Instructor Paul Matsumoto began taking martial arts at the age of 13, while attending the Universal Kempo School in Kaneohe, Hawaii. By the time he was 16 years old, he quickly gained respect in the Martial Arts community by becoming the #1 ranked fighter in his weight class for full contact karate. At the age of 17, he received his black belt in Kempo. He moved to California in 1994 and decided to broaden his martial arts abilities by taking Tae Kwon Do. After 3 years and receiving his brown belt he realized that other than learning “good form” he wasn’t learning anything that could be used outside of a Tae Kwon Do Studio. Therefore, he started looking towards the more aggressive styles of martial arts.
After visiting many schools in the Bay Area, he came across Ylagans Martial Arts, which focused in Hapkido. After just 2 years he was appointed assistant instructor and went on to received his brown belt. While training, Instructor Paul was introduced to Instructor Hollis Moore whom just recently returned from the Philippines, training under Master Arnesto Presas (founder of Modern Arnis). For the next three years, Instructor Paul trained one on one with Instructor Hollis in Modern Arnis, and received his 2nd degree black belt.
It wouldn't be for another few years before Paul moved up to Sacramento and open his own martial arts school in order to share his knowledge of the art with others. Now having been open for more than one year we pride ourselves on being a school lead by a knowledgeable instructor with a wide knowledge and talent base to teach from. Due to the determination of Instructor Paul, our school has helped to create young martial artisits who have learned to strive for excellence in a respectable and admirable way. Instructor Paul has ensured that our school is a place where our students have been instilled with the values to know that they must earn everything from their belts to their praise. We center our school around our students, they are our #1 PRIORITY. We feel that each and every one of them has earned the right to call themselves true "students of martial arts."