Joerg's American Karate Studio

Morning Motivation

What intrigued me when I first started karate as a 17 year old freshman at the University of South Carolina was the concept of patience. As a young, rowdy teenager, I only gave it a passing thought, and dismissed it as just that, a concept. It took me many years to understand that the essence of one's development in any endeavor takes time, work, focus, and a mental calm that allows one to resist the frustration of losing one's patience and give up. It is the steadfast enjoym...ent of the process of doing/learning and not simply wanting the results instantly. That is why a Black Belt takes years, not months. It is the perfection of each part of the whole that should drive anyone that is doing any activity, and the constant searching for learning more. When we are confined to our houses in the present crisis, it is this patience that should be practiced. It is a perfect time to immerse oneself in any number of exciting new activities that will make the time go by with value. In the end, we can all emerge better persons. See more

Mr Joerg, steve Barnes (senior, senior), Jon green and Priscilla shoffner in a demo at theZembo in Harrisburg during the Golden Gloves show (1991?)

Anyone interested in my new, 6 week Boxing and Kickboxing Beginners course, please come up the back stairway on Monday, Sep. 23 at 7 PM to register. It will be held on Mondays from 7:30-9PM for $75. No equipment is necessary, however I will have gloves, tees and my manual available for purchase if you are so inclined. For any of my other students, please come to the studio Weds at 7PM and we will hammer out regular classes, if the interest is there. On Tues the 24th at 7PM, I will register new students for my Modern Tai-chi 6 week course, It will meet from 7-8PM and is $75.

Registration form for 2019 Battle of Harrisburg. To download, click on the form, look to the bottom to find "options". Click on "options" and it should give you a choice to download. Thanks for your interest, and we look forward to seeing you there!!!

These new classes will start Monday, May 6th. Call 717-697-2941 to register

Based upon a new model I am trying at the studio, I am offering the following classes - Introduction to Boxing for Kids 6-7PM Mon. and Weds. 4 classes for $50, and Introduction to Boxing for Adults same days 7-8PM. Modern Tai Chi for all ages Tues. and Thurs. 7-8PM 4 classes $50. This is taught by an instructor who has trained boxers for 45 years and who has been involved in the martial arts for 51 years. Self Defense for all ages - Weds. 8-9PM $10 a class.

As a disability claim adjudicator for Social Security Disability claims back in 1979, I was particularly interested in the respiratory system because of my life/death lung problems. And my 65 years in all manner of sports exposed me to analyzing how to protect that crucial system. so I was able to test, refine, and experiment with non=traditional approaches that have helped me survive and excel when I should have died many years ago.

Only my closest friends and relatives know that I have had severe lung problems for many decades. In fact, my doctor said to me at one point " you will probably die of respiratory failure" For close to 50 years, then, I have taken many avenues to protect my lungs, so now I feel that I should share my methods since I should've been dead many years ago and have survived because of my study of this killer. I therefore will start having seminars on the techniques I have developed for those with COPD, asthma, etc. starting in May of 2019. These sessions will be reasonably priced. You may call me at 717-697-2941 email me at [email protected] or message me and we will begin to organize classes.

Once again I was asked if I took autistic kids at my studio. She said that she had gone to many psychologists and they told her "martial arts is the LAST resort" for her child and suggested she seek out a martial arts studio to help him. I told her that I had taught autistic kids with marvelous results but only ones that chose martial arts as their FIRST resort. If professional psychologists can't help their child after many sessions at $200 an hour or more, I can't won't attempt to change their behavior at $100 a month.

