PKA Karate Academy

Teen / Adult Testing April 2012

jeff — Thu, 03 May 2012 19:48:14 +0000

A very special congrats to the students that were ready to move on in their Kenpo Adventures. Awesome Job Everyone!!!

Kyle Naylor 2nd Orange Stripe

Taylor Niggel 1st Purple Stripe

Michele Laity 4th Green Stripe

Shane McCarthy 1st Brown Stripe

Chad Hendrix 1st Brown Stripe

And a VERY, VERY special KUDOS goes out to our newest belts:

David Lane New Blue Belt

Jim Burns New Green Belt

Teen Testing March 2012

jeff — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:54:56 +0000

Congratulation to all the Pre-Teens and Teens that achieved their new levels on their Kenpo Adventure. What a great night!!

Mason Bowers 1st Orange Stripe

Kyle Naylor 1st Orange Stripe

David Lane 4th Blue Stripe

Michele Laity 2nd & 3rd Green Stripe

Draven Nguyen 2nd Red Stripe

Savannah Nguyen 3rd Red Stripe

And a very special KUDOS to our new belts!!!

Taylor Niggel New Orange Belt with Gold Stripe

Shane McCarthy New Green Belt

Pittsburgh Testing March

jeff — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 22:24:35 +0000

With the first semester over, the PKA Karate Academy in Pittsburgh held it’s first belt exam for those students that were ready and approved to move on in their Kenpo adventure. Congratulations to ALL! LOTS of hard work!

Kidz Zone:

Joey Klose: New Yellow Belt

Jovian Smith: New Purple Belt

Sami Niggel: New Purple Belt

Isaac Molina: New Green Belt

Abby Daffner: New Orange Belt

Brady Dugan: New Orange Belt

Gavin Broderick: New Orange Belt

Timmy Kovacs: New Yellow Belt

Bryan DeLandro: New Yellow Belt

Little Dragons:

Patrick Fitzgerald: New Red Belt

Sean Fitzgerald: New Blue Belt

Tanner Morton: New Purple Belt

Nate Philips: New Purple Belt

Max Kazmierczak: New Orange Belt

Jackson Kletter: New Orange Belt

Howard Clellen: New Orange Belt

Connor Rychcik: New Yellow Belt

Delainey Work: New Yellow Belt

Joshua Yurko: New Yellow Belt

Jaden Philips: New Yellow Belt

Amara Glota: New Yellow Belt

Juniors:

Herman Clellen: New Orange Belt

Mackenzie Stone: New Orange Belt w Gold Stripe

Gina Gurske: New Purple Belt

Anna Osinski: New Purple Belt

Muthenna Baled: New Orange Belt

Mohamed Baled: New Orange Belt

Christian Heinz: New Yellow Belt

Joshua Parrotte: New Orange Belt

Pre-Teens:

Mason Bowers: New Yellow Belt

Zachary Mudrich: New Yellow Belt

Kyle Naylor: New Yellow Belt

Taylor Niggel: 4th Orange Stripe

Shane McCarthy: 3rd & 4th Green Stripes

Savanna Nguyen: 1st & 2nd Red Stripes

Draven Nguyen: 1st Red Stripe

David Lane: 3rd blue Stripe

Those that were not ready to test or not eligible, the next testing will be at the end of the next semester. The middle of May. A very special congrats to Mackenzie who decided to work extra hard on her belt with the gold stripe! AWESOME!

March Testing Burgettstown

jeff — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:07:14 +0000

Congratulations to all the students that tested for the end of this semester at the PKA Karate Academy, Burgettstown, location. Awesome Job!!!

Adrian Plance: New Little Dragons Yellow Belt

Cole Plance: New Little Dragons Orange Belt

Rudy Brown: New Little Dragons Orange Belt

William Brown: New Juniors Orange Belt

Nicholas Gianfrancesco: New Juniors Yellow Belt

Gary Ellsworth Jr.: New Juniors Orange Belt

January Testing Results 2012

jeff — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 18:06:46 +0000

First test of the calendar year went GREAT! Congrats to everyone in their achievements on their new levels while on your Kenpo Adventure!

David Lane 2nd Blue Stripe

Sean Hallahan 1st Gold Stripe

Taylor Niggel 3rd Orange Stripe

Shane McCarthy 1st & 2nd Green Stripe

Kyle Naylor Advanced White Belt

Zachary Murdich Advanced White Belt

And a SPECIAL KUDOs goes out to:

NEW ADULT YELLOW BELT: Michael Work

NEW JUNIOR GREEN BELT w GREAT EFFORT: Chad Hendrix

MOVIE Filming at PKA Karate

jeff — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 16:35:15 +0000

PKA Karate Academy in Pittsburgh was recently contacted by an independent film company, Happy Cloud Pictures to help out with their current film project, “Razor Days.”

Click Here to learn more about the film and company

The scenes that needed to be shot revolved around a women’s self-defense class. We were honored to be asked and also had a great turnout of students and parents from our headquarter school in Pittsburgh. We certainly appreciate everyone taking time out of their busy Sunday schedule in order to try and get their “15-minutes.”

