A Little About Us
As a martial arts organization, we have been operating in Niles since November of 2021. We were fortunate enough at that time to receive the funding we needed to secure the building that is now known as "The Dojo" or more publicly as The Michiana Martial Arts Center!
In general, our head instructor has been teaching kids and adults of all ages for over a decade now (closer to 13 years) and has been studying martial arts for over 20 years. Our assistant instructors have all been studying for over a decade themselves and in some cases are pushing two decades as well. Combined, the number of years our instructors have been teaching is over 50 years - point being, we love what we do and the kids (and adults) we work with in class!
Our Experience
Our major background is in the Japanese arts of Jujutsu (unarmed fighting), Kenjutsu (swordsmanship) and Bojutsu (staff fighting). Our main instructor has over 20 years of experience in these arts and has travelled yearly to Japan (pre-Covid) to study with his instructors there. We are fortunate to have established personal relationships with some of the best martial artists in Japan that we enjoy and take pride in. Japanese martial arts are very famous for their strength and power.
Our main instructor has also studied several Chinese martial arts (Taijiquan and Baguazhang) with his personal instructor that lives in California. The subtle internal mechanics of the Chinese arts are a very large area of interest at our dojo and are often interwoven into the more advanced movements and applications in our classes.
At this time, we only offer rank certifications in the Japanese arts we study but hope to offer more formal classes in the Chinese arts that influence our curriculum at a later time.
Family/Community
We feel our kid's class syllabus is second to none. We have spent decades studying and testing martial arts AND wellness techniques that we feel are the absolute best in keeping kids active, safe and most importantly healthy in BODY & MIND. Many martial arts schools can often present as glorified daycare centers - not us. We are very pleased to offer our students concrete methods of dealing with bullies, life and leadership skills such as manners, responsibility, empathy, what boundaries are, what it means to be independent, water safety, dealing with cuts and nosebleeds, and MANY OTHER THINGS like learning CPR and also most importantly healthy ways of managing our emotions.
Our syllabus is set up so that your kids learn many things you'd hope they learn over the course of their childhood IN ONE PLACE. Our facility has plenty of space for parents to stay and watch class, and many of our parents are friendly with each other having spent so much time together at the dojo. In fact, he have several parents who participate alongside their kids in classes!
It is very important to us that as we become established in the Michiana area that we are a business and institution that has a reputation of teaching kids to be happy, enjoy life and grow up to be leaders in their community.