I was told point blank as I lay in the intensive care unit after being horribly burned that they had never seen a person survive the type of extensive burns I had. They took pictures for the medical books and I underwent 14 major operations before I finally got out into the work world. They said and I agreed 1,000% that because of the top shape martial arts had gotten me in, my body and mind were able to deal with and survive those hospital stays I was almost killed 3 times ...in that hospital by totally incontrovertible situations of mal practice that occurred. I vowed that when I got in a position to do so, I would write about the health care system and offer some ideas to stop or help control those sorts of death dealing events in hospitals. I did so, 30 years ago in a book I self published, which no publisher would touch. During that year alone, 125,000 people died in hospitals of unrelated reasons to what brought them there. Now I read the numbers of deaths has jumped to 250,000 Americans a year according to the public safety experts from John's Hopkins Hospital. My point is that martial arts can protect you in many ways that are not obvious. In addition to the near death experiences I had in the one hospital that I mentioned, there have been MANY times my training saved me in hospitals where I was either a patient, or even a visitor. See more

Contact me if you want divisions added. In the 36 years I have held my martial arts tournaments, for example, I have had soft forms, 3+ group forms, group self-defense sets, etc. Due to insurance reasons we cannot have breaking any more.

For what it's worth, I have both Patriots and Rams (both St. Louis and Los Angeles) tie-dye t-shirts for sale. $20-$25 depending upon the design.

I'll be there - will you?

I am having a great sale on kids' Karate uniforms. The smaller ones in white and black up to size 3 are $12 each. These are lightweight, cotton/poly blend with the top, the bottom which has an elastic waist with a pull string and a white belt. They are in sealed plastic, so I can't open them. In other words, no mix and match of these. My supply of martial arts weaponry is also always on sale and I have some really superb bladed weapons of varying sizes and opening mechanisms. Call me for an appointment at 717-697-2941. Thanks.

Last day for shirt orders. Order in the link below.

Cool Joerg's American Karate shirts and hoodies now available. Get your order in by the December 4th deadline and show your support! https://www.customink.com/fundraising/joergs-american-karate

These two martial artists, Sam Dubs and Eric McClune have a work ethic that I both admire, and now am somewhat jealous of in my aging process. I am very proud of both Sam and Eric in many ways. Keep up the fine work, gentlemen.

Congratulations are well deserved to Mr Sam M Dubs on earning his black belt in Kickboxing. Glad to see you back at the studio sir. Also pictured, myself Mr Eric Mcclune. I am humbled to receive a second degree black belt from the legendary Thomas C. Joerg.

Tuesday night at Joergs

My latest student to demonstrate the addiction to the iPhone, immediately whipped out his phone at the end of class (although I have had students that in the middle of a drill on the heavy bag took out their phone and began texting). He is 19 years old from an affluent family. After formal class is when we have a skull session to discuss the intricacies of what and why we did the drills I had them do. As I began to talk, only 2 feet from his face, he would not, or could not, ...put the phone down when I told him to put it away. Finally, after calling him "rude" he put it down and glared at me. Naturally, that was his last class with me as he evidently could not take an adult calling him "rude" and he did not come back. Part of discipline is respect, you see, and at home, he probably never has this for his parents, so he will run away from anyone that confronts him on this issue. See more

In my 48 years of teaching martial arts, hundreds, if not thousands of people send their kids to me to get "discipline". Recognizing that the essence of this concept starts in the home, all I can tell them is that if the student sticks with our program a year, they will have an inkling of what discipline is and should have some demonstratable indicators that they have begun the process of discipline. What I am finding, though, is that in addition to the distractions that caus...e them to need discipline that are mainstream - single parent household, drugs, etc - the new battle is with the electronics in their hand and at home. Literally, they are so addicted to their games, texts, etc that they cannot listen to instruction. That is one reason, I surmise, that I have very few students. Too bad, but they are eventually going to be the losers in life. See more

We are having our gun safety and handling seminar tomorrow if there are enough people (4 is the minimum for a class). This is a rare opportunity to learn how to load/unload (with inert ammunition)many different handguns, rifles and shotguns, find their safety features, learn how to aim them, etc. from 9am -12pm at 43 E. Locust St., Mechanicsburg. The cost is $35. Please call 717-697-2941 today if you are coming, as we only have one person interested at this point and that is not enough to make it worthwhile to set up the course.

