Dear Students and Friends,

I hope all of you are enjoying the transition from the bite of winter to the fresh smells of spring. Here in New England, where we have had a particularly hard winter, the prospect of warmer weather is certainly welcome! Of course, those of you who know me know that the worse the weather gets, the better I like it; but enough is enough!

I am looking forward to my annual Retreat in May with all of my immediate Disciples. I am hoping for a very productive first Board of Directors meeting for our Association as well. It will be a busy time, and I will convey to you all in a special report to the Association the results of that meeting. Many times material is changed at my retreats. This is done for a reason. I do not want anyones development to stagnate because we are not staying on the forefront of practical material or in its method of presentation. The reason you enjoy your training is because you understand that what we teach works, and is practical as it applies to our everyday lives. This does not happen by chance. It happens by hard work and desire on our part to provide you, our student, with the best martial arts training in the world.

At my retreat, I set aside considerable time to analyze various aspects of what we teach, how we teach, and how we train. We identify problems that any of our students have had working with the material, and try- as a group- to come to solutions and new approaches. It is my mandate that everyone in the Association then implement those ideas in their clubs during the course of the next year. At the next retreat, we discuss the results of our coordinated efforts to see how things in practice came out in relation to how we thought they would. Adjustments are made if necessary, and perhaps another year of testing.

Yes, it is a long process. But it is a process designed to provide you with the most logical and practical approach to self defense and personal development that you will find anywhere. This is what makes us strong. By presenting you with constantly updated training methods we can better guide you in how to direct your efforts to accomplish great things! And as always, we will be looking for your thoughts and input on how good of a job we are doing for you and how we might improve things for you. Our efforts are for you- not us. This is truly your Association; that is why I agreed to start it. In my 25+ years in the Martial Arts I have seen many Associations. Believe me, I have yet to see one like what we have established for you. We are all going to have a lot of fun!

On another note, you might want to check out a new movie on tape called Only The Strong. It stars the son of one of Karate's most well known and respected practitioners. In a world filled with foolish "chop-em-up" Karate movies, this is a breath of fresh air with some very exciting action scenes; I let my young kids watch it and they think it's great. They even go around the house humming the music from it! Check it out.

In our art,
Grandmaster Peter M. Rose