Christian Karate for All Ages Fall Class Registration Info: Classes meet on Mondays from 6-7 PM and/or Fridays from 1:30-2:30 PM (higher ranked students stay until 3:00 on Fridays) 15 weeks, includes uniform for new students Instructor Bio: Jon was a Tampa street cop for over 25 years and has taught martial arts and self-defense for 40. He is a 5th-degree black belt in American Karate and has black belts also in Krav Maga and jujitsu. In college, he earned bachelor’s degrees in history and physics and a Master’s in history, and after graduation, he served with the CIA overseas in undercover capacities. Following that, he taught/tutored mathematics while also instructing karate. He then settled down for a career with the Tampa Police Dept. His experiences over the course of 2 ½ decades not only honed his personal skills but shaped his outlook on what other people would face in a perilous world, and those real-life lessons are inherent in the Paladin Karate curriculum. Paladin Karate is an amalgam of styles, a mix of traditional taekwondo and karate (with forms or kata and board-breaking, e.g.) and modern reality-based self-defense (such as grappling, escapes, and disarms). Everything in it, even the ‘old’ traditions, apply to real-life use. It is taught in an eclectic, fast paced, and hopefully fun way and is good for everyone. It is taught under an umbrella of Christian ethics and philosophy without any mysticism. Students will learn how to handle and escape from threatening or violent encounters of various degrees and how to fight effectively, if necessary, while knowing that we are the good guys and don’t start fights but end them.