Kung Fu Saves Lives

Audrey was skateboarding this weekend and flew off. I saw her fly through the air and witnessed a perfect front left shoulder roll. Or whatever you call them.

She ran to the car with her adrenaline pumping and said, “I’m pretty sure Sifu Joel just saved my life!”

This mom thanks you!

—Angela

Looking to Elevate My Game

I originally came across Evolution Martial Arts after searching online out of curiosity after finishing the TV series, “The Legend of Bruce Lee.” After watching all 50 episodes of Bruce Lee’s life and his cultivation of Jeet Kune Do philosophy, I wanted to try it out and took the trial class. All the students were super friendly and Sifu Joel Ledlow had a fun and effective teaching method. I knew after the class this is something I definitely wanted to be part of. 

—Brad T 

On a Dark Dangerous Street During a Traffic Jam in Nigeria 

I had worked in Lagos for about 3 weeks at this point. My supervisor and I traveled in a pickup with our driver and our MOPO ( motor police assigned as security during our visit). So anyway, three weeks in we were in an exceptionally bad traffic jam, worst we’d seen yet, you could measure your driving speed in feet per hour. We had been in this traffic jam for about 2.5 hours. Our MOPO had gotten out to try to get traffic moving which wasn’t uncommon but they usually keep a line of sight on the vehicle, we hadn’t seen ours in over an hour. Once it had gotten completely dark outside I noticed a flashlight coming towards us from the median of the road. I watched it make a beeline straight towards my window on the rear driver side of the truck which indicates we were scoped out earlier in the day during traffic. All of a sudden my window was smashed out. Our driver immediately unlocked the doors and jumped out. This prompted my supervisor to follow suit and bail out of the truck with his backpack. Unlocking by the doors also have the bandits quick access to me and they quickly had my door open. I decided to stay in the vehicle because it at least offered some level of protection and kept me from having to fight 360 degrees around me not that I could have exited out my door anyways with four men there trying to rob me. Two more thieves were attacking my supervisor and quickly got his backpack from him. I was trying to keep the other four from getting to me and my belongings inside the truck. I had four men trying to grab my backpack, phone, go through my pockets, and hit me at the same time. In hindsight it was probably very foolish to fight for my belongings, there really wasn’t anything that couldn’t be replaced. I’m not sure exactly how long I was fighting the four guys through the doorway of the pickup but it seems like an eternity when you’re in that situation. If I had to guess I’d say between three and five minutes. However, because of my JKD training with Evolution Martial Arts, I was able to hold off four attackers effectively and even go on the offensive when the opportunity presented itself. More importantly, I believe my JKD training helped me stay calm in the situation. 

— Anon Student
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