Brooks Martial Arts Center

Become a Shadow Warrior!

We are the only place in McHenry County that teaches the real martial arts that the ninja and samurai of ancient Japan used. The things we teach are very different than taekwondo, karate, or judo, which are sports. We teach you how to defend yourself in real life.

• No Sports It works in real life. Don’t expect bullies to follow any rules.

• Alive Learn to defend yourself against anyone, anywhere.

• Complete We train it all: punches, kicks, dives, grabs, escapes, chokes, weapons, wrestling, and more.

• Weapons Shadow Warriors begin to learn the basics of how to use and defend against lots of different weapons.

• Anyone You can be a bookworm or a jock and still learn to be an amazing Shadow Warrior. And girls, you train just the same as the boys, as equals.

• Fun! How many people can say they can do a rolling dive, or take on someone that has a knife with their bare hands? This stuff is really cool!

Weapons

Depending upon students’ levels of maturity, Shadow Warriors begin to learn the basics of how to use and defend against the various ancient and modern weapons that we train with in Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu.. This is something unique to ninja and samurai martial arts. Most martial arts centers don’t teach this stuff.

Class Format

All Shadow Warrior classes are taught by Sensei Anthony Brooks, the founder of Brooks Martial Arts Center. Sensei Brooks holds a 10th degree black belt and has been studying Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu for nearly 30 years.

Most of our classes follow the following format:

• Bow-in: A sign of respect to our teacher, each other, and all others around the world who study ninja and samurai arts.

• Mobility and balance excercises: These excercises increase our flexibility and strength in areas that most people are weak.

• Conditioning excercises: Helps to keep us in shape so that we can move easier.

• Rolling and diving skills: Trains our bodies to be able to fall, be thrown, or have our arms and wrists locked without getting hurt at all.

• Martial arts: The rest of class, we learn how to defend ourselves with specific techniques and movements.

• Review / Q & A: At the end of class, each student gets a chance to share what they learned for the day and ask any questions.

• Bow-out: Saying thank you for the class.

All students are taught the same techniques at the same time. Depending on how long the student has been training, they may practice a more basic or advanced form. But there is no heirarchy where students build up to a particular technique. Everyone gets the good stuff on day one!