Hello our Awesome Martial Arts families! We are so excited to be back in the dojo and start seeing you all in person again! With that, we are also excited to see our beautiful new Aplomb patches on all your gis! But first, let’s go over the meaning of the logo and how we came to have it. Aplomb: Having complete composure and self-confidence/assurance, especially when in a demanding situation. Our new logo has a lot of symbolism and meaning behind it. Infinity Symbol: The infinity symbol is never ending, just like our learning in the martial arts as well as our personal growth and development in life. We can always keep going, keep moving forward, keep growing, keep learning. Yin and Yang Symbol: In martial arts, we talk about the “hard” and “soft” with various movements, strikes, and defenses. Both are important in order to be effective in self defense. In addition, during our training we learn how to internalize the Yin and Yang concept. We learn how to be hard when we need to dig in deep, show effort, have perseverance and achieve success; we learn how to be soft when we need to breathe, relax our bodies and our minds, and have fun! And ultimately, we learn how to be “blendable” where we can give and take, adjust what we need to do depending on the situation and be then become the best we can be, both in martial arts and in our lives. Unity of the Infinity Symbol and the Yin and Yang Symbol: In our ever-changing world, ever changing lives, ever changing situation combined with life’s good and bad, hard and soft, intense and relaxing, we learn how to be centered, calm, and Zen-like. We learn how to believe in ourselves, what we are capable of and learn that we can overcome any obstacle. We learn how to look at the good, find contentment, and have empowerment. We learn Aplomb. Circle and Line: This is one of the absolute fundamentals in our Kempo Martial Arts System: Circular movement beats linear movement and linear movement beats circular movement. In our system you learn both and how to adapt your strikes, your style, and your movement depending on your partner; this way you can be the most effective and the safest. Blue Hues: Calming, centering, inclusive and empowering. We have an extremely positive, encouraging, and motivating culture- a haven for good, friendships, learning, camaraderie and growth. We welcome all ages, abilities, and walks of life. Our instructors will always do everything they can to help everyone get better, reach their goals, and be the best they can be to improve the quality of their life. We love teaching you and having you as a part of our dojo family! We love what we do and are always doing everything we can to provide the best instruction, atmosphere and culture possible for our students. Helping to bring you positivity, joy, empowerment, strength, focus, self control, stress relief, camaraderie, and fun is what we do and who we are. We are looking forward to getting back to it in person and continuing to move forward with Aplomb! Healthfully, The Bartletts and Your Awesome Sensei Team