Martial arts training helps people in so many facets of their lives, but the intangible ones are those that one must rely on in the times of stress or serious injury. Like Lucy Keeney, who battled her latest medical travails with the knowledge and spirit she learned at my studio, I literally saw death while I was in the intensive care unit at Richland Memorial Hospital in Columbia, SC and made a decision not to die. It was the spiritual aspect of the training that I had immer...sed myself in so deeply that saved my life. The rest of what has been thrown at me in life since that night, October 19th, 1974, when I decided to fight rather than succumb has been far easier after that experience. Lucy is discovering that like strong metal, many heat treatments are sometimes required. She now can be someone's inspiration for how she has handled this medical episode. See more

Who needs one of these at their desk?! #whodoesnt Don't have one? We got the next best (re: better) thing. Classes start tonight at 6:30 and take that workday frustration out on one of our full size heavy bags.

To see all of my posts on self-defense against non-aggressors that can kill you, go 6 down and start there. If you ever get injured, it could be something worth reading

I am soo proud of Lucy for going through this ordeal and her positive outlook despite her pain and other trauma that this sort of incident causes. The studio wishes the best for her. If I was in a financial position to do so, I would fly her to a country where she could get good, stress free health care!!!

And, of course, one of the other areas of self-defense or in other words, self-preservation, is the lifelong bond the martial arts builds against an often ugly world. I cannot tell you how many times martial artists have come to my aid and other martial artists aid simply because they are in the martial arts. It defines your character in so many positive ways that complete strangers who are martial artists will help you in so many non medical (other than defending against assailants) ways. A guy who helped me rebuild after my building was flooded a few years ago said it best. "I am a Black Belt myself, and I know you are a Black Belt, so I will do a Black Belt level job in re-building your downstairs". Black Belt Excellence is understood everywhere, by every socio-ethnic group.

The pitiful aspect of this present day dilemma is exactly what she said in talking about her misery to me. She could get heroin far easier than getting pain medication from her own doctor(s). That, to me, is against her civil rights. The Constitution of the United States prohibits "cruel and unusual punishment". But, because a bunch of people CHOOSE to take these opioids for fun and frolic, now people like Lucy are in INSANE PAIN. We of course know that if the doctors were in... this level of pain that they would be scarfing down pain killers, but now the over vigilance by government has placed them in a position that they now torture their own patients other than helping ease this pain. So, the lessons I want to give on self-defense today are 1) martial arts helps defend your body against disease and other trauma, like brain surgery 2) you often, like I did in several hospitals, have to defend yourself from all manner of bizarre medical malfeasance or you could be one of the 100,000 or more who die every year at the hands of their "caregivers" and c) you often have to defend yourself from drug deprivation as in her case. When I had no health insurance, I did this by going to other countries and bringing back life saving drugs like antibiotics, because I had no insurance and my trip would be paid for because the SAME pills in these countries were one tenth to one one hundredths of what the SAME pills from the SAME companies cost here! See more

Because the pendulum now has politically swung back for the issuance of opioids from giving them out indiscriminately to anyone for any reason (backing the wishes of the pharmaceutical industry and government), now people like Lucy Keeney cannot get opioids for something as painful as having her skull taken apart and her brain operated on!!!!!

Many times when one is unlucky enough to be interned in a hospital one has TO DEFEND AGAINST THEIR OWN DOCTORS !!!! In my case, I had numerous attempts on my life in a variety of ways from the "caregivers". I have actually written a series of short stories about these experiences, but now, Lucy Keeney is experiencing this lesson, because DOCTORS HAVE THEIR OWN POLITICAL CORRECTNESS and other maladjusted traits that are often detrimental to their patients. So what is the one that Lucy is now facing?

