Open Letter to Members of our Youth Program:
Dear Parents, Guardians, & Students of the Mindful Martial Arts youth program,
From the Mindful Martial Arts Ohana, and also from my personal family to yours, a belated Happy New Year and Happy Valentines!
A Blessing
May your year be filled with joy, luck, and abundance, and may the spirit of Valentine be with you this month and year. St. Valentine is someone worth considering—a 3rd century priest, he married couples in secret contrary to Roman law and at risk to his own life. May we all lean in to the fortitude and confidence required to take righteous action in the service of love.
Our Students (Your Children) Moving Up!
Stripe and Belt Promotions took place over the last 2 weeks with an unprecedented FOUR belt promotions happening this month! Students do not need to thank us for their promotions. The hard work, determination, and persistence in showing up week-after-week is what we recognize. Belt promotions only come after 1-2 years of dedicated efforts and demonstration of progress on the physical and non-physical planes. Many congratulations to those ranking up this month, and especially to our new-belt-earners, Ehren, Utah, Kylie, and Echo!
BIG CURRICULUM This Month
Easily one of the most important for self-defense, most flashy, and most effective (an uncommon trifecta!) techniques in all of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and all of Self-Defense, is being taught this month at Mindful Martial Arts. It is the defense against the the "big over-hand right" (usually the first punch thrown by an unskilled opponent). You can generally see it coming from a mile away but if you don't know what to do with it, it can be very scary.
We're teaching your kids what to do with it, and we can see the fear evaporating, leaving behind a cool, comfortable confidence, mixed with pride and excitement. It feels good to know you can handle yourself in a tough situation. This is the bedrock of true confidence.
(Nota Bene: This is the curriculum for the Big Kids and Youth classes. Minis have a different curriculum.)
What You Can Do At Home*(“Big Kids” & “Youth” Age Groups)
Ask your child to practice their break-falls! Especially their side-falls! They should know how to do this! And also their "Hip Lifts," (if they get a chance to hang with another MiMA student.) To see a reminder of how to do side-falls they can check out this link to see me doing it on YouTube! :-)
Big Changes in our Community!
Another martial arts school is opening upcountry and we wish them well. At the same time, we want to affirm that what we are offering is truly unique & second to none. Our focus on mindfulness and cultivating pro-social attitudes and behavior alongside our commitment to fun, safety and high-level Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training for self-defense, is a unique, rare, and first-class offer.
You may have friends who have been actively considering martial arts for their kids. Have you told them about us?
Mindful Martial Arts Is...
Many of you have indeed told your friends about us (I know because you tell me, and 90% of our new business tells me too, so thank you!)
But have you ever struggled with how to describe us? Firstly, we are a martial arts school that teaches Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu for self-defense. And along with this, we teach children mindfulness and help them to develop pro-social beliefs and behaviors.
Our aim, our work, and what we are achieving every day in our classes, is a better world, a better future, and better citizens who know how to defend themselves, how to calm themselves, and how to look out for the greater good.
Thank you for your support through your understanding, appreciation, and honest sharing with your network.
Staying Connected
We are going to start sending more regular newsletters to keep you better informed about what's going on in our classes. And we will also start actively advertising again, at least for a while, so it's clear in people's minds which is the premiere values-based martial arts school for kids on Maui! :-) Hopefully we won't have to spend too much energy on this. Maybe you can help?
Could you tell one or two people who you haven't told before about it this week? Would you forward them this email?
Also, have you left us an online review? Telling others about your experience with us is, by far, one of the most impactful, visible, and appreciated things you could do for us as an organization. It helps to establish others' expectations and to understand whether our school might be a good fit for them, and helps us to further our mission by being able to help more kids and families. I personally respond to all our online reviews with great gratitude.
If you haven't already, could you leave us a review online?
Here’s the links to review us online:
Availability:
Just so you know, and so anyone you may refer can know too, we have openings! The below is current as of 2/22/24:
You can also use view our live-updated class availability on our homepage.
Free trials can be booked at www.MindfulMartialArts.org/book
Booking is open for our upcoming courses being offered at Montessori and Kula here. Please tell your friends who have kids at these schools:
www.mindfulmartialarts.org/montessori (Starts March 28th)
www.mindfulmartialarts.org/kula (Starts April 2nd)
My (Coach Gabe's) Life
Thank you all for your trust in our program, our vision, and in me, its founder, owner and director. I hope and trust you are seeing that your child not only loves class, but is being gently and positively transformed and up-skilled through it as well. Here’s a bit of an update on my life.
Our eldest child, Hazel, turned 4 in December, and just got her first white stripe last month (she's in the Minis class on Tuesdays). Our youngest, Clay, is now 18 months old. He loves it when his sister wrestles with him and we're so stoked with the control she's learning to show in that regard and also stoked that he already knows how to say “Tap!”
Both kids are healthy and growing well. As some of you may know, Hazel had a health scare about this time last year. We suspect there was mold in our upcountry home and also an underlying condition, and moved almost immediately to be with my mom down in Kihei. The drier weather and lack of any mold, plus the additional family support has been a God-send. Hazel is much much better, and we now have a giant garden that my Partner Rebekah is quickly transforming into an Eden.
After experiencing my own stomach issues which were analogous to Hazel's, we connected with a nutritionist and are now taking supplements to rebalance our gut microbiome. Slippery elm powder, pre- and pro- biotics, and more. Gut health, it turns out, is a huge part of overall health!
Rebekah's Role in The Big Upgrade to MiMA over the past 6 Months
My life-partner, Rebekah, has been an amazing support over these past several years, and especially over the last 6 months, as we at Mindful Martial Arts took on the incredible task of:
-adding in 2 additional locations (Montessori and Kula, 1 day/week each)
-adding in 2 additional coaching staff (Coach Morgan @ the studio, and Coach Jes at our "satellite" locations)
-developing and implementing a coach-training program
-implementing an entirely new member-support, attendance-tracking, and billing software
We all have many thanks to give (but me first) to Rebekah for her role in allowing the space for it to happen.
Rebekah's Turn to Rise
Rebekah is finally getting her chance to resume her life's work of supporting healing through Zero Balancing teaching and hands-on therapy. She has been a ZB teacher and practitioner for over 20 years, and her commitment to this work, are a large part of what drew me to her.
She'll be offering courses and private sessions both here and in New Zealand (where she's from) over the coming year.
If you or anyone you know is interested in furthering their body-work skill set (e.g. for Lic. Massage Therapists) or in receiving next-level body work, please check out her offerings at the link below. A 50% discount is available for your first private session with Rebekah, or up to $200 off your first course, for all members (you-all) and people referred by our members!
Visit her website to view courses or book a private session:
Hope For All To Be Well
I hope all is well with you, my extended Mindful Martial Arts ohana!
If you ever need help or support, don't hesitate to reach out for a referral or recommendation or more. Our coaches (and our extended network) offer private lessons, and I have strong views about what types of interventions work best for different issues (e.g. private jiu-jitsu lessons vs life-coaching vs therapy, etc), and I'm always open to listen if you're open to share.
In the future, we look forward to supporting more 'outside-the-class' activities to provide more support for the community as well so please keep an eye out for that.
That's all from me for now.
With Gratitude and Big Aloha,
Coach Gabe, Family, & Team
808-400-4185