Student Profiles

Growing up in Northern Virginia, Dyer was an overweight and out-of-shape kid. He dreamed about practicing martial arts, like his oldest brother, but he never had the opportunity to take classes. The closest he got was donning his brother’s yellow belt and running around the house, a make-believe kung fu master. A couple decades later,…

When Brianne moved to Washington after college, she decided to accompany a friend at a kempo class. The first thing she learned is just how out of shape she was. The second thing she learned – when she continued going to classes – is that there wasn’t going to be an easy out. “I’d never…

Kempo is sometimes compared to boot camp and occasionally likened to CrossFit. But it’s not often that you hear “Kempo” in the same breath as “Law School.” Yet for Mike and Lisa Zarlenga, the correlation is clear. “You go to law school for three years, but it’s not until you graduate that you start learning…

I have now been training in Kempo for a little over four years and cannot say enough about how much I enjoy it. I have done other styles of martial arts, but feel I have found my niche with Kempo. There are multiple benefits to martial arts training. The most obvious benefit is knowledge of…

Once upon a time, George – a 5’10” network engineer who sat in front of a computer all day and a TV all night – weighed in at 265 pounds. On top of being grossly overweight, he was a heavy drinker, and as he neared his 40th birthday, he couldn’t help but worry about his…

In 2006, when Cheryl was a busy working mother, she often found herself at the dojo – dropping off and picking up her son for class at Potomac Kempo. One day, Master Chris Santillo stopped her. “When are you coming in?” he asked. His question caught Cheryl off guard. All she ever saw at the…