Getting back in to a healthier state does not always mean dieting and hitting the gym for some heavy lifting… if you are looking for an alternative means to get into great shape both mentally and physically, check out www.trustedsaskatoon.com newest partner in Saskatoon Fitness and Gyms….. Okami Martial Arts!

Whether it is your own personal health and fitness that you are looking to improve, or if you are looking for an incredible activity and environment for your children, Okami Martial Arts in Saskatoon prides themselves in providing top quality instruction in an energetic and supportive atmosphere. Kickboxing, Shotokan Karate and Sambo are taught under the instruction of World and Pan-American Champion Kelly Greenwood and World Champion, Crystal Greenwood.

Whether you are wanting a high impact cardio workout, or looking to train to compete at any level, Okami Martial Arts can help you get there, they are your Trusted Saskatoon Martial art Experts

We had the pleasure of speaking to a number of Okami’s clients and members …aka “The Wolf Pack”. The positive response was overwhelming! Not only were people raving about their own personal strength and fitness levels, we heard a lot of praise for how encouraging the instructors are, and how that filters down through all of the members of the club – the more senior students help the less experienced, and that everyone is coached and supported at their own levels. You really do become one of the pack when you train with Okami Martial Arts! The quality of the instruction is something that all of the pack members mention… Sensei Kelly Greenwood and Sho Sempai Crystal Greenwood are world champions themselves… you know that you are being trained by people who truly “walk the walk”.

One of the wolf pack told us that she had originally got into the sport because it was something that she could do together with her son, and that she was not really interested in competitions at first. With the encouragement of her instructors, she took that push out of her comfort zone, and has qualified for World Championships in Ireland this coming summer….talk about a confidence boost! Whatever your age, gender, fitness level, or pre-conceived ideas about yourself, you get that incredible supportive environment pushing you to be the best you can be.

Another recurring theme in the comments we received was that Training with Okami Martial Arts is a great way to “bully-proof” your kids, and really increase their sense of confidence and self-esteem. Now, this doesn’t mean that children learn how to fight. What this means is that your children can learn how to handle themselves in bullying situations without getting hurt, and without causing harm to another. What this means for parents is some additionak peace of mind, knowing that their children have the skill set to make the right decisions when facing possible dangers.

Whether you are looking for a great activity for your kids, yourself, or wanting to train to compete at a World level, Okami Martial Arts wants you to join “the Pack”.

This is why Okami Martial Arts – your Trusted Saskatoon Martial Arts Experts!

Trusted Saskatoon is Saskatoons directory for the people !

Here is a recent Interview we'd like to share.

Because of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), there is a perception among North Americans that fighting is only for brawny meatheads. What do you say to people who think that way?

 I’ll admit that there are a lot of meatheads in combat sports of all kinds, but a few bad apples can’t spoil the whole bunch. Aggression and combat are primal expressions that can be very healthy and sit close to our emotional surface. When these emotions and expressions become unhealthy is when they have no context or are nurtured under an unhealthy context of insecurity, anger or the desire to cause hurt to others (i.e. the fictional Cobra Kai Dojo from The Karate Kid). The desire to fight is a very complex impulse and it has to be developed and practiced in a healthy environment of support, friendship and respect. It can be difficult to wrap your head around—watching people punch each other in the head and laughing together over it—but when this is done, the practice of combat sports can be a very liberating and healthy way to express yourself.

What is the difference between fitness kickboxing and a more traditional practice of the sport?

Fitness kickboxing uses many of the techniques you’ll find in regular kickboxing, such as kicks and punches, but is focused centrally on using these techniques as a way of getting a full body workout. Our regular kickboxing classes focus on counter-fighting, strategy, body conditioning and other fighting techniques that could be used in the ring. Although fitness kickboxing focuses on the workout, it is not like a cardio-kick or old Tae-Bo classes where you punch and kick the air in an aerobics style setting. Fitness kickboxing still allows you to punch and kick bags with a partner, so you can feel your speed and power as you work out. At Momentum, we offer both fitness kickboxing and the more traditional kickboxing. Fitness kickboxing is taught by a Certified Fitness Kickboxing Instructor. I teach our other kickboxing class and I am an National Coaching Certification Program (NCCP) trained coach, a canfitpro certified personal trainer and the former World Kickboxing Association (WKA) Light Heavyweight Provincial Kickboxing Champion. Our Assistant Kickboxing Coach is also an NCCP trained coach. We don’t mess around. Getting you qualified instruction is our number one priority regardless of which of our classes you attend.

