Recently I had the great fortune of attending a Stephen K. Hayes training seminar in New Hampshire, hosted by my friends (and hugely gifted martial artists) at Shinobi Martial Arts Dennis Fuutoshi Mahoney, Theresa Murphy and Darryl Brazee. If you live in the Plaistow New Hampshire area and want to learn the very best way to defend yourself, your only stop should be Shinobi Martial Arts.

Words really can’t describe the sense of family, mutual respect and love of training that exists between the students and teachers at Shinobi, Mark Davis’ Boston Martial Arts Center and Ken Savage’s Winchendon Martial Arts Center. You just have to spend some time training with them to understand. In addition to that, their appreciation and respect for Mr. and Mrs. Hayes is so evident. They’ve all been training together for almost 30 years.

It was also great to see Mark and Helen Russo and Scott Bragg of the Tampa Quest Center in attendance. I got to spend quite a bit of time with these people over the weekend and their commitment and dedication to the art only deepens my own desire to study and grow in my skill over the coming years.

Some very special promotions occurred over the weekend, too. Dennis was promoted to 6th degree Black Belt. Derek Thompson of Hollywood, CA was promoted to 5th degree Black Belt and Leo Dokutoshi Pimentel of New York City was promoted to 5th degree Black Belt.

I feel so fortunate to know these people and to be able to train with them. This is so much more than just a martial art!