Gilbert's Academy of Martial Arts, located in Damascus, Maryland, is a family oriented Martial Arts school where all of the students seek to improve their Martial Arts knowledge. We recognize the value of cross-training to improve our Martial skills so we teach Aerobic Kickboxing, Kobujitsu (weapons) and Tai Chi Chuan as supplements to our Karate (Kobayashi Shorin Ryu) studies.

We teach both children and adults at G.A.M.A. Our youngest student is 4 and our oldest student is 68. All ages work hard on building physical conditioning, learning Martial Arts history, gaining confidence, and improving karate techniques. The very young start by learning discipline, motor skills, strengthening, and confidence building. As the student progresses in rank they study more difficult karate techniques, work on improving their physical and emotional discipline, and are introduced to Okinawan weapons. At the advanced Brown and Black Belt levels the students learn combat skills and strive to broaden their knowledge of the Martial Arts. Using this approach the students become more confident, better disciplined, achieves stress relief, improves karate skills, and enlarges their knowledge base of the Martial Arts.

In an attempt to try to provide insight into what we are trying to accomplish at G.A.M.A. we have written two papers of interest to Parent or to the novice martial artist. The "Tao of Shorin Ryu" below documents some of the truths that seem apparent to use in our Dojo. "Teaching the Young Child Martial Arts" describes the approach we use to teach the very young child (ages 4-9) martial skills. Please feel free to copy and distribute these articles as your individual needs may dictate. We will continue to improve this homepage with new information we have found which may be of use to others in the study of the Martial Arts.

GAMA: (301) 253-4765

Seminars:

Self-Defense

Yellow Belt

Green Belt

Blue Belt

Brown Belt

Black Belt Kumite Seminar

Muscle

History

Kobujitsu

Ground fighting