Scottsdale Martial Arts Center, Inc
SMACus.com Teaching the Ancient Ways to the Modern World
Teen & Adult Karate
Scottsdale Martial Arts Center, Inc. is owned and operated by Sensei Ray Hughes, a 6th degree black belt in Karate with over 30 years of experience. In addition to his numerous local and regional championships, he is a two time National Champion and has competed on five US Karate teams, two of which won gold medals and one that won silver. For more information about Sensei Ray Hughes, please click here
Karate is an extremely effective form of self-defense. This Japanese self-defense program teaches a valuable use of punches, kicks, blocks, sweeps, grappling and other important mental and physical techniques. It also includes knife and gun defense.
Karate training develops proper footwork, balance, speed, strength, flexibility and the overall development of athletic movement regardless of the participant's age.
The goal and philosophy of Karate is to disable the enemy as quickly as possible with the least amount of effort.
This is a traditional karate school that teaches the Japanese style of Wado-Ryu. The school is a member of the international organization JKF (Japan Karate Federation) Wado-Kai. The ranks issued are authorized by the Wado-Kai JKF headquarters located in Tokyo, Japan.
Karate training is one of the most effective forms of self-defense. In today's world it is important to know how to defend one's self and family. Equally important are the health and fitness benefits that one gains from Karate training. Finally, the mind benefits from the relief of stress and the philosophy acquired to help deal with the complex issues we face today.
Life is more difficult than ever for today's teen. Teenagers have to deal with personal safety at school, as well as deal with an ever-increasing homework load. They face issues that come with the computer age, they try to work exercise into their lives and they need the strength and confidence to deal with drugs and peer-pressure.
Karate training addresses all of the above. Self-defense helps them take care of themselves in physical confrontation while giving them the confidence and strength to deal with all the other negative aspects of the teen's world. The physical fitness values that the teen benefits from will help both physically and mentally. Finally, Karate training is exciting and motivating which helps keep the teen engaged.
Adults study Karate for many reasons, such as self-defense, health and fitness, or the ability to relieve stress. Adults love learning self-defense techniques, getting in shape, reducing stress, while enjoying themselves during the process. Karate training is more entertaining and enjoyable than many other forms of exercise. We do however encourage cross-training for our students.
In addition to development of excellent self-defense skills, Karate classes consists of drills and exercises that are cardio in nature and help improve the overall conditioning of the student. Classes include drills and exercises that improve physical strength, breathing, speed, balance, flexibility and other athletic skills. Karate training allows students at all levels of athletic ability to participate.
Classes are an hour in duration. Most students train twice a week, though additional training is available. The class week is broken down into two parts. The first half of the week training concentrates on basics, forms and self-defense. The second half of the week concentrates on sparring drills, partner exercises and free sparring. This format changes slightly around belt exams which occur every three months.
Classes start off with warm ups, preliminary stretching exercises and some strengthening drills. The class then moves into cardio training. Depending on what part of the week, this cardio training will be either basics and forms exercises or sparring drills and free sparring. During this cardio training there will be a hard stretch session. The class generally ends with self-defense situations, strategies and techniques.
Safety is a major concern and is strongly adhered to. Students train at their own level and experience. Advanced students and instructors work graciously and enthusiastically with lower level students.
The new student starts off in the beginning/intermediate class. They participate with the whole class in the warm ups, preliminary stretching and strength exercises. From there they will work with an advanced student or instructor to develop basic techniques and gain understanding of the training program. There will be times during this period that the new student can participate in certain group training drills and exercises. As a students' skill develops, they will be able to participate in all class activities.
This is an easy, non-threatening, comfortable transition into martial arts training. All students initially feel athletically awkward. Enjoy the process and have a sense of humor as you move from awkward movement to a high level of athletic development.
This is a common misconception we hear on a regular basis. Karate is self-defense. Some people misunderstand some of the training exercises as unimportant drills not related to self-defense. Such examples are basic training drills and the performance of forms known as kata. To the untrained eye they appear to be movements that cannot be used in real self-defense situations. They do not understand that these exercises develop proper mechanical movement and technique that improve the ability to defend one's self. All sports have drills that help the practitioner become better: driving range activities for golf, blocking drills in football, so on and so forth. Karate is no different.
"I'm too old."
Another very common misconception. Acutally the older you get the more reason you have to study Karate. As we age, we lose flexibility, lose bone mass and strength and generally it becomes more difficult to stay in shape. Karate addresses all of these areas. Yes, the training methods change for each age group. Some techniques are modified or even eliminated. The training stops the aging process in many areas while reversing it in others. The ultimate goal is to train forever in ways that are safe, logical and enjoyable. Staying fit is a must.
"Is it safe?"
Absolutely. With the proper equipment and instruction, injuries are extremely rare. Safety does not lower the lethal aspect of the art.
"How long does it take to be able to defend myself?"
From the first Karate class your ability to defend yourself will improve. The more classes you take and the longer you train, the better your odds will improve at successfully defending yourself. This is as honest an answer as you can get. The fact is the more you train, the more confident and poised you will be in any situation, whether it is a stressful situation or a violent confrontation. This is one reason why students train on a continuing basis, as well as for the health aspects. They are addressing two very important areas of life at once.
"How long does it take to earn a black belt?"
As a traditional school we have both age and length-of-training requirements. You will not see seven year old black belts walking around. There is a mininum four years of Karate training for teens and adults. Previous martial arts training is taken into account. Kids have additional age requirements for all ranks up to and including junior black belt. We suggest that students don't train for rank but train for training. All ranks here are internationally recognized ranks.
"Is Karate a religion?"
