Welcome to our website!

Since 1974, Grandmaster Dennis Ichikawa has been providing instruction in Tang Soo Do and the martial arts in the Southern California, area. Our current location is at 5700 Corsa Ave. Suite 111, Westlake Village, CA 91362.

We hope you enjoy our website and will stop by and visit us if you are in the area. This site is designed to give you information about our facility, our style of martial arts, our staff and provide you with information on how to contact us as well. We have a "family style" atmosphere where children learn lessons in self control, discipline, confidence, integrity, respect, fitness and indomitable spirit. You will find the majority of our adult classes are made up of parents whose children inspired them to begin training themselves. We offer classes for Mighty Mites (3-4yr olds), children, teens and adults. Though our main practice is American Tang Soo Do Karate, we also have classes in grappling and Women's Self Defense and Fitness. Our philosophy is to maintain the traditional martial arts discipline and respect so we can honor our anscestors' teachings, but enjoy the modern, fun approach to our training and teaching.

What is Tang Soo Do?

Tang Soo Do means "the art of the knife hand" or "the way of the Chinese hand." It contains characteristics of Chinese internal methods and Japanese striking styles. Tang Soo Do is a modern martial art and its purpose is to develop every aspect of the 'self' in order to produce a mature person who can totally integrate his intellect, emotions, body and spirit.

Tang Soo Do is not a sport. It is acutally a physical art, much like dance. Its primary goal is character development through physical training. However, it does lend itself well to self defense situations. Being a well-balanced style, Tang Soo Do offers a wide array of kicks, hand strikes, and stances representative of hard styles as well as softer stances and more fluid motions that are indicative of the softer styles. It derives its hardness from Soo Bahk Do and its soft flowing movements from the Northern Chinese systems. Its kicking techniques, for which Tang Soo Do is unsurpassed, are based on Soo Bahk Do. Both of these can easily be recognized in the forms that are practiced within the style.





DISPLACED STUDENTS

We realize that economic times have caused several martial arts studios to close operations. It is an unfortunate circumstance of a poor economy. We are, however, welcoming those students looking for a new home to join us. To make it easier, you may take advantage of our VIP PASS. This allows you to train for 1 week free of charge at our studio to try out our hospitality. The best way to ease the pain of losing your studio is to quickly get started in another place. We are here to serve you.