place?cid=3430071448079941750&q=tactical%2Barts%2Bacademy%2Baustin&hl=en

http://www.yelp.com/biz/tactical-arts-academy-austin

Thanks Everyone.  Keep up the great work.  
Let's have a great year!

Last modified on Thursday, 23 May 2013