No! Karate is a Japanese cultural art. Being a traditional school, our class structure and format is Japanese. There is no deity involved. We bow in class to show respect like we shake hands in our culture. We kneel on the floor (except for those who have bad knees) like we sit on chairs in our culture. We learn the Japanese terminology just as the world uses English terminology for American baseball. It is the standard worldwide to practice the art or sport in the terminology and tradition of its origination.
"Will it make people aggressive?"
Generally, aggressiveness is caused by stress, lack of discipline and insuffcient anger management. Karate training addresses all of these areas. Training releases stress and the structures develops discipline and skills to manger anger. In addition, the general philosophies of the art positively influence aggressiveness for all practitioners.
Money is a necessary evil. Bills have to be paid. But money doesn't need to be the most important issue in the world. It is this philosophy that guides our tuition policy. We do not require contracts. All tuition is month-to-month. We believe we are the only school in Scottsdale that has a no contract (agreement) tuition policy. It is our responsibility to encourage and motivate our students to train; we do not use the threat of a contract. In addition, if a student is unable to pay all or part of their dues for hardship reasons, they don't have to pay. Our philosophy is
By: Sensei Ray Hughes
Scottsdale Martial Arts Center Owner and Chief Karate Instructor
School Motto: "We Teach the Ancient Ways to the Modern World."
We are a traditional Karate school, which means we have a long martial art history with an old and proven structure and format. This school has an unbroken instructor line that dates back to the 17th century. The teachings of this art are based on discipline, high level technique, philosophy and hard work. In this aspect, we are unlike many schools that are based on entertainment and quick rewards. Our presentation is truly unique. Though we run an old and formal program, we also smile and enjoy ourselves. We don't beat our students with a shinai (bamboo swords) like what was done in the past. We do have age and time requirements like the old systems. It is logical that age and maturity are required to be awarded legitimate ranks in Karate. Unlike the past, we do not put our instructors on pedestals. We are friends with our students and hope to be mentors to the young ones. We are all students of the art. Respect is earned and not demanded. We train hard and discuss the pros and cons of our art and all arts. Martial art history and philosophy are discussed but never lectured. Martial art training is an honorable way of life.
Our son has been doing karate at SMAC for 5 years and it's the best thing that has ever happened to him. His love for karate has taught him not only a sport, but discipline to take care of his body each day, respect for himself and others, commitment to continue karate and be the best he can be, and so important, self esteem. He is a very focused child, but we believe karate has kept him even more focused to do well in school. The SMAC dojo is more like a family then a place of business. It is a safe place that we know our son can go to practice without being concerned of his whereabouts.
Sen-sei Ray is the best! What we love is that Sen-sei doesn't just teach karate, he ends each class with some good words, and thoughts. He has the kids walk away with every day life lessons which they can't get anywhere else. We love it that parents are allowed to stay and view the classes. We must say, we love to stay and watch and listen to Sen-sei Ray teach and talk to the kids. It's amazing what we walk away with each class.
My younger son who doesn't take karate yet looks up to Tyler and we believe it's because SMAC teaches respect for all no matter who you are, where you come from, or if you practice karate. You can feel it when you walk into the dojo. When your son invites Sen-Sei Tyler for holidays and his birthday, what does that tell you? We advise anyone interested in exercise, and respect for oneself and others to check out SMAC.
The staff at Scottsdale Martial Arts studio is phenomenal! My 6 yr old daughter wanted to try karate because her friend was doing it so we gave it a shot. I know nothing about martial arts, but was very impressed by Sensei Ray Hughes. I had checked out a few other schools, but he was the first one who didn't make me feel like I'd walked onto a used car lot. He made no promises of making my daughter a black belt by the time she's 8, he didn't make me sign any contracts, and in fact, offered a few free lessons to see if she liked it. I was blown away by each of the sensei's teaching styles, their no nonsense approach and how they expect the kids to act in a mature and disciplined manner. Kids will be kids and this is a safe environment to make mistakes, grow and learn from those mistakes. One minute they are talking about Kung Fu Panda (he likes to subliminally give the kids messages) and the next they are sweating their little butts off. It's been a year and my daughter has competed in 2 local tournaments (gold, silver, gold and bronze) and she will be competing in Vegas in the Jr Olympics. I can't say enough about this place or their instructors. Sensei Tyler has been known to donate his own time for the better of the students and is leading the competition team to Vegas. If you want to reinforce the solid values, discipline and mature thinking that you teach at home, I highly recommend this dojo. Come with a sense of humor and an ounce of humility because you have got to be able to laugh at yourself and life in general.
Martial Arts studios are in every strip mall all over this city. Scottsdale Martial Arts Center, taught by Ray Hughes is by far the best! Ray has such a passion for the Martial Arts and a passion for teaching children. Humor, and "getting down to a kid's level" is Ray's unique way of teaching respect and discipline. He's truly a remarkable and unique man.
Ray also teaches adults with the same passion and sensitivity to each person's individual needs. He frequently uses the exact same humor on the adults as he does the children....this brings out the child in all of us, and makes for a very enjoyable, yet highly respectful learning environment.
You will love your experience at Scottsdale Martial Arts Center!!
Scottsdale Martial Arts Center has been a wonderful place for our daughter to learn karate! She has not only enjoyed learning this art form, but it has helped improve on her discipline and focus. Hannah definitely had a sense of self esteem before coming to Scottsdale Martial Arts Center, but the senseis have helped her channel her energy and focus to a new level of self assuredness and competence. Not only does our daughter wish to continue learning karate, but she is motivated and excited to come to class! The senseis teach our children at their level, but do not treat them like children. We feel lucky to have found a dojo that helps our child grow now and for the future!
By: Sensei Ray Hughes