This post has multifaceted lessons for martial artists as well as those considering this type of training for their survival. I have taught thousands of people in my 50 years in the martial arts and one of my biggest concepts, which I learned the hard way, is that there are many forms of defending oneself that it imparts. One of those is that it trains you how to deal with trauma, particularly life/death events that occur with assaults on your body that are not inflicted by a...n assailant. Lucy Keeney, one of my esteemed students, just faced serious brain surgery recently and the severe pain/angst that is related to this form of surgery where half the skull is cut open, and then reattached. Her words to me were poignant - she said: ' I keep thinking about the fact that I successfully went through my brown belt test suffering with severe migraine headaches and pushed on through the pain, and if I did that, I can deal with anything!!!' I also went through insane amounts of pain after nearly loosing my life while severely burned. The subsequent processes during 14 major surgeries where hideously painful, only enhanced by the fact that traditional opioid did not work with my body's chemistry. As a Black Belt, not only did the high level of training protect my body through its fitness level, but the endurance of pain was nothing new. As she said, I pushed through it. This was not something that people that have not faced what I call INSANE PAIN can endure, but Lucy is proving that the martial arts have done this for her. My second post here today will give another perspective on self-defense.

Life has connective energy fields through various means. One is history and how it crosses paths of like entities and persons involved in like pursuits. One of mine since I was first introduced to boxing 64 years ago at age 3, has been the personalities in this sport over its history in the USA. Leo Houck is one of those boxers that somehow popped into my world of collecting boxing memorabilia-primarily of Pennsylvania boxers. He began boxing PROFESSIONALLY at the tender age... of 14 in the early 1900s , and never stopped until his death. From Lancaster, PA, his record was amazing, as he eventually fought in every major weight category and compiled a record of 82 wins. Now comes the connective interactions - it turns out that when he retired from the ring, he became the boxing coach at Penn State University in the 1930s. It was there that he taught David "Chick" Foster, originally from Bellefonte, PA who married and had a daughter, Emily Foster. She, in turn, married me, Tom Joerg and we had a daughter, Heather Joerg, who eventually established an extensive history of her own in the sport of boxing. In collecting the memorabilia of PA boxers, I came across Leo Houck's fight posters and bought them to put up in my growing museum of Pennsylvania fighters. Then, another connective portion of the story completed the connectivity of like attractions. I saw on Facebook's Marketplace a commemorative envelope for sale with his name on it as a part of his inclusion in the Boxing Hall of Fame and contacted the woman who had it for sale. She turned out to be the granddaughter of Leo Houck! In addition to the item I bought from her, she sent an entire collection of pictures of him in his prime gratis!! The thread of his life, then, continues to flourish at Joerg's American Karate Studio also home to the West Shore Boxing and Kickboxing Club. Who knows what other threads of history will cross connect, but I am surely savoring this one!! See more

There are many accolades arising out of our experience at Joe Peleio's 74th Kickboxing event on Long Island Friday night. First and most exciting was that one of our esteemed members at JAKS, Eric McClune, won a unanimous decision over his opponent in a 3 round amateur match. He trained very intensely for this competition and I am sure he will agree that it was worth it, as he faced one of the area's tough opponents to get the win. Also, two past students at JAKS took time... out of their busy lives to come from the city to be in Eric's corner. Frank Zinzi (our first champion in our Raging Bull Kickboxing bouts) and Capt. Bryant Pappas (of the NYPD, who is also an undefeated professional middleweight boxer) gave us all a big boost by helping Eric win his bout. Also, this venue was very impressive to me, as a Kickboxing promoter, because of how impeccable it was in the organization and implementation of the event. My congratulations to Joe for holding a superb show!! See more

Must have trained on our stairs....#goals Ask Grand Master Joerg about his Empire State Building stair run!

We will be having class tonight despite the early dismissal. Hope to see you there.

And, if you stay in business as long as I have been (almost 40 years!), some of the kids grow up from little people to adult size when they come back like Mr. Giordino who is now in Kickboxing!

