News & Events

Congratulations! IMA Karate-Ka Qualify for 2014 USA Senior National Team

Posted on by IMA Karate Website Admin

A big, heartfelt congratulations go out to Maya Wasowicz and Manuel Tavares from IMA Goshin Ryu, and David Muhammad from IMA Integrity Martial Arts Academy who qualified to be members of the 2014 USA Senior National Team this past weekend in Chicago.

David Muhammad (Male Elite Kumite -84) 2nd Place
Maya Wasowicz (Female Elite Kumite +68) 2nd Place and (Female Elite Open Weight Kumite) 2nd Place
Manuel Tavares (Male Elite Kumite -67) 2nd Place

IMA-2014-Senior-USA-Team-Members

As members of the 2014 USA Senior National Team, Maya, Manuel and David will be attending two championships. The North American Cup will be held in British Columbia, Canada in mid March, and the Senior Pan American Championship in Margarita Island in Venezuela in late May. Good luck to all of you!

A special and sincere thank you goes out to Sensei Luis Ruiz (shown above, with the David, Maya, and Manuel) for coaching at the tournament and supporting all of our IMA competitors. Sensei Ruiz is knowledgeable, experienced and dedicated to IMA and knows how to build our athletes both physically and mentally. He did an excellent job. Thank you, Sensei Ruiz!

Congratulations to the whole IMA family for working together and being there for each other. May we all share in the joyous celebration of the accomplishments of these superb athletes.

February 2014 Newsletter

Posted on by IMA Karate

I am very proud to congratulate the 33 karate-ka from Colorado, Utah, New York and Missouri who tested on January 25th for Jr. black belt to sixth degree black belt. It was an awesome dan testing with a lot of hard work and a huge celebration at night. I would like to wish all of you the best of health and continued success in the future (See the pictures on the following pages).

Also, I would like to remind the IMA family and our colleagues about the IMA World Championship from May 3 to 4. As always we will have five rings with competitors from beginner to elite and nationally and internationally licensed referees. I am looking forward to seeing all of you at this special event.

Finally, I would like to congratulate our karate-kas who were awarded the new titles of Senpai, Sensei and Shihan on January 25th.

Click this link to download the full PDF version of the February 2014 newsletter.

Congratulations 2014 IMA Karate Black Belts

Posted on by IMA Karate Website Admin

The IMA Family offers its sincere congratulations to everyone who successfully earned new black belt designations this weekend!

Over 30 students and instructors endured 8 hours of training and testing this past Saturday as part of their black belt progression. In addition to multiple members of the IMA family earning advanced black belts through many years of dedicated training, three members of our family were also awarded the title of Shihan – making this past weekend one of the most memorable in IMA’s long history.

2014_black_belts

Black Belts

Kuro Shiro
Keegan Jarred, Athena Peters, Brandon Le, Harvey Nexhip, and Ben Gygi

Kuro Midori
Bryan McCarty, Anneka Pawlak, Kurt Nakasato, Kate Nakasato, Keon ZiaShakeri, and Andy Nou

Shodan Ho
Vani Topkar, Sherri Murgallis, Brent Cain, Tammy Nakasato

Shodan (1st Degree Black Belt)
Ewan Albright, Nisha Maheshwari, Jacob Peters

Nidan Ho
Dasha Petropavlovskikh, Doris Danielson, Kai Funk, Parkhi Rai, and Wendy Fayles

Nidan (2nd Degree Black Belt)
Kamran Madani

Yondan (4th Degree Black Belt)
Deborah Keyek-Franssen and Odile Lynch

Godan (5th Degree Black Belt
Bob McCormick, Michelle Prud’Homme, and Shanta Thokar

Rokudan (6th Degree Black Belt)
Rick McGavin, Rudolph Muhammad and Fariba Madani

Special Achievements

In addition to the numerous black belt awards given, additiona awards were presented at our Black Belt Extravaganza Dinner on Saturday night:

Senpai
Dasha Petropavlovskikh and Keith Nakasato

Sensei
Deborah Keyek-Franssen

Shihan
Rudolph Muhammad, Rick McGavin, and Fariba Madani

Celebrating 20 Years!

In addition, Shihan Fariba Madani was presented with an award for 20 years of martial arts training!

Thanks also to all of the black belts and instructors who helped with the Dan testing and to all of the friends and family that came to support the students.

IMA Dan Testing & Black Belt Extravaganza – January 25, 2014

Posted on by IMA Karate Website Admin

On January 25, a number of I.M.A. Jr. and Sr. students and black belts will get together for another black belt testing experience.

The testing will start at 8:30am and will last several hours. Everyone is welcome to stop by the dojo and support the students during testing.

Please note: The youth and adult classes will not be held on this day.

Following the Dan testing (at 6pm), all I.M.A. members and their families are invited to join us for a Black Belt Extravaganza at the Honbu Dojo. The celebration is filled with demonstrations, an award ceremony and I.M.A.’s yearly recognition of several athletes.

Don’t miss this once-a-year celebration!

January 2014 Newsletter

Posted on by IMA Karate

Happy New Year! May we all have a happy, healthy and prosperous new year.

2013 was an excellent year for our IMA organization with several successful events and our competition team bringing home several medals from national, international and Pan American tournaments.

We had a very nice turn out for our Unity Tournament and special elite training in December. Participants came from six different states: Florida, Indiana, Kansas, New York, Utah and Colorado. In addition, we were especially delighted to have Younes Belrhouzal, special international elite competitor from France in attendance. I am very proud of these participants and look forward to seeing them return, in addition to many more competitors during the second week of every December.

Click this link to download the full PDF version of the January 2014 newsletter.