DKC students "live" the leadership team oath!

This short-short video shows you Dinoto Karate's most outstanding students --living and breathing Leadership Program superstars. What I think about when I see this video is that 10 or 20 more kids like the ones Dinoto Karate is cultivating in their leadership program – is a very, VERY unique way to serve our families and community in a very, VERY powerful way!

And note: You CAN'T cultivate the kind of success we are talking about in a “kicks & punches only” karate school; nor can you find a book/report that shows you exactly how to find and cultivate kids like the ones in the video --who will go out and make "stuff" happen, remarkably—from great, GREAT grades to powerful & positive choices to fund-raising!

I CAN tell you that Dinoto Karate is doing their part (and all that goes on behind the scenes), to cultivate and develop real BLACK BELT LEADERS (in today's world), because actions speak louder than words.

What I like about the work that these kids are doing is that there's no "formula" behind it. It's REAL stuff. I like it because I think about what it means to these kids --what they'll remember, what they'll take from it, and what it means to the other kids around them ("home-grown" heroes...something I've/we've been talking about for awhile now.)

It's so clean and pure and perfect. Its kids doing something cool. Something they care about and something that's good for EVERYONE involved. I Love that.

Remember folks: We are here to KEEP IT REAL --working with kids (and their families) --for the right reasons. Show them how the confidence they're practicing on the mat can be applied to, well...ANYTHING they care about. Show them how to organize, how to lead, how to write, how to film …how to tell their story. We use our leadership skills and experience to connect them to the right tools, the right people, and to encourage the heck out of them.

We talk to our children about what their efforts MEAN. What it means to their life, to the lives of people around them, to what it means to their community, and what it means to the world.

We work really, REALLY hard to teach our students to bring GREAT small projects to fruition; to smile and enjoy the process …and show them that what they are doing is really, REALLY good work.

Help us to pave the way for the new / next generation of real black belt leaders who cultivate "out of the dojo and into the world" kind of work --and all of us will play a significant part in a better, smarter, powerful, purposeful and more evidence-based-black-belt-leadership kind of education for our world.

With these kinds of stories and kids around the academy, we are simply no longer a martial arts school teaching life-skills --we're a life-skills school that uses martial arts to teach. This IS what brings the most value to our family, community, and the world …yes?

Peter Liciaga
Education Activist and Master Martial Arts Teacher

PS...visit us at http://www.dinotokarate.com/ and see what our students are doing in our community!

Self-Defense is Found in the Simple Things

We teach self-defense --and self-defense is found in the simplest of things. Kindness, for example; kindness is a beautiful form of self-defense. Good food --and the appreciation of it; there’s great kind of self-defense!

Oh, and how about love of community? Participation in --and love for --one’s community is a kind of self-defense that’s impossible to put a value on.

And my favorite kind of self-defense is found in a simple rule, The Golden Rule:

Treat others as you would want them to treat you.

Simply perfect.

I like Tom Callos’ (www.tomcallos.com) description of self-defense too:

“Self-defense isn’t only about personal protection, it’s about taking care of the people around you and the place you live as well.”

And of course, self-defense training is all you already imagined it to be, but with this particular attitude about it, self-defense becomes about living a good life. What a great idea.

For information about our school and our self-defense lessons for today’s world, contact us HERE.

Martial arts is more than kicks and punches!

...it's leadership at it's BEST!!! Martial artist, friend and fellow ultimate black belt test member Brian Williams is making a HUGE diffence in the lives of our youth across the nation! I am inspired, motivated and challenged by his work. This is truly what it is to be a black belt leader!

Watch this video and visit his website at http://www.thinkkindness.org/

41 Days Till Launch - 100,000 Shoes from Brian Williams on Vimeo.

Find out about leadership programs in Mount Laurel NJ by calling 856-235-0414 or visiting us at Mount Laurel Project Based Leadership