Red Belts!

Benjamin and I received our red belts from Whole Armour Martial Arts a couple of weeks ago.  So, our next test will be for our black belts.  The black belt test will be demanding and intense and will require us to spar against our teachers and other black belts.
As we’ve progressed, I’ve enjoyed the opportunity to being more involved in teaching the younger students and the lower ranks.

Krav Maga Demonstration @ 2015 FCM Conference

May 6, 2015 - At this year's FCM conference, they did a Krav Maga demonstration with Mark Stillpass.
2015 Family Covenant Ministries 
[Krav Maga Demonstration]
The Willis Clan

Most of the demo is available on video below:

Brown Belts!

June 28, 2014 – We tested for our brown belts today at Whole Armour Martial Arts – (and we passed!)  It’s pretty amazing to see how close we are to being able to test for the illustrative black belt.

Green Belts!

February 15, 2014 – My brothers and I were tested for our green belts this morning and we all passed!  We’ve learned so much since we started training roughly two and a half years ago.  Even though there’s still a lot more to learn, we’re finally starting to anticipate our black belt test.
This test was also special because two additional instructors tested us and signed our certificates.  It’s just a foretaste of our black belt test – when we’ll be tested by a whole panel of black belts.

Our school’s belts are White, Yellow, Orange, Purple, Blue, Green, Brown, Red, and Black Belts.

Blue Belts!

This afternoon we were able to take the test to receive our blue belts and we all passed.  It’s so exciting to continue to practice and see real improvement.  Things that seemed awkward when we first started almost two years ago is now perfectly natural and instinctive.

We’re looking forward to testing for our black belts after we get our green, brown and red belts.

Self Defense–Video

  This is a slightly re-edited (closing sequence) version of the video we made with Stephen Littman Jr.  last fall.

Purple belts!

Filming with Stephen Littman

  We got together with some friends to make a short video together that would incorporate a few self defense techniques we’d learned and would make a promotional piece for Whole Armour Martial Arts.

“Behind the Scenes” footage can be seen here: Short Video Shoot

P.S. Re: "Lydia”  I’m gathering the photos from the North Carolina trip, so I’ll be posting some photos from the spoons game this week!

Noah-The Inner Tube?

 

We were tossing around a big ole’ tire that’s used as a workout tool for MMA…when someone got a bright idea:

Little brothers can be so much fun…

Noah’s Orange Belt-Whole Armour Martial Arts

  Noah took the test for his orange belt last week:

Presenting Noah with is Orange Belt & Certificate

  We started taking martial arts last year with our Uncle Jeremy who is a 3rd Degree black belt.  Through the years he’d show us a few moves when he’d come over, but was opening his own school and offered to train us. Since then we’ve progressed to orange belts and “Whole Armour Martial Arts” has moved the classes into a larger building.

  Last week a lot of the students were testing for new belts, so I did a little filming and edited this video together:

Orange Belts!

Martial Arts Class

Opening the class in prayer

  Had a great time at martial arts class this morning with our “Sensei” Uncle Jeremy and our cousins.  I also got the news that Benjamin and I will be eligible next week to take the test to get our Orange belts.

Self Defense Filming Test

  After our martial arts class on Saturday with our uncle we tried filming a few self defense moves right there in the classroom. This was only a test, so there are a few changes I still need to make.

Fight Scene Test–Video

The other night we tried filming a fight sequence to see how it’d turn out.  We’d done similar things in the past (see below), but they always turned out extremely chees-y.  This new video actually turned out better than expected considering we only did one take and used only one camera.

The first shot is a quick fight sequence Ben and I threw together…we really messed it up and Ben forgot his next move halfway through, but the first part didn’t look too bad.

The next shots show a few self-defense moves we’ve learned in our mixed martial arts class.  Please don’t pay too close attention to the actual moves…this was for filming purposes only!

Nevertheless, we were encouraged with how the video turned out and hope to do a few more filming tests in the coming weeks.

Now, here’s a video from a long time ago!  It’s called “Brotherly Love” and was filmed in 2007.