We want to welcome back several past students, some from as far back as 17 years ago. Mr. Schreck, Mr. Maher, Mr. Jelev, and Mr. Molychev are all getting back in fighting shape in the Kickboxing and Boxing program under the West Shore Boxing and Kickboxing Club time slot MTThurs 7:30-9PM

My upcoming events include a Kickboxing Trainer's Certification Course to be held this Sat. 9-4, but the combat pistol course had to be cancelled for March 24th due to illness. The Continuous Action Point Fighting tournament is the next scheduled event on the last Sat. in April, and the 25th annual Battle of Harrisburg Martial Arts Championships will be held on City Island on the Saturday over the Memorial Day weekend. This tournament is open to all styles and will be a part of the major Art Festival along Riverfront Park in the sense that we are the ultimate art form!

No karate class tomorrow, Kickboxing is as scheduled. Thanks.

Feb 3rd Under Black Belt Forms Competition. Thanks to all of our competitors who braved the frigid weather to come out and compete. Special thanks to all of our esteemed black belts who came to judge, advise, and encourage those who train regularly in the martial arts.

Due to inclement weather all classes for this evening (Jan 16th) are cancelled.

New Year, New Goals, New Pounds to Lose, Out of Shape from too much gluttony and booze? Come to our studio where we sweat and have fun Where all ages learn to defend themselves when the class is done! Also stay tuned for a terrific year of seminars (Stick an Knife, combat pistol, Kickboxing Trainer's certification, yoga, etc.)karate tournaments (35th year for the Breath of Nature, 25th for the Battle of Harrisburg, 17th year for the Pennsylvania Under Black Belt Forms Championship, Raging Bull Continuous Action Point Fighting), and back to the Raging Bull Olympic style Boxing events. Call 717-697-2941 for information.

A reminder, we do have both Karate and Boxing/Kickboxing classes tonight. Come out and kick it with us!

Photography by Lisa Buffington, owner of L.J. Priest Productions.

A few more action shots to brag about from some of our participants in yesterday's tournament.

Just a few shots from today's tournament. Thanks to all who came out on this beautiful day to participate.

Flyers are still busily being sent out for our upcoming 24th annual Battle of Harrisburg tournament on July 15th at the Camp Curtin YMCA, 6th St. Harrisburg, PA... and also announcing the 34th annual Breath of Nature Martial Arts Championships at the same location on August 26th. If you want to help out, we can always core keepers and judges, so please support our local martial arts community by attending. If you know anyone that wants a flyer please give me their postal address and I will mail them one. Thanks See more

The dates of the Battle of Harrisburg and the Breath of Nature are now firmed up. The "Battle" is on July 15th and the "Breath" is on the 25th of August. Both are held in the historic Camp Curtin are of Harrisburg at the Camp Curtin YMCA, 2135 N. 6th St. If anyone wants a flyer sent to them for registration please contact me either here on FB, at 717-697-2941, or email me at [email protected] There is a $5 discount per tournament if pre-registered a week prior to the event. I still do my business through the USPS, so I will need a postal address to send the flyers.

I want to welcome our 3 new students who will be joining our class tonight. Come out to meet them, OK? Two are coming to just the Boxing & Kickboxing class and the other one is going to do all the classes.

The importance of #selfdefense and how a recent class saved this woman's life. Learn how you can defend yourself with life saving techniques and a fearless attitude at Joerg's. #nottoday #saveyourself #alwaysbeprepared

Sharing memories and making new ones at this year's studio Christmas Party

Honoring the late, great Grandmaster William Smith at the Christmas Party

There will be NO CLASS on Monday Nov 28th due to hunting season and the holiday season. Enjoy!

Thanks to all of the folks that participated in our first continuous action point fighting tournament at the studio last Saturday. It was great to see the turnout and the fine technique and particularly the control in not whacking to hard to the head and body. Based upon everyone's enthusiasm, we will have more of these fun events in 2017. We adjusted the number of rounds to 3 for the kids and 5 for the adults. Many of the kids wanted, and did fight 5 rounds, so we can make this optional in future bouts. I will keep everyone posted on the date of the next event.

And we're off!!

TODAY IS THE DAY!!!! Continuous action point fighting starts at NOON in our studio in Mechanicsburg! Registration is NOW OPEN and closes at 11:30.