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Local Martial Arts School Competes in San Antonio
- Updated: April 14, 2017
L-R Gamo Rivera – Assistant Instructor, Rosely Solis, Gael Solis, Reynaldo Montez, Sebastian Montez, Luis Montez, Rene F. Garza – Senior Master Instructor, and Christian Rivera
Special to Los Fresnos News
Training out of Los Fresnos Fitness Gym and with only a few months of training, six students from The Dojang Martial Arts Academy tested out their martial arts skills in San Antonio, TX at the Invitational March Madness Karate Tournament.
Under the instruction of Rene Garza, the six students participated in point and continuous sparring events.
“Getting up in front of a bunch of people and competing can be a little nerve wrecking,” Garza said. “So I didn’t tell my students they were competing against a bunch of nationally ranked teams.”
Garza, a seventh degree black belt in TaeKwonDo and a 6th degree in Karate, spent years competing in martial arts events and has over four decades of experience in the martial arts.
“Over the years I’ve trained world and national champions in different art forms, but I always get excited and nervous when my students compete, more so than when I competed,” said Garza, who won Karate World Tournament Titles in Sparring and Forms in the early 1990’s and a World Championship in Traditional Forms in 2006.
“Turns out it didn’t matter who they were fighting,” Garza said, “They really held their own.”
The Dojang team, comprised of Christian Rivera, Luis Montez, Reynaldo Montez, Sebastian Montez, Rosely Solis and Gael Solis brought home four first place honors, two second place medals, two third place medals and two fourth place medals.
“For all six, this was their first tournament, so they did exceedingly well,” said Garza, “We don’t really focus on competitions, in fact we spar sparingly, so for these students to go out there and do so well, I’m very proud of them.”
At The Dojang, Garza teaches TaeKwonDo, and TenDo Ryu Karate.
Garza is a 7th dan in TaeKwonDo and Certified by the TaeKwonDo JiDoKwan, Kukkiwon, and the United States National Taekwondo Federation, He holds a 6th dan in Tendo Ryu Karate and certified by the Independent Japanese Karate-do Association, Garza is also a three time inductee into the Universal Martial Arts Hall of Fame.