Okay, so it's Hapkido?

Sort of, let us explain.

Our foundation is Hapkido and Brazillian Jiujitsu. We were primarily Hapkido/BJJ until the year 2014 before political rifts changed that. Since then our style has been influenced by the other arts we became involved in. Things primarily affected by cross training were things we found that we didn't do as well as we thought we did. Normally small tweaks, ideas, or outer input brought on "Aha!" moments that really brought some aspects of our hapkido to life.

So what happened?

There are some politics involved in our history that we will not divulge in publicly as we still have a high level of respect for our past instructors and federation regardless of political difference or disagreement. If you get to know us, you'll probably end up hearing some details, but at the end of the day we just had different visions on select topics. To our dismay, this action also severed our affiliations with larger martial arts associations that we were once associated with.

That's not convincing, why should I train with you?

If you like martial arts, you should probably at least come watch a class and meet us, it's completely free and always welcome.

We are a small eclectic group that is open minded and enjoys extra participants and company as well as other ideas to challenge our own thoughts and progress our learning.

Our philosophy is generally if everyone is always agreeing and never asking questions, that's not a strong environment to harbor growth.

This is confusing...

Don't let it be.

Simply put:

We are a group of martial artists with different backgrounds that get together three times a week, train together, and have managed to slowly build up a small student body around our curriculum.

We also like drop ins, so if you're a level headed martial artist not out to cause trouble we also welcome you.

Is there rank?

Again, sort of, we will explain:

We don't emphasize it too much since we aren't affiliated with any major organizations. We just want you to come train.

However, in the essence of fitting in with the modern martial arts culture we have a modern style 12 Kyu grading system in place for students of our curriculum.

If you're curious, that translates to 5 belts:

White -> Green -> Blue -> Brown -> Black

We are also fond of the BJJ striping system so we use stripes for grading steps as necessary.

There are no tests, and there are no promotion fees.

Finally, if you are yudansha in a different art, you are generally permitted to wear your rank after introduction.

Are there any major martial arts association affiliation?

At this moment, no.

We do however have small local affiliates that we recommend and cross train with when possible.

We are also currently partnered with Progressive Martial Arts as additional instructors to their martial arts program.

Large organization affiliation is great for some things, though finding an association that doesn’t require payment and hefty ranking fees to both instructors and students seems to be getting rare in modern budo organizations. Many associations are run like major businesses, and we strive to not be a part of that. We understand the need to pay the bills, but a lot of these organizations lean a little more towards the monetization side than what we are comfortable with asking our students to commit.

However, in saying this, we are searching for an organization in the Japanese Martial Arts Community as well as a Brazilian Jiujitsu organization with which to affiliate.

If and when those things happen, they will be noted here.

Do you spar?

Yes. Light, medium, and heavy, both stand-up and ground, as well as sport BJJ rolling at times.

A lot of our drills also fall under these categories.

Light, medium, and hard give different ideas to different people, so, in a nutshell:

Light: No gear, minimal contact and force, head generally prohibited outside of drilling.

Medium: Gear if desired, 30-50% force, loose light fist/palm head contact allowed.

Heavy: Head & mouthpiece minimum, chest, legs, arms, hands optional. 60-80% force.

Sparring is generally reserved to those who have come to a few classes - or those we know personally before training - to avoid bullying activity, anger/ self-control issues, or sandbagging by other people or groups.

Do you use weapons?

For the most part, no.

Mr. Gibbons is currently expanding his training in Okinawan Kobudo under the guidance of Kyoshi Doug Hoover in hopes of bringing it to the Ten Ume Ryῡ curriculum. If and when given permission and teaching authority from his instructors, kobudo weaponry will be taught as well within our group.

The exceptions to this rule are traditional bokken training and modern knife-defense principles, though our bokken training is very rare.

Is this a real martial art?

Ten Ume Ryū itself is certainly not known very well at all, as we are a very small group in the world of martial arts.

None the less, the major components that the principles are derived from are all from legitimate martial arts in which we train or have trained and have experience.

It is our hope that our specific curriculum will someday fall under one of our component styles as a known successor or branch.

Will it work in self defense?

Self-defense in modern society is primarily understanding violence and knowing the signs of it and when to get out - not being able to hurt people. So, on that note, yes. We talk about self defense a lot.

False confidence is instilled in many practitioners of martial arts around the world without any real knowledge of either physical confrontation or violence, and we strive to not let our students fall victim to this.

We also strongly recommend reading up on this and more at Marc MacYoung's website here. Please be aware that though extremely important to read on, there are adult topics on this website regarding violence, including but not limited to both criminal and sexual violence, so viewer discretion is advised.

We agree with the majority of Mr. MacYoung's views, and he is the easiest frame of reference for reading material pertaining to self-defense in its most raw form.

However, in the chance that you end up in a situation where handling violence with force is necessary, we have made absolutely sure that the basics we teach are very fundamental fighting techniques that are heavily composed of basic boxing, grip control, wrestling, clinch control, take downs, and handling the ground from a street oriented situation as opposed to sport grappling, even though we practice sport grappling as well.

We save a majority of the more traditional movements for after you get the basic fighting portions down and after we see you're interested in the art as whole and not just brawling.

Our teaching style is also very adamant in raising awareness of traditional techniques that may not be as applicable in many modern scenarios and in understanding that they are for extracting principles, skill building, and preservation of the art.

How long to get my black belt?

