“My eight year old son recently began attending martial arts instruction twice per week at Gendai martial arts. My son has been diagnosed with ADHD, and we recently experienced a sudden transition to a single parent household. Faced with these obstacles, I began searching for a program that would provide my son with a way to develop himself and provide an outlet for his energy. I had little experience in this field, and after speaking with a few friends and calling different facilities, I stumbled upon Gendai. My inquiry was returned promptly, and Mr. Cobb insisted on speaking with me over the phone. I knew after speaking with him that I had found the program that would exceed my expectations. This program helps grow the student in a variety of ways. Not only teaching martial arts, but also personal skills, physical fitness, accountability, respect, and real world survival. We are not speaking about only bullying and self defense, but fire safety, decision making, venomous snakes and many other things that kids need to be taught in order to deal with.
I am pleased to know that the instruction in martial arts does not focus simply on repetition and reaction to the scenarios provided, but thinking their way through a situation and being able to react effectively and decisively through whatever situation is presented. After having attended lessons for several weeks and becoming comfortable in the environment my son has shown great progress in self control, his school behavior is reinforced by the Gendai program. His respect and interaction at home have improved. Most importantly, he is eager to attend these lessons. He is treated with respect, yet held fully accountable along with the other students. He gets a powerful outlet for his energy, and acquires genuinely useful knowledge. We often talk about Gendai martial arts school on our journey to and from school, where he takes the lessons learned at Gendai and applies them during his day.
I would personally recommend this program to parents and guardians seeking to help their children achieve and maintain high standards. The lessons learned here will stay with them for a lifetime of success.
» Steven Lewis – parent of child in kids program
When I signed up for the Gendai Martial Arts, I really wasn’t sure what to expect. I learned a lot and feel better prepared, should I ever need to defend myself. I’m in my 60’s and I’m very short and no longer as strong or as athletic as I use to be and just wanted to feel like I wouldn’t freeze up, if I was in a precarious situation. The instructor was mindful of my capabilities or lack thereof and due to my stature (as I am only 5’ tall) there were some moves that just wouldn’t work for me and he was able to identify that and tailor them so that I could be just as effective. I learned a lot, still have more to learn, had a lot of fun and burned a few calories along the way.”
» Debra Foglesong
“The Reason I joined Gendai Jujitsu was because I was concerned what I was learning at other schools wasn’t effective in a street confrontation. I have had experience taking classes in Muay Thai, Jujitsu and Karate. Also, I have been to schools where its obvious they are more about getting money aka a contract then actually teaching you. I have been amazed by the level of training I have received from Master Cobb and Mazo, they are really experienced and understand what it means to be in a real street confrontation. I travel a lot with my job in which they have been more than understanding and they have done there best to get me up to speed while I’m away. I’m so glad there is a school like this out there.”
David Hansen – Applications Engineer
“Prior to finding Gendai I spent 3 years studying various forms of martial arts. I was not able to find any one form that prepared me to defend myself against a real world, unscripted threat. The one thing that seperates Gendai from other forms is that it is formless. They teach their students to adapt to and overcome threat using various techniques to include vulnerable point strikes, chokes, holds, submissions, grappling, and just about anything else that works derived from multiple disciplines. In the past 4 months studying self defense at Gendai I have gained more confidence in my ability to protect myself than I gained in the 3 years prior.
My prior experiences included: (1) Tae Kwon Do – This is probably good for children to learn discipline, respect, agility, flexibility and mental gymnastics (aka memorizing form). In my experience it is absolutely worthless for self defense. (2) Muay Thai – This is good for striking, but oriented toward competition rather than self defense. This has numerous shortcomings. Although you may gain comfort with a linear striking attack, most real world altercations are not that simple. This discipline does not teach you how to defend yourself against multiple other attacks, such as chokes, pushing, tackling, grabs, holds, etc. (3) Aikido – This tought me locks and throws, but lacked in striking, ground work, grappling. This was also pretty scripted. I think you may be able to defend yourself in a limited number of scenarios if you spent 10 years studying this. (4) Ninjitsu – I thought this was a nice balance of striking, holds, ground work and even weapons defense. The problem was that it was also pretty scripted and not realistic. Needless to say, my search is now over. I have found my home at Gendai.”
» Rob Hunter, MD
“As we all know, the world is a dangerous and sometimes lonely place to live. With the growth of gangs locally and a general increase in violent crimes a person needs to be concerned about how to survive, in the event they are robbed or assaulted. I have a wife and 3 children to worry about.
I had decided two years ago that training in martial arts was one way to help prepare for the possibility of having to defend my family. I enrolled my 3 children in a jujitsu dojo. After a year I was disappointed that the owner of the dojo, ( a 7th degree black belt), was more interested in the income the dojo brought in than actually training his students. He gave away belts and the stripes for the belts on a monthly basis and charged more than an appropriate fee for the rank increases. He always promoted his students, even if it was not appropriate. The income this brought in for him was amazing. He actually has black belts that can not do easy, basic techniques. I had serious doubts that my children could use what they learned to defend themselves. We left the dojo and actually attended 7 other dojos to see what was available in the area of self defense. Of the seven dojos we attended only 2 were of any interest to us at all. The other five were more interested in promoting their students then in training their students to actually defend themselves. After taking a vote in the remaining two dojos, we chose your dojo and began training with you.
My three children have been taking Martial Arts lessons from you for about 13 months now. All three of my children believe that they have learned 100 times as much with you, than they did in a the previous jujitsu/ninjutsu dojo after spending approximately the same amount of time in each dojo.
The mixture of types of activities you offer, (conditioning, martial art techniques, and real life defense scenarios), are great. Your training provides both great physical conditioning and great mental awareness of how to defend yourself. My children have learned a tremendous amount of martial arts techniques and how to use those techniques to defend themselves. They are developing a confidence that they can defend themselves in almost any situation. The hands on training and martial arts knowledge that you provide are exceptional.
All three of my children are very upbeat and positive about their experience with you and they look forward to many years of training with you. The exceptional quality that I see in you is that you actually care about your students and how they grow and learn with you. After being a student of yours for a year, I talked with each of my children to see how they felt about attending your dojo for another year. They were certainly happy and very positive about the way they expect to grow in the next year of training with you. Thank you for helping my children to grow toward having a healthy and positive outlook on life.”
» Mike Redding
Gendai Martial Arts has helped me build confidence in self-defense. Having studied “Americanized” martial arts prior to entering Gendai, I can say that the other art form was not beneficial. Whereas it did teach discipline to a degree, it did not teach defense from a real attacker. Basic blocks and punches are not effective on the street. The defense at Gendai teaches me how to use my strengths as a woman to defend myself in case of an attack. It is about learning to survive an attack; not about attacking.”
» Andrea – Licensure Administrator
“The reason I began studying Gendai Martial Arts was basically to learn to defend myself on the street. Even being a former MMA competitor, I realized there is a huge difference between sport fighting and fighting to defend your life. I knew I could fare well in a ring, with rules and some safety equipment, but I had doubts that some of the techniques I was taught before would work in the street or against a weapon. I began working out at Gendai Martial Arts and am very pleased with what I’ve learned. We work on defending against armed and unarmed attackers, multiple attackers, the use of weapons for our defense and you’ll also learn the legal ramifications of fighting and what is a justified defense according to North Carolina law. If you have no previous experience, Gendai Martial Arts can teach you simple techniques to control the situation and if you are a seasoned martial artist, they can sharpen what skills you have to make you a more complete fighter. I urge you to try a few classes and see for yourself. It’s not your typical martial arts school!”
» Kenneth – Civil Engineer