|
|
Sensei Joel Levy
|
|
| Name: |
Sensei Joel Levy, M.Ed.
|
| Title: |
Officially awarded title of Grandmaster on April 24, 2004;
Co-Founder, Co-Director, and Head Instructor of Family Martial Arts Academy
|
| Started w/ FMAA: |
Founded FMAA with wife, Yvonne, on Sep. 9, 1997
|
| Current Rank: |
6th Degree Black Belt under living legend, Bill "Superfoot" Wallance, awarded January 2005.
|
| Certifications: |
• U.S.A. Martial Arts Hall of Fame Kickboxing Grandmaster of the Year, 2005
• Certified Full Instructor in the Superfoot System under living legend, Bill "Superfoot" Wallace.
• Grandmaster American Freestyle Karate
• U.S.A. Martial Arts Hall of Fame Grandmaster of the Year, 2004
• NJ State Certified Teacher
• CDT Tactical Master Instructor / Personal Protection Specialist, under America's leading safety expert, Tom Patire
• Certified Child Safety Instructor, under America's leading safety expert, Tom Patire
• Public School Teacher from 1990-2003
• Certified in Character Education Program by Jefferson Center for Character Education
• Co-creator (with Tom Patire) of BULLYSAFE™, a nationally accepted school bully prevention program.
• Masters Degree in Education, Rutgers University, 1994
• Bachelors Degree in English, SUNY Binghamton, 1989
|
| Hobbies: |
Voracious reader, particularly of books on personal development.
|
| Role Models: |
• My father -- not only for his fighting skills,
but for his tenacity and inner strength to overcome all of
life's obstacles.
• Han Park - my childhood friend and training partner
just because he asked me to put him here...
although he did teach me how to use chopsticks,
so I guess that's something!
• Bruce Lee - for having the courage to break tradition,
find his own truth, and express himself honestly.
• Muhammed Ali - for his self-confidence, for choosing
his personal beliefs over his heavyweight title, and for his work
and charity towards social justice.
• Tom Patire - for revolutionizing the world of
personal safety and self-defense, for bringing liability consciousness
to the forefront of the martial arts world, and for teaching us all
to "Run our own race".
Tom is one of the most real and straight up people I know.
He is truly in a class by himself.
• Bill Wallace - for being the only handicapped person
I know of to have overcome his handicap (unable to kick at all
with right leg) so well that he created his own style of one-legged
kicking, and becoming one of the greatest kickboxers of all time.
Also, he's a very funny guy!
• Kathy Long - for being one of the finest kickboxers
and fighters -- male or female, for being an excellent role model
for young girls (like my two daughters), and for being one of the
most real, down to earth, and sincere people I have ever met.
|
|
Sensei Levy's Martial Lineage:
Current head of his system of American Freestyle Karate,
taught mainly by his father, Grandmaster Amnon Dahbany-Levy.
(For more on the origins of this style,
see our History page.)
Amnon Dahbany-Levy was a fighter, combat instructor, and
hand-to-hand specialist in the famous 7th Division of the
Israeli Army.
He was taught mainly by his uncle, Tzion Dahbany-Levy.
Tzion Dahbany-Levy was a combat expert and fighter in the Israeli Irgun,
an underground military group under the command of
Menachem Begin.
Tzion was taught mainly by his father, Yihye Dahbany-Levy,
the great-grandfather of Sensei Joel Levy.
Yihye Dahbany-Levy was an expert fighter who in the
late 1800's and early 1900's made his living by driving
high profile people of that era (such as Theodore Hertzel)
back and forth between Tel-Aviv and Jersualem.
He frequently utilized his fighting expertise to defend
his passengers from bandits and thieves along the way,
as there were no roads to drive on at that time.
|
|
| |
|
Back to Our Staff
|
|
|
more...