What are the overall health benefits—both mental and physical— of training in the martial arts?

First and foremost is confidence. We often undervalue confidence, but it is such an important part of a healthy psyche. Kickboxing allows you to exercise skills such as speed, muscular and cardiovascular endurance, strength and power because its varied techniques test all aspects of your physical ability. What makes kickboxing truly special is its training of your nervous system. Kickboxing requires intricate coordination between your muscles and your brain in order to develop motor skills like balance, movement and reaction timing, which are a benefit to you at any age. It helps you coordinate muscle groups that are not often used together in our average lives. When was the last time that you had to coordinate your upper body and core muscles in a pulling movement while at the same time balancing on one leg and raising the other in a knee strike? It’s a complex task that uses just about every muscle in the body at once, either as a prime mover or a stabilizer, and that takes a lot of energy from the nervous system to accomplish, resulting in a stronger, healthier you.

Can a person train in the martial arts without having to engage in direct combat with another person?

Of course. We have fitness kickboxing in which you never engage in combat with another person, but even in our kickboxing fundamentals class, you always have the right of refusal if we’re practicing any technique or drill that makes you uncomfortable. I have never believed in forcing people to fight and that includes competition. You can spar every week for 10 years and if you don’t want to, you never have to take a fight in competition. If your goal is to fight, then I’m going to do everything in my power to help you be successful, but I will never force it on you. I respect the wishes of those who don’t want to fight.

If a person is looking for inspiration, which martial arts movies would you suggest that give an authentic representation of the styles and cultures?

If I had to pick my top five list based on inspiration and authenticity alone, it would have to look like this:

5. Ong Bak: If you want to see traditional Thai Boxing in a movie and stunts so crazy they make Jackie Chan cringe, you can’t miss this movie.

4. Seven Samurai: Its theme is iconic and has been paid homage in western classics such as The Magnificent Seven, Pale Rider and Three Amigos (okay, that one’s more of a comedy classic). It deserves a spot in the top five for its inspiration in storytelling.

3. The Legend of Drunken Master: The combination of Jackie Chan’s athleticism and true to form Drunken Chinese Boxing makes this movie one to remember.

2. The 36th Chamber of Shaolin: I give this movie credit because of its authenticity in exposing the training of the famous Shaolin monks on film and paving the way for better and more well-known films and actors such as Jet Li. Li’s first film, The Shaolin, could take this spot, but 36th Chamber came first and I’m a traditionalist. Watch them both and decide for yourself.

1. Enter the Dragon: Bruce Lee wasn’t just one of the greatest martial artists of all time; he brought martial arts to the western world with this movie. Before Enter the Dragon, eastern martial arts were taught by few to even fewer. He blew the minds of North Americans and sparked an interest in the martial arts so great that I’m hard pressed to argue against him being the genesis for the worldwide spread of martial arts, including mixed martial arts.

Check out listings on Trusted SASKATOON FITNESS & GYM CATEGORY  on the Saskatoon DIRECTORY of excellence

Here we share a Trusted Tip on the Saskatoon Directory of experts.

What Should I Tell My Kids About When To Fight?

“I don’t want my kids to be victimized, but I also don’t believe that violence is the right solution to problems. How do I tell them where to draw the line?”

What to tell kids about fighting is a question many parents ask us. At Momentum, we believe that fighting is a last resort. We also believe that people do have the right to fight if this is the only way they can protect themselves from being harmed.

Before we teach children and teens how to fight in our self-defense workshops, we coach them until they are successful in practicing skills that will make fighting unnecessary most of the time including:

■using their awareness

■projecting a powerful, respectful attitude

■staying in charge of what they say and do no matter how they feel inside

■noticing and leaving a potentially unsafe situation

■setting strong verbal boundaries

■managing emotional triggers in order to stay calm and make wise choices

■leaving in a calm, polite, powerful way

■shouting

■pulling away

■running to get help from an adult.

