What Style of Martial Arts is Taught at West Coast World Martial Arts Campbell?
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Martial arts are one of the most wholesome, positive, and healthy activities there are. Martial arts are also one of the most popular activities for kids and adults alike– and there are a lot of very good reasons why martial arts are so popular. For many parents, martial arts are an invaluable means to help their child learn critical life skills: Self-confidence. Respectfulness. Self-discipline. Setting goals and achieving them. Developing healthy habits that will last a lifetime. Martial arts can do all of that for your child, and more.
But martial arts aren’t just for kids. Adults gain tremendous benefits from martial arts too: Improved health. Weight loss. Getting Fit. Increased energy. Maximizing their focus.
And students of all ages benefit immensely from the self-defense skills that come with martial arts training.
But what kind of martial arts does a school teach? There are a lot of different styles of “martial arts,” just like there are a lot of different sports that are played using some kind of ball. Soccer, tennis, baseball, and basketball are all played with a “ball,” but they’re all very different from each other. And different styles of martial arts may be very different from each other too. So a new student (or a parent of a new student) might wonder “what style of martial art does this school teach? Is it Jiu Jitsu? Or Karate? Or maybe Taekwondo?”
At West Coast World Martial Arts Campbell, we teach the West Coast World Martial Arts System, a practical mix of the best martial arts from around the world. With a curriculum developed from some of the best martial arts styles on Earth, our students learn a solid, well-rounded system of self-defense that enables them to adapt to any style of martial art.
Our West Coast World Martial Arts System begins with Tae Kwon Do (also called Taekwondo). This is the martial art that our founders, Great Grandmaster Ernie Reyes and Great Grandmaster Tony Thompson, started with on their own martial arts journey, and it’s the martial art they first began teaching to their students at West Coast World Martial Arts over 40 years ago. Our Great Grandmasters first met as students of Tae Kwon Do Grandmaster Dan Choi, beginning a lifelong friendship and partnership that continues to this day.
And to this day, West Coast World Martial Arts continues to teach Taekwondo, a 20th Century Korean martial art that is a hybrid of Karate and ancient Korean kicking techniques, and is known around the world for its incredible dynamic kicks. Great Grandmaster Ernie Reyes and Great Grandmaster Tony Thompson are both certified black belts under World Taekwondo (formerly known as the World Taekwondo Federation), as are all of our senior black belt instructors.
With some 30 million martial artists practicing Taekwondo in 100 countries around the world, Taekwondo is the most popular martial art in the world, and its popularity has continued to skyrocket since Taekwondo was introduced as a competitive sport in the Pan-Am Games and the Commonwealth Games, and as an Olympic sport in the 2000 Olympic games in Sydney, Australia.
Great Grandmaster Ernie Reyes’s record of achievement in Taekwondo competition includes:
Beyond his own competition record, Great Grandmaster Reyes was also the legendary creative and coaching force behind the world-famous West Coast World Action Team, recognized by Bushido Magazine (Europe) as “the #1 Martial Arts Demo Team in the World.” In just one year, Great Grandmaster Reyes produced an amazing seven black belt national champions– all certified World Taekwondo Federation black belts– from his groundbreaking West Coast World Action Team.
It was this incredible feat of coaching that gave Great Grandmaster Reyes his worldwide reputation as the “trainer of champions.” He continued with his string of champions, coaching his own son, national champion Ernie Reyes Jr., who became the youngest child in the history of martial arts to compete and win in the adult professional forms division.
As a result of his outstanding record of accomplishments in the martial arts, Great Grandmaster Reyes has been awarded Lifetime Achievement awards by every major martial arts association in the United States. Great Grandmaster Reyes has been been featured in every national karate magazine in the world, was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame as Instructor of the Year, was honored as Instructor of the Year by the Professional Karate Association, and was recognized as one of the greatest masters of the 20th century on Masters of the Martial Arts, presented on national television by TNT.
And whether it was right here in our martial arts school in Campbell (near the intersection of San Tomas Aquino Road and West Campbell Avenue), or traveling around the world as the West Coast World Action Team, or bringing our action-packed martial arts scenes to movie and television audiences everywhere, the foundation of our martial art has always been the awe-inspiring and extremely effective Korean martial art of Taekwondo.