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Renshi Ken Messina, Yondan
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Sensei
Messina is pictured receiving his 4th Dan promotion certificate
from Hanshi Seifuku Nitta.
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Sensei
Ken Messina, a native Clevelander, began Tai Shin
Doh karate training at the age of 10 in 1980 under
Grand Master Ronald Balas. He
advanced through the kyu belt ranks over the 1980s,
and Sensei Messina credits this formative martial
arts training with instilling three important personal
benefits: 1) the self confidence to effectively help
others, 2) a healthy respect for proper authority,
and 3) the moral strength to withstand the pressures
of adolescence. In
1989, Sensei Messina entered the U.S. Army and became
a military policeman, furthering his martial arts
training in a variety of combat tactics and forms. From
1990 until 1992, he studied, as time and duty permitted,
under the tutelage of black belt Klaus Schumacher
in Offenbach, Germany, including the basics of Akido,
Hap-Ki-Do and “grappling.” In
addition, he studied with five other teachers, all
of whom were in the military services in Germany;
in addition to self protection, his training encompassed
critical adversary control tactics. Sensei
Messina and his fellow military martial artists began
informally teaching at this time, interrupted only
while he served in a combat infantry role during
Operation Desert Storm in the Gulf region. He
finished his six-year enlistment as an E4 Specialist
at Fort Lewis, Washington, where he assisted in teaching
self-defense and adversary control tactics to other
military policemen. In
1998, back in Cleveland, he rejoined Grand Master
Ron Balas who promoted him to Shodan in the Tai Shin
Doh style in December of 1999. Sensei
Messina regards martial arts teaching as a great
personal responsibility for which he enjoys an equally
great reward, “knowing that I help others reach a
measure of self control and self accomplishment...
it allows me to give to others what has been a solid
and very beneficial part of my own life.” Major Recognitions:
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