Jason Jones, the leader of an Ava, Missouri martial arts school contacted us to ask if he and a group of his students could visit our dojo and train with is on a Sunday and Monday while they were in Kansas City. Jason wanted to expose his students to Krav Maga, Ju Jitsu, Tae Kwon Do, and Karate. I think the TKD visit fell through and they wound up practicing with two different Brazilian Ju Jutsu schools, a Krav Maga school, and practiced twice at KC Dojo March 16 and 17, 2025.

Jones began training in “Musado” at his father’s side in Columbus, Ohio under Master Kook Cho originally of South Korea. He became involved in competitive martial arts and has been running martial arts schools since age 16. In 2006 he was hired by the UFC to coach MMA fighters in karate techniques.

In 2012, at 6 feet tall and 145 pounds, Jason fought Matt Probin on the USFFC main card coming close to winning in the first round with an arm bar on the mat, but early in the second round lost after somehow getting back to his feet after suffering an unusual diving and spinning back fist to the temple. You can view the fight at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mjguJRbXlKw

Jason’s humility, open and friendly personality and willingness to throw himself into our practices was so appealing. It’s a shame he didn’t find SKA earlier, he’d have been a perfect fit as would his juniors. Their normal two-hour practices in Ava go something like this: warm up on your own; weapons practice; basic blocks punches and kicks; ju jitsu; sparring.

So we opened the dojo for Jason and nine of his students who’d all practiced one to two years and led them, along with our own members through our typical two-hour Shotokan Karate practices. They seemed to really enjoy the two practices and we definitely enjoyed training with them. We’ll have to find a time to get together again – they’re a wonderful group of serious people, eager to learn, and not afraid to do their best in practice.