Mr. Jason attends Tom Callos Seminar at TKC

Sunday July 17th 2011, Tom Callos held a seminar at Team Karate Centers.  The seminar covered topics such as ingenious marketing, intelligent curriculum design, and the "new role" of the master teacher.  It was a lot of very good helpful information packed into one single day.

Here is a quick bio of Tom Callos.  Tom took his first martial arts lesson in 1969, he is currently a 6th Degree Black Belt under his senior instructor Ernie Reyes Sr.  For 15 years he owned and operated 2 of the largest martial arts schools in the US (at the time), teaching and managing more then 800 students in two locations.  In 1994 he began working exclusively with martial arts associations, school owners, and martial arts teachers,  helping them improve the quality of their materials and curriculum.   He is now involved with programs like the "acts of kindness" program (www.thinkkindness.org), The Ultimate Black Belt Test, and much more.

We have been following Tom's Blog and videos for a while now.  It was nice to officially meet him in person.  We can't write about everything that was discussed at this seminar but we will mention some of the things that really made an impression.  Because Tom does not operate a physical school anymore he has what he calls a digital online school.  This online school school never closes and can be accessed from anywhere.  This gives him the flexibility to continue to train and teach from anywhere he chooses.  We like idea of the cloud and having everything available at all times to our students.  He believes in recording everything and uploading it online to share with others.  Videos get people excited, we have always thought it was a great idea because videos last forever.  If you visit Tom's site, he posts multiple videos and blogs daily for his students.  We would like to follow in his footsteps and be able to communicate to our students effectively by the same means.

Tom said a line Sunday that had a lot meaning, he feels at his age now knowing what he knows, he doesn't think he was qualified to teach back in his 30's.  He believes that great teaching is not how to throw a good cross punch but how to lead others to be better individuals in society.  The best martial arts instructors prepare their students for life in the world, not just life in the studio.  Someone testing for a black belt should change and influence the people around them, their community, and maybe the world.  That is Tom's vision for the Ultimate Black Belt exam.  We have been very fortunate to have him tell us these concepts and much more.  Listening to the views from people who have already trailed the path we are on will help us.  There is no reason to reinvent the wheel.  We must gather all the knowledge from the veterans in this business and pick and choose what would give us the best success in helping our students grow to become an "Ultimate Black Belt".  Evolution Martial Arts Academy will maintain a good relationship with Tom Callos, he is a great asset to the martial arts community and our future.

For more information visit Tom Callos page at www.tomcallos.com