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

NO ONE in Pittsburgh has a program that can even come close to matching it and these kids ROCK!!

Congrats to ALL the new belts:

Brady Dugan  New Yellow Belt

Gavin Broderick  New Yellow Belt

Abby Daffner  New Yellow Belt

Sami Niggel  New Orange Belt

Ian Malewski  New Orange Belt

Jovian Smith  New Orange Belt

Isaac Molina  New Blue Belt

We can’t WAIT for 2012 and what’s in store for these guys!!!

It was an AWESOME NIGHT!

Congrats to all the NEW YELLOW BELTS in both Programs:

Macy Brown

Cole Plance

Rudy Brown

Geoffrey Brown, Jr.

Billy Brown

Brian Bernard

Gary Ellsworth, Jr.

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

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

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!

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.

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!!!

The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics states that one of the most dangerous places to work in an urban environment is an emergency room setting, especially one that has access to a mental health and/or detox unit of any sort. St. Clair Hospital has over the past couple years expanded its facility and is really experiencing some tremendous growth and with the recent closings of other hospitals and local facilities. St. Clair has been also picking up this additional slack in serving many local communities. They are a wonderful facility.

St. Clair Hospital is one of our many hospitals in Pittsburgh that is on the leading edge in regards to keeping their police force continually reviewed and trained and on top of matters when it comes to use of force policy, as well as, training from verbalization through mid-level pressure sensitive areas for patient safety and control, all the way through OC pepper spray and expandable baton annual certification and re-certification and also the awesome P.A.C.S. program for dealing with extremely violent patients in a hospital setting.

St. Clair Hospital is extremely professional and the police force has been a client for over two decades. The training day went very well!  For more information on any of these training programs or to have one customized for your facility, contact us or Shield Training at (412) 531-0333.  www.shieldtraining.net

Also be sure to check out our corporate references, they are SECOND TO NONE!

Recently eight young ladies (6 year olds) participated in a very dynamic self defense seminar hosted at PKA Karate Academy in Pittsburgh. Unlike most of our corporate or organizational self defense seminars, naturally, this seminar was geared towards our kids karate and kenpo program and the young ladies did OUTSTANDING!

In fact, this was one of the best, most well-behaved group of young ladies that the academy has come across in a specialized setting in quite some time. It just goes to show you the caliber of wisdom, confidence and character that such an organization like the Girl Scouts continues to build and pride itself on over it vast history. PKA Karate Academy is proud to be affiliated with such a great organization as the Trillium Council over the past seven years as the official trainers in Pittsburgh for all of the Girl Scouts Martial Arts programs in Pittsburgh.

Thanks again to the group leader, Tara Stakich and the six young ladies:

Anika, Gabrielle, Isabel, Kailey, Kiera, Lucy, Maddison & Polia.

Awesome Job!!!

(We’re in the process of coordinating our schedules for the junior teen group…)