Finding Grandmaster Munk and Georgia Kenpo has truly been a "lifesaver."
Our son had been training with a local school for about three years when they stopped offering Kenpo. Our son really wanted to continue his training but there were no other Kenpo schools or instructors nearby. We were so happy when we finally found Georgia Kenpo, located about an hour away, and our son has been training with Grandmaster Munk ever since.
As an advanced belt at his previous school and proficient in what he had been taught, we believed that our son had the necessary skills to defend himself or others. It wasn't until he started training with Grandmaster Munk that we found that wasn't true. At his previous school, when they demonstrated different self-defense techniques, the "attacker" was not really acting as an actual assailant but rather as an "assistant." Their job was to make it easier for the student to demonstrate the technique not to show that it actually worked. When our son was asked to demonstrate his past self-defense techniques at Georgia Kenpo, he found they didn't work. When confronted with someone acting like an actual attacker, the techniques were not effective. It was at that point that we understood that his previous training had been more for show and that many martial arts schools are more interested in making money than ensuring their students gain useable survival skills.
Georgia Kenpo is very different from his previous school in knowledge and what is offered. Grandmaster Munk has attained the highest rank in the style and has over forty-two years of Kenpo knowledge and experience. As a retired police officer, he has also used Kenpo successfully in real world situations not just on the mat. Georgia Kenpo also has an actual written curriculum which assures that each student learns the same material. The techniques taught are actually effective and receiving a new rank is about demonstrated proficiency not about collecting additional fees. Private lessons are also offered outside of group class so that each student can get the individualized attention they need which allows each student to move at his or her own pace. All the school's students are very dedicated to their own training but also extremely encouraging, helpful and supportive of each other. From the instructors to the students, there are no egos here.
We are so thankful that we found Georgia Kenpo. We never thought our son could learn directly from a teacher of Grandmaster Munk's caliber. Grandmaster Munk sets an amazing example and personifies everything a true martial artist should be. He is extremely knowledgeable, humble and always patient. His main objective is to make his students the best they can be and teaches and motivates them in a fun and engaging way. He has taught our son things we never knew existed and helped him perfect what he was doing right and tweaked and fixed what he had been doing wrong. The amount of knowledge our son has gained since leaving his previous school is truly unbelievable. His katas now have power and useable techniques, and his sparring is at a level we never thought possible.
We are finally confident that our son is learning how to save his own life or the life of someone else.
Thank you so much Grandmaster Munk!
Dawn Kortobi 2018