Ara on the Mats

My student Ara Grigoryan testing for high blue belt.

Back in May 2011, right around Memorial Day weekend, I had a man and his wife with their two young children come in to my school. The man was very tall with a stern face. They were not coming in to see about the martial arts program for their kids, they were coming in to see about taking martial arts for themselves. It seemed like his wife was really the one who wanted him to do it.

So the two began a trial where they came to class once a week on Mondays together. After the trial, the two began to really enjoy the martial arts classes, and the wife began to do the fitness classes as well and her husband would take more martial arts classes a week. Over the course of a few months, the husband really warmed up to me and the other students and you began to see a positive energy exude from him and even his wife. Their names were Ara and Juneta (Yoo-nehta).

They took their first color belt test in October of Halloween weekend. It was the year we had crazy weather and it SNOWED tremendously. TMAFC still had power so we had ther belt test as planned. They did very well and afterwards a whole bunch of us went back to their house where we had what I believe was a FEAST! We had a night full of food, laughter, and good times. I think there was nine of us for that first dinner. And hence, Ara, Juneta, and the kids were a part of the family! (You can read about it HERE.)

Over some time, they continued to go through their ranks and even their children began to do martial arts. Juneta over time found a greater purpose for herself with martial arts, which I personally think caught her by surprise. And Ara, as we know him, is one of the sweetest men you'll ever meet. He is a good father, a great student, and a damn good team player. He has always been encouraging and supportive to all of the students of all ages. Eventually, Ara also began to compete for the school and has done very well in Olympic style sparring, forms, and eventually point sparring.

Husband and wife sparring! Juneta gets a good shot on Ara!

This past month, my instructor for Saturdays has been unable to teach due to personal things happening in her life, so when I needed someone to cover the classes, Ara stepped up and volunteered. Ara is now a high red belt, our Senior Competition Team Captain, and will be testing for low brown belt in October. A few weeks ago he taught only the second class while I was at the Korean school I teach at on Saturdays. When I returned from the Korean school, classes were going on still and I just sat and watched Ara as he taught.

I observed very carefully. I listened to how he was speaking, I listened to how he explained material to different students by age and rank. I was beyond pleased and so proud. He went straight through the curriculum, and he used notes from his own classes to follow as well. He was loud and assertive in his speaking, but also very encouraging. He acknowledged good things students did, he crituqued positively to improvements needed to be made. He referenced and reiterated things that I would say, like "Remember, like Master Trento always says..." and he included himself in the language he would speak to them like "When WE train, this is how WE...."; this is very good language to be using when teaching a class.

He also went outside the box and made sure not only were the students doing well in the class but also challenging them with different objectives to keep everyone stimulated and focused while still improving. He commanded the dojang so well, I was so proud watching him. The best thing, for me, was that he kept me in the classroom while I physically wasn't in the classroom. THAT is key! That is so important because if I ever were not on the mats for whatever reason, I have to know that things will run smooth and well, and the quality of the training is not compromised at all. It was like I wasn't even absent, and that's so important and it's been a long while since I've had that.

I am so proud of Ara and grateful for him to stepping up. I am proud of him as my student and he's always been a good friend to me as well. Ara you represented very well and did a fantastic job teaching the Saturday classes this month and thank you for "keeping me" on the mats even when I wasn't there!

Ara won three gold medals at the New York Metropolitan AAU Qualifier last year!

Yours in service,
MASTER A TRENTO