KICKgen Legend Don and Christine Rodriguez

The next KICKgen legends (yes two) are two people very close to us on the KICKgen team. These two are long-time friends and fellow promoters to two of our founders, Mike McCoy and Mike Sawyer, and JPM coach to Lauren Kearney.

Don and Christine Rodriguez have both contributed so much to sport karate in so many ways. You don’t get to brush up again such legendary people every day.

Read on…

KICKgen's featured Athlete...

The KICKgen team would like to introduce a youth who lives her life demonstrating the values she is taught and our 2nd featured athlete – star of our athlete’s corner…. Andi Woods.

Read on...

Help spread the word and win!

One of the keys to helping KICKgen continue to develop a strong voice and champion the cause of martial arts is grow our community to be larger and more influential.
Guess what – you can help and win prizes.

It’s easy! Here is what you do…

Go straight to your instructor and ask him/her to add your school to the FREE KICKgen school directory. You can even forward this email and give them this link: ADD MY SCHOOL TO THE FREE DIRECTORY.
When your school has been added to the KICKgen FREE directory and you have added your name and your school’s name to the KICKboard section: contests / my school, you are entered to win a really cool prize pack.

Want to know what you could win? The prize pack contains: 2 KICKgen Rising Stars Calendars, 1 US Open Cap, 1 US Open slingback, and 5 DVDs from 2002 to 2007 of the US Open International Martial Arts Championships. Total prize pack value over $200.
Deadline to post in the KICKboard that your school has added their listing is 4/30. The winner will be randomly drawn and announced on 5/1/09.



If your school is already a KICKgen school - no problem - a separate contest will be announced early next week. You have a chance to win and win BIG!

Quest Crew nails # 1 spot on America’s Best Dance Crew

MTV started as network airing just music videos and has transformed over the last decade into a network predominately of reality TV shows. In addition to the Real World and Road Rules the network has seen its share of popularity from today’s teenage generation with such shows as “The Hills” and “The City”. But as the times continue to revolutionize so has the opportunities for creative individuals looking for an outlet to get some exposure.

Much like the martial arts industry, for years dancing has been very much an underground and under appreciated creative outlet. Until, recently and even still now dancers work hard and get little appreciation or return for their efforts. However, with shows like “Dancing with the Stars,” “So You Think You Can Dance” and MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” today’s generations are given hope that creative outlets have the potential to allow individuals to follow their dreams and make a living pursuing their passions.

For those of you who haven’t been following MTV’s “America’s Best Dance Crew” (ABDC) is in its third season of airing. The show has been slammed with applications and crews trying to prove to America that they truly deserve the title of being America’s Best dance crew. This season held a lot of great challenges that pushed each dance crew to become creative - think outside the box and even at points get familiar with styles of dance they were not necessarily the best at. Steve Terada, known for his extreme flips and creative forms capabilities has danced with several groups over the last couple of years. His creativity and capabilities from the martial arts have helped him to excel in yet another creative industry such as dance.

On March 5, 2009, Steve and his friends, Quest Crew, faced the ladies of Beat Freakz for the title shot of being named America’s Best Dance Crew. The seven weeks of battling had finally come to a conclusion and it was nail biter at that. Quest was always among the top of the crews involved in the show and had several performances during the course of the competition that were absolutely amazing. However, it would be proven in week seven as everything was being put on the line that Quest Crew could put together the better performance. American voted and Steve and his friends were officially crowned America’s Best Dance Crew.

We’d like to Congratulate Steve and the guys of Quest Crew. Their performances where inspirational and their title is certainly well deserved.

If you’d like to see some of Quest Crews past performances you can check them out at http://www.mtv.com/ontv/dyn/dance_crew/videos-full-episodes.jhtml.

News, Legends and Athletes….oh my!

Very soon KICKgen is launching two new sections that we’re very excited about. The first new section is called KICKgen legends where we’re writing a history book of martial arts legends; these are people (you know the names) that have achieved a renowned status in the world of martial arts. They are people who have contributed greatly to the martial arts industry and it is their history that KICKgen wants to capture and share for posterity. These legends have graciously agreed to be interviewed by KICKgen and will host (1) one hour chat session live with KICKgen members during the two weeks that they are a featured legend.
The second section will be called Athletes Corner and will feature KICKgen members who are nominated by their instructor for:

Martial arts ability, motivation and leadership

• Citizenship
• Scholarship
• Mentoring

Basically, we’re looking for a few good young men and women who demonstrate their success in more ways than winning at competitions. Winning is great, but what other ways does this martial artists show that he or she is a winner in life? Ok – instructors, it is up to you. Nominate your students that you think truly deserve this recognition by emailing KICKgen at nominate@kickgen.com

The first Legend and Athlete has already been selected and every two weeks there will be a new one. Who will they be? Only one way to find out, stay tuned to KICKgen!