If that's your concern, Century Martial Arts sells them pretty cheap, or you can find someone who hands them out, though that doesn't come with a lot of true gratification. If you're dead set on getting one from us though, keep reading.

For mudansha ( Those without previous dan ranking ) - Typically 8 - 12 Years is expected

For yudansha ( Those with dan ranking ) - 2 - 6 years depending on style and skill.

A black belt from us on a global scale means virtually nothing. We are a small, unaccredited group. On an internal scale, anyone who knows us or trains with us knows we don't hand them out, so you can be sure you earned it and that it has merit to us and to them. On a personal scale it can mean whatever you want it to mean.

When we present you a black belt, we only have that. There are no higher dan gradings.

The only thing beyond black, rank wise, is permission to teach our curriculum, which will take more time and dedication.

Permission to teach could be viewed as similar, if familiar, to the idea of Menkyo in traditional Japanese terminology.

A yudansha from us says we trust you and view you as family to our Ryū. We expect you to respect the Ryū and its members. If and when given permission, we expect you to pass on our teachings as we taught them to you, even if alongside your own interpretation, to preserve the style and its ancestry.

It is a responsibility to our instructors, their instructors, and to our martial ancestors that our teachings do not get lost or twisted in the passing of time as many do.

Who are the instructors?

Adam Gibbons is the primary instructor for the Ten Ume Ryῡ curriculum.

Adam began his training in martial arts in 2001 under the instruction of Mr. George Kattouf, Mr. Robert Jeffco, and Mr. Patrick McDowell in Hapkido. Around 2008 BJJ was becoming integrated into the training and in 2010 Adam was promoted to Blue Belt in Yamasaki BJJ, and shortly after in 2011 to yudansha in Hapkido. Adam began moving on to learn further arts in the year 2014. Throughout his training Adam has been been very involved at the dojo, and continues to volunteer a lot of his time to teaching while trying to further his own studies. Prior to his yudansha grading, he was an avid assistant instructor, dedicating time to assist with a majority of classes. Adam frequently reaches out to affiliated martial arts groups in the area to set up group training dates and maintain positive relationships with other like minded martial artists in the area.

Many students appreciate Mr. Gibbon's up front approach to instruction. His attention to detail, and understanding of body mechanics are not found from many. His goal in teaching is to leave no stone unturned, explore all possibilities, and explain everything. Eliminating the false confidence that is frequently bestowed among many practitioners today is just the beginning. Mr. Gibbon's is also devoted to help all students develop skill sets with proven methods that not only promote confidence, but a healthy and fulfilling life in the martial arts.

Our secondary instructor is Olivia Walter.

Olivia Walter began her training in 2001 under the instruction of Mr. George Kattouf, Mr. Robert Jeffco, and Mr. Patrick McDowell in Hapkido. Following the same foundation as Mr. Gibbons she was introduced to BJJ around 2008. Ms. Walter was promoted to yudansha in 2013 in Hapkido. Olivia's experience to other arts began when she became affiliated with Ten Ume Ryῡ in 2015.

Olivia is very dedicated to her Hapkido roots which can be seen in her technique and instruction methods. Making constant effort to improve her foundation while still being open to the influence of other interpretations as she trains fuels her ability for growth. Her specialties reside in her kicking techniques and depth of understanding for kinetic motion, and her instruction has been greatly appreciated in the development of both hip and body coordination and understanding of kicking dynamics by many of her students.

Also...

Adam and Olivia can also be found as assistant instructors at Progressive Martial Arts and Fitness Center, where they have partnered with Mr. Rocco Alianiello in efforts to increase the quality and availability of martial arts instruction in the area.

Do you teach kids?

For the most part, no.

We will sometimes make exceptions for respectable and mature young adults who show a devout interest in learning martial arts.

What does Ten Ume Ryu mean?

Ten Ume Ryū roughly translates to Heavenly Plum (Blossom) Style.

Why Heavenly Plum Blossom?

The name was chosen in partial homage to our ancestor art Cheonkido ( 天気道 ), which was a style of Hapkido taught by Master Tongsu K. Lee from Kwangju. It was also known as Kwangju Leesi Ryu ( 光州李氏流 ).

The Japanese pronunciation for cheon-ki-do is ten-ki-dō, which translates roughly to “Way of Heaven’s Power”, from which comes Ten ( 天 ), the first kanji.

Cheonkido has very few, if any, practitioners left, and we are not a Cheonkido group. However, many of the techniques in which we were trained in were directly from Master Lee’s style.

Ume ( 梅 ), the second kanji, translates to plum, generally referring to plum blossom trees. It is our choice of symbol to represent, as it does in both Japanese and Chinese culture, strength, devotion, and perseverance: traits a martial artist is required to have in his life both inside and outside the dōjō.

Where/When are classes?

We can be found at Progressive Martial Arts at these times:

Sunday: 10:30a - 12:00p

Monday: 7:00p - 8:30p

Wednesday: 7:00p - 8:30p

How can I join & cost?

Scroll down and contact us or stop by to meet us during one of our scheduled class times

Our location and contact info are located here.

You can also get a head start by reading our general info sheet and by printing and signing our release forms.

Generally by reading this far the question of "How much will this cost?" has probably run through your mind.

Our goal as instructors is to stay competitively priced in the area to prevent those who may be financially compromised from being left out of the ability to develop a healthy lifestyle through martial training.

We offer the first two weeks of training as free trial classes for new students. This being said, after making a commitment to training, we ask a very nominal fee of $25 a month from each student to help assist our costs. This gets you access to all three classes a week for one month's time.