Everyone had a fantastic time and that the crew really enjoyed our ladies and energy level.

Thanks again for the help and fun day! The movie should be complete by October 2012. We’ll keep you posted.

All pictures on our Facebook page…HERE

First Pictures out of Burgettstown

jeff — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 04:44:01 +0000

The PKA Karate Academy in Pittsburgh recently began operation at its second location, teamed up with Luanne’s School of Dance in Burgettstown. On Tuesdays and Fridays, REAL Kenpo in Pittsburgh has begun to expand out of the local area and the new location is exploding! The PKA Karate Academy specializes in Age Specific, Goal Driven, Results Oriented Programs for ALL age groups. Our programs are the only ones in the Southwestern PA Area to be psychologist and psychiatrist recommended, tested and approved. The curriculum ROCKS and the kids are doing extremely well!

Little Dragon’s meet at 6PM, followed by the Juniors at 7PM and finishing up with our Adult Class at 8PM.

PNC YMCA- Senior Kenpo Class

jeff — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 19:42:09 +0000

On Tuesday, November 8^th, 2011, the PKA Karate Academy in Pittsburgh took it’s Senior Silver-Sneaker Kenpo program on the road and provided a free class hosted by the PNC YMCA in downtown Pittsburgh. The attendance was great, the class was fantastic and the results were overwhelming!

Some of the many outstanding comments that we received were that it was, “the BEST program that they have every brought into the facility…” and they really would like to bring us back.

The PKA Karate Academy staff was really excited about the facility and the participation of the seniors. They wanted to do hands-on training. It was AWESOME! There was also a LOT of question and answer time. This group is very fired up for training and had great questions and attitudes!

Kudos to all! And a very special thanks goes out to Ms. Khom and Mr. Brandon for their expertise and skill in helping to run this class.

More to come??? We’ll see!

Welcome to Burgettstown!

jeff — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 02:32:05 +0000

PKA Karate Academy in Pittsburgh opens it’s 2nd Location. (More coming???)

On Tuesday, September 20th, 2011, Kenpo in Pittsburgh took a HUGE step forward by expanding to it’s second location which is 1445 Main Street, Burgettstown, 15021. This was a plan in progress and with the growth of the McNeilly Road branch, the tremendous excitement and success of our EPAK Programs, it was time!

There will initially be three nightly classes, which will meet Tuesdays and Fridays with additional instruction on Sundays as well, periodically. Private lessons, as well as group classes will be available.

The primary difference with the two locations will be the initial consolidation of some age brackets. There will be a Little Dragons group which is 4-8 year olds and also a Juniors Group which will cover 9-13 year olds. The adults will begin at the age of 14. Of course these are simply bars and as always, PKA will ALWAYS utilize it’s state-of-the-art pre-eval program, which not only helps with the younger children, but also points out strengths and limitations that individuals all have since after-all, no two students are alike and Kenpo is not a team “sport”, it’s a tailored Art.

This is just ONE of the many reasons why PKA is just different than the others, and why we continue to get new students from other schools transferring or coming in to check us out.

The Open-House in August was a great success and opening night went well. Students were already coming in and ready to sign up on the first night of classes. There is a huge annual parade coming up in October which will be fantastic and lot and lots of neat new things to follow.

The PKA Karate Academy Family is proud and excited to be expanding and as always appreciates the kind words and well-wishes. No undertaking like this can be done alone. It’s a team effort.

Here are some great pictures of the bottom floor which is the main workout area. There is also an upstairs workout room too.

Mr. Drew Gaffron plays the Hard Rock!

jeff — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 18:16:33 +0000

We want to salute and congratulate our very own Mr. Drew Gaffron, one of our new Assistant Instructors beginning this year! His band, “Good Timers” played the Hard Rock Café in Station Square on Sunday night, July 31^st and THEY ROCKED THE HOUSE!

Good Love (Cover)

Free Bird (Cover)

Dont Need No Doctor (Cover)

Better Off Without You (Cover)

Mr. Drew and the other band members, Mike and Dylan all are students at Bethel Park High School and were also students at Monster Music. Monster puts together students to form bands and play, these guys got together and began practicing in May. Drew and Mike will be sophomores this year and Dylan will be a senior. (AWESOME!)

Drew began his musical career with the Cello in the 3^rd grade and was an absolute natural, quickly jumping to the electric guitar in the 4^th grade, then moving to the acoustic guitar, eventually taking both drum and vocal lessons as well in the 7^th grade. Drew was enrolled in Duquesne University Guitar Camp for 2009 and 2010 seasons and was able to work with Joe Negri. In the last six months he has also begun to work with writing and recording his own music with professional equipment. He is truly gifted, as well as being one of the top students that PKA Karate in Pittsburgh has had the privilege to work with in MANY years.

A couple of his musical idols are Angus Young and John Mayer.

We’re SUPER excited and very proud of his continued accomplishments.

ROCK ON!!!