Mr. Kohgadai's first Black Belt Board as Chief

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1 Mr. Kohgadai's first Black Belt Board as Chief This summer marked a momentous occasion for West Wind Schools and its new leader, Mr. Kohgadai! Last September, Mr. Kohgadai and his teacher, Mr. Thompson, set into motion a revolutionary plan to help students achieve their black belts: the Cobra Cadet Program. This

2 program established streamlined group classes and the opportunity to increase private lesson attendance. Most importantly, the requirements for testing increased greatly! Within one year, the results have proved astonishing. On August 19, after less than one year of the Cobra Cadet Program, we witnessed our largest group test ever and promoted a record setting number of students to Shodan. BLACK BELT BOARD BY THE NUMBERS: Record number of BBB in a year 8 and counting! Record number of students for a BBB 90 Record number of black belt tests 19 (January-August)

3 New Red Belts! Berkeley inducted four new teachers to lion s den: Mr. Parks, Ms. Hernandez, Mr. Hernandez and Ms. Tallman. Berkeley s Head Instructor, Mr. Shah, has been building his team and is working on getting his top student Mr. Leon to rise to take over his school. We re looking forward to great things from the young, new team!

4 A massive congratulations to Mr. Monroe and Ms. Pham on earning their 6th Degree Black Belts. This rank is extremely challenging: once a student has learned and successfully mastered all the physical material in the Black Belt Degree Program, they can go up for the 5th Degree Black Belt no small feat! However, in order to earn the 6th Degree, that black belt must then be able to TEACH a student through an ENTIRE belt (most often from white to orange) and get him to take a belt test flawlessly. Our current group of red belts might make this seem easy, but for those who have tried teaching before know that it s much easier said than done! Mr. Omar Kohgadai and Mr. Dalli earned a quick rise to the rank of West Wind Instructor. They got their red belts at last year s Black Belt Demonstration and have shown through lots of hours of teaching and strong performances from their students that they ll be ones to watch in next year s tournament. In addition to her students taking the orange and purple belt Best of Tests and earning her 4th Degree Black Belt, Ms. Rachal was promoted to Senior West Wind Instructor!

5 The requirements are very heavy to receive this rank. Her leadership, organization and 5+ years of teaching experience are just the tip of the iceberg. She has a very no nonsense teaching style and expects her students to do more than they realize they're capable of. She puts in the mat time for her own practice (even on Sundays!) so it s no wonder why her students are top notch. The heat is on! Which students can stand out in a group? What does is take to earn the title Best of Test? What is the BBB looking for? Ask our 3 top teachers whose students were awarded the prestigious prize: Mr. Carter and Ms. Rachal are both tied with 2 students each earning the golden patch, and Mr. Michel blasted ahead with his 3 students sweeping the advanced rank tests. Their students proved they have what it takes to be outstanding, but most importantly, they would definitely tear it up in a real fight.

6 Order of the Cobra Dinner This is by far our Assistant Chief Instructor s favorite time of the year! It takes hours and hours of mat time, hundreds of hard boiled eggs and infinite reps of weapons and kata excercise (to say the least) for a student to earn their black belt. At the end of the day, all the blood, sweat and tears will all be worth it to strap that black belt around your waist. That alone is enough. Just ask anyone wearing one. BUT in addition to the confidence, power, mental and emotional strength and the laundry list of other benefits that come along with your martial arts training, there are other perks that come along with the rank. Once a year the members of the Black Belt Board initiate all the students who have earned the rank of Shodan. Here, the students are presented their diplomas, degree patches and the coveted Order of the Cobra ring. There are many more traditions that the Chief must uphold during this occasion, but you ve got to earn the rank to find out all the other secret customs! CELEBRATE 48 YEARS WITH US ON SEPTEMBER 15TH!

7 Thank you to all the parents, family and friends who supported our students this summer. Congratulations to all our students who made this historic Black Belt Board such a success and mad props to all the teachers who make West Wind the very best system in the world!

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