Las Vegas Martial Arts 

Karate Tournaments in las Vegas

Hope of a Becoming better: By Sensei Lorenzo Sandoval ( Ageless Martial Arts)

Over the years as a karate sensei I have become weary of teaching kids in getting them to compete. I actually in a lot of ways have turned against tournaments and the stigmas that comes with it. Though as humans, we tend to want improvement and we want to test our skills to see not only does our methods work but we know we are capable inside of becoming great. It can be difficult to train a student form becoming obsessed with winning medals, because sometimes that’s what they focus on. I want my students to focus on the value of improving themselves so over time they can use this knowledge gained to improve their lives through challenges in the martial arts.

Tournaments can also give a false sense of hope in self defense and it can also make parents entitled to thinking their kid is special, and in some cases so special they forget its a mighty big world out there and parents need to realize its ok for their kid to lose. As a instructor of course,  I want all my students to win, but they are all very good and talented and I want them to realize failure is just a reality of life in all types of test they are willing to go through like a Karate tournament.

 

Why are you wearing Jeans!

I do this a lot, been kind of a habit over  my career as I always wear Jeans sometimes when I teach. I have gotten heat over the years and in some ways I do get criticize for doing this from time to time. Honestly that day I did on purpose, cause I really hate judging, its not that I don’t like the people, I just feel sometimes there are enough black belt there. I also excel in coaching rather than judging, Id rather be preparing my students mentally and emotionally for the match then worry about judging a match so in a lot of ways I try to escape judging all together. Sometimes Sensei Andy and the others are short so If I have too I will help, but I always try to avoid it. Back in my competing days you actually had 2 types of licenses anyway, one for coaching the other one to judge. Obviously I always had a coaching license and I only had a judge karate license to understand the game more over the years.

usually though with small community events like this, there really is no regulation and its just a group of black belts pretty much agreeing to rules and creating a ring together.

Who was Dan Sawyer of Mahato Karate?

I too was young once. Dan Sawyer was kind of like the Mr. Miyagi of the city and for a few years I trained with this man. Master Sawyer would always make me dinner and sushi with his Japanese wife and host tournaments Here in las Vegas and the pacific Rim at the State line.  He really loved it, at the time I wanted to be a world class karate champion, and in some ways it became true. At one point Dan Sawyer had about 600 students at the community centers in town and created a exercise program through martial arts for a number of years in his elder years and became a local martial arts figure head in our town.

After he passed away, many of his students still feel the pain of his lost, because we all trained at his dojo and though I was not one of his black belts, I was the only one who did martial arts as a career. Out of the thousands of students he trained. We now gather a once a year and do his ” For the kids tournament” to remember his causes and get to together as most of his students now teach karate throughout the city. me being one of them with Ageless Martial Arts.

Martial Arts Near Las Vegas

Were always trying to make our students better. Ever since what happened with the corona virus,  things have been slow in getting back to normal. From finances to operations all martial arts schools are feeling the hit. So its nice to finally to see were starting to do normal things that students enjoy without all these restrictions and its nice to see the kids have fun again.

Karate Las Vegas

Sensei Lorenzo teaches kids karate classes in Las Vegas and its pretty much his life style and his livelihood. He is a dedicated martial arts instructor and is always trying to make his school better and tried to create a good curriculum over all. Even though we only had 2 students compete, they actually won gold both in kata and kumite. I was really happy how well they did because as martial arts school we don’t really compete much in tournaments anymore.

Ageless Martial Arts

Even in times that are tough, I always try to hold my head up high for our students and try to be there when i can. I recently opened a photography studio Lorenzo Sandoval Fine Art Photography next to the martial arts school. Its kept me very busy. But now I plan to be teaching m ore at the karate school as I bounce between both businesses. Though this karate tournament was a lot of fun, i also want our students to learn self defense and techniques that could possibly save their lives and also develop character inside and outside the dojo.

Ageless Martial arts is still my #1 passion and business. This is a school ill never let go and I am proud i built it. I will continue to serve the Las Vegas community and make this dojo into a great karate school in las Vegas.