One of our Sidekicks students who had become known for his long hair, was recently inspired to chop it all off.  Why? Because back in 2023., he saw a commercial on T.V. for St. Jude’s Hospital It featured a young child patient without any hair. He asked his parents why the child didn’t have hair…

Green Belt Boys Demonstrate White Belt One Steps These two brothers have been Taekwondo students at Sidekicks for a while. They practice their forms a lot at home, and it definitely shows when they come to class. Grandmaster Orange recently called upon them to demonstrate the Sidekicks white belt one steps. Usually their dad and…

Meet a Senior Red Belt Student who has trained at San Diego Sidekicks Martial Arts Academy since he was five years old! Here’s a recent video of him doing a flying sidekick! This is how he answered some questions we asked him in a recent interview: Why did you start martial arts? I found it…

Today in Taekwondo class Grandmaster Orange had a first time ever experience! One of the Sidekicks white belt students who has a very special name was in the class. Sidekicks has a lot of students with biblical names. This particular student has a biblical name too. He had been learning and practicing his white belt…

Many Sidekicks students and their families are from various countries around the world. Lots of Sidekicks students travel during their vacations visiting relatives and they spend time exploring the world. Here is a picture of one Sidekicks family while they were travelling in Japan. These two Sidekicks sisters were recently promoted to Red Belt! They…

One of our Sidekicks students recently turned TEN years old! His family, including cousins and friends visited him to help celebrate his turning ten!       And that’s not all, he also got to attend Comic Con as one of his favorite characters! That character is Aang. We have pictures to share! Pretty good…

GMO was recently visited by several former Sidekick’s black belt students. Some of them have siblings who still attend Sidekicks. And several of them trained with their siblings who also achieved black belt. And one of them has a dad who trained with Grandmaster Orange in the 90’s and became a black belt. Her dad…

One of our Sidekicks students is a miniature Bruce Lee. He was interested in Taekwondo for a long time before he was even old enough to take classes. In fact, his brother and sister were Sidekicks students even before him! In his heart, he really wanted to be a miniature Bruce Lee. When he finally…

Taekwondo Family at Sidekicks This Sidekicks family student invited Grandmaster Orange to his presentation at Morse High School. Grandmaster Orange recently attended his student presentation at Morse High School for one of the Sidekicks taekwondo families.   The two boys in this Sidekicks Taekwondo Family have been Sidekicks students for about seven years.. They are…

The other day in class, Grandmaster Orange received a happy reunion from a visitor who stopped by. He’ was shopping at Ralph’s, seen the Sidekicks door open and was wondering if GMO was here. Walking into the school, Grandmaster Orange and him locked eyes and broke into happy smiles at each other. It was Mr.…

Perseverance Pays Off. Jonas R. was a student of GMO back in the early 1990’s. He got his black belt in June 1993. Here’s a photo of them. Jonas was going through struggles that a lot of youth and teens go through. Being temped into joining gangs was one of the struggles Jonas had to…

One of our Sidekicks Yellow Belts has recently turned 10 and he celebrated this milestone with his family! For his tenth birthday, guess what was on his cake decoration? The Sidekicks School Patch! So cool.     The family also attended Sidekicks Potluck 2023, and showed up with Sidekicks Cupcakes!! Did you know? Sidekicks School…

Dustin Tran has been training with Grandmaster Orange since he was in 5th grade. Now Mr. Tran has 5 children of his own, who all train at Sidekicks Martial Arts Academy, making them the largest second generation Sidekicks Family. Q: Why did you start Martial Arts? A: I started Martial Arts because my parents wanted…

Mr. Capon was a student of Grandmaster Orange back in the 90’s – 2000’s when GMO had the school in Chula Vista. Mr. Capon often tells his son, who is a Sidekicks student, how strict GMO used to be. In other words, the grandmaster has softened up a bit on the kids. He’s less formal…

Celebrating Inclusion Grandmaster Orange spoke to students at High Tech Middle School, as a special guest for their Black History Month Community Meeting. He was invited by a current Sidekicks student. Sidekicks students are encouraged to learn and practice leadership roles. The student who invited Grandmaster Orange to speak took on a leadership role by…

Meet Mario. Mario trained with Grandmaster Orange at Sidekicks Martial Arts Academy, when he was a kid, starting at five years old. Now he is grown up, and his kids are training at Sidekicks. Mario said, “I always knew that if I had kids, I would want them to attend Sidekicks too. And now they…

This student started his Taekwondo Journey with Grandmaster Orange at Sidekicks Martial Arts Academy when he was barely knee-high! Now he towers over GMO and many of the other students. He’s been consistent with coming to classes and practicing his Taekwondo forms, starting with the White Belt Form. Taekwondo Journey He kept coming to classes,…

One of our Sidekicks students who has been with us for many years, has just turned the corner into her teens. She turned 13. A jazzy Birthday She celebrated a jazzy birthday with her family and we are happy to send a shout out on her special day! Jazzy you are beautiful, strong, and smart.…

Ms. Castillo is one of Sidekick’s senior instructors who has been teaching Taekwondo for many years. She started training in Taekwondo with Grandmaster Orange back at National City Taekwondo Center.  She brings a wealth of knowledge and technique to Sidekicks students who train with her. You will often see Sidekicks instructor Ms. Castillo working with…

This week, a former Sidekicks student and Dad came by to visit GMO. Grandmaster Orange is always pleased with former students who are doing well. He enjoys visiting with former students when they stop by Sidekicks to visit him. He has seen her grow up from a little girl to now teaching youth activities herself.…

Sidekicks has had it’s share of twin students! A couple sets of twins made black belt. They started when they were very small, and had enough perseverance to continue all the way through earning their black belts. Here’s the twin boys who started with Grandmaster Orange at Sidekicks when they were only six years old.…

Did you know that Sidekicks has a 6th degree black belt Master McDowell?   Master McDowell is from Jamaica, and started his Martial Arts journey there, via self training. After trying various martial arts disciplines, it was Taekwondo which became his lifelong passion. At home in Jamaica, he continued learning Taekwondo on his own. He…

Did you know that Grandmaster Orange used to have a Sidekicks Martial Arts Academy location in Rancho San Diego? Well he sure did. For eleven years. Now the location is still a martial arts studio. It is currently Aspire Martial Arts in Rancho San Diego. Aspire Martial Arts is owned and managed by two of…

Newly Promoted Black Belt Student @ Sidekicks Jamaica gives thanks to his teachers, Master Delroy McDowell and Grandmaster Orange. This Jamaica Sidekicks student proudly shares his experience and gratitude in a post below.     . Knowing that Taekwondo is a life long practice, means patience is an important factor to success.  Especially when going for your Black…

Lots of kids that train and practice marital arts with Grandmaster Orange are second generation students. This means that their parents were also students of GMO, and now the parents bring their kids to Sidekicks. In several families, the grandparents are now bringing the kids to Sidekicks! During the summer, Mr. Pablo came all the…

Daniel Levar has been a Sidekicks student training with GMO since he was 13 years old.  Now you’ll see Mr. Levar running the testing day events, and teaching Sidekicks classes on his breaks from college.  He’s a favorite teacher with the Sidekicks kids. Mr. Levar is a 2nd degree black belt, now eligible for 3rd degree, as…

Master Orange! I randomly chanced upon the thought of you the other day – almost 30 years ago my brother and I were students of yours at Sidekicks in SD. Now my son is looking to start martial arts and I think about the importance of the person behind the studio. You had such a…