We tell our students, “When we started , many people told us NOT to teach kids to fight. They said that kids would misuse these skills when they were annoyed or upset. We want you to promise that you will ONLY use the physical self-defense skills we teach you when you are about to be hurt and you cannot leave and get help.” Each student looks the instructor in the eyes, shakes hands, and says, “I promise!” we teaches both emergency-only physical self-defense skills like an eyestrike; a heel palm or elbow to the face; and a knee to the groin — and “bullying self-defense skills” like a shin kick; a heel palm to the solar plexus; or a pinch to the thigh or upper arm. We make a distinction between bullying self-defense and emergency self-defense because leaving is different in a situation like school, where kids really don’t have a choice about being there.

When kids are stuck in a situation where they are constantly physically threatened and the school is not able to stop it, we believe kids have the right to protect themselves. Because families have very different values about where to draw the line when it’s another child who is being aggressive, we tell our students to talk specific problems over with their parents to get guidance about when they can use their bullying self-defense skills. When it’s a chronic situation, like having another kid pull your hair or push you around, and the adults in charge do not seem to be able to stop it, sometimes one strong move can end months or even years of harassment. When I was a child, there was one girl who spent years leading other girls in shunning me in elementary school. One day she cornered me in the bathroom, saying she was going to dunk me into the toilet to clean my dirty face. When pushed to the wall, I kicked her in the shins and left. I should then have gotten adult help, but this was, of course, long before Kidpower. Fortunately, even though this girl and her friends complained about me to the teacher, the teacher believed me and not them. After that, all the bullying stopped, and some of this girl’s followers even eventually became my friends. Often just knowing how to stop an attack yourself physically can give the confidence to use other self-protection tactics more effectively.

One shy boy was constantly being shoved and tripped by a couple of other kids in his school. After his Kidpower class, he used his awareness to avoid most of these problems. When a bigger boy came after him anyway, he yelled, “STOP! GO AWAY!” The bigger boy was so startled that he stopped and left quickly. As a parent, you can tell your children that they might get in trouble with the school if they fight to protect themselves from being hurt by another kid, but they will not get in trouble with you. Timothy Dunphy, our other program co-founder, told his daughter that, if she got suspended for protecting herself (NOT for starting a fight), he’d stay home and play with her. Be sure you’ve practiced all the other skills first so that your children have these choices firmly in place We recommend rehearsing with your children how to make a report to the adult in charge if they have a safety problem, especially anytime they need to use a physical bully defense skill, using a calm, controlled voice rather than a whiny voice. For example, “Excuse me, I need help. We’re having a problem. Jeff kept pushing me and pushing me. I tried to leave, but he kept following me. I told the yard duty, and she believed Jeff instead of me. Jeff got mad that I told. He said he would hurt me. He was coming at me with his fist, so I kicked him in the shins. Then I left to get help from you. Please call my parents.” No, talking to an adult like this is NOT natural for kids, or for anyone. Strong communication skills are learned behaviors, and they are skills every child deserves to have. Even very young children can learn, with practice, to communicate more clearly.

Advocating for your kids can make a big difference in the outcome. One mother wrote to her daughter’s middle school principal, “You have not protected my 12-year-old daughter from being harassed at school. I have told her that, the next time a boy tries to grab her breast, she can use one of her bully physical self-defense skills to protect herself. If you punish her, I’ll fight it all the way to the school board!” The next time a boy tried to grab her daughter’s breast, the girl moved away and shouted, “LEAVE ME ALONE! I MEAN IT!” When the boy kept trying to grab her, she knocked him flat with a heel palm to his solar plexus. The boys in her class stopped bothering her, and she did NOT get into trouble. Again, we believe that fighting to be should be the last resort. Reacting automatically to aggression with aggression, rather than with conscious choices and target denial, can be dangerous. Teens and young adults, especially boys, need to know that it takes more courage and is more manly to “not fight” than to fight. This knowledge could save their lives, because teens and young men are at greatest risk of violence from competitive attacks by other young men. The good news is that the “Everyday Safety” self-protection skills work most of the time and are almost always the safest choice. And that, if you need to fight to protect yourself, one strong move stops most attacks.

Stay Trusted my friends..SAFE AND TRUSTED SASKATOON!

article shared by Trusted Saskatoon  as a Tip- http://www.kidpower.org/blog/when-to-fight/