School Schedule
We close for four weeks every year. Classes are not held during these weeks, during which our staff takes a vacation, rejuvenates, and spends quality time with their families.
- July 4th Week
- Thanksgiving Week
- Holiday Season, the last two weeks of December
Rank Requirements
Everyone wants to know what the requirements are for rank advancement. We also get questions about our Black Belt students’ rank requirements and curriculum. During the shutdown of 2020 for the pandemic, the headmaster updated the official Kempo curriculum so that all our Golden Leopard students, both Underbelts and Black Belts, would be taught the same material and tested against the exact expectations.
All Black Belt Tests or Exams need Master Bagnas on the testing board to authorize the rank advancement for students in a Golden Leopard school. Black Belt Test Preparation Workshops are held annually.
Message from Master Bagnas
As a young child, I was enamored with Bruce Lee, Kwai Chang Cain, and Rickshaw movies from Hong Kong. I could watch any show featuring any of those people for hours. I begged my parents to let me train to be like my heroes.
During Junior High, I finally took my first TKD martial arts class through school as a PE alternative. It was glorious but didn’t last long. Afterward, I began studying Shaolin Kempo Karate at a local San Diego dojo, joining my instructor’s staff as a junior instructor some years later. I earned my first Black Belt in 1988, a second degree in 1990, and a third in 1992. That same year 1992 I opened my first dojo in La Mesa, California. Since then, I have trained under many great masters in the arts of Tai Chi Chuan, Pa Kua Chuan, Hsing-Yi Chuan, Shorinjin Ninjutsu, Okinawan Kobudo, Filipino Arnis-Eskrima, and Jujitsu.
I love learning and I’m an eternal student.
I changed the name of my dojo in 1995 to Golden Leopard Kempo, receiving worldwide recognition and accolades for my school’s website. There weren’t many dojo websites back then, so don’t be too impressed. I met, corresponded, and trained with many other instructors through my website to expand my knowledge of Kempo Karate. I also continued volunteering for small, local groups teaching self-defense seminars and introductions-to-karate for children.
In 1998, I became a student of Karazenpo Go Shinjutsu’s Grandmaster Sonny Gascon, and I have continued working with Grandmaster Gascon’s organization since then. This organization sheds a lot of light on the elusive history of Shaolin Kempo as practiced on the East Coast. I also supported World Tai Chi and Qi Gong Day, an annual public event I participated in at a local San Diego park.
From 1998, when I attained my fourth-degree rank, I continued to work and explore the arts through reading, seminars, and experimentation. I achieved my fifth degree in 2000 and my sixth in 2005. Through my work promoting all martial arts training with special emphasis on Kempo and Jujutsu, I was awarded an honorary fifth degree in Jujutsu. (That means I’m not good at jujutsu; I’m just a fan and supporter.)
In 2006, after years of refining my martial arts and teaching curriculum, I developed my personal expression of martial arts as a unique and personal teaching method. (No, I did not create a new version of Kempo. The world doesn’t need yet another style of Kempo.)
Based on my experience, I have reorganized the curriculum to produce better students in the art. Distilled from many years of training and organized along logical lines, this refined warrior art of Kempo helps students balance body, mind, and spirit. All those fancy words mean I teach all the Arts I know and highlight how they are related – thus building upon those relationships to make a stronger warrior. It means my art is constantly improving as I explore, experiment, evolve and adapt.
It also means being a warrior is a journey, not a destination.
Our school is a charter member of the Philippine Martial Arts Alliance, and I am a personal student of the founder, Guro Julius Melegrito. Check out their Facebook page to learn more about the organization, upcoming seminars, and to purchase equipment.
Our school is also an official Empower Kickboxing training center, a curriculum developed by John Graden. Master Graden is a personal student of Joe Lewis–the father of American Kickboxing and Master Lewis was a student of Bruce Lee. Empower Kickboxing is a style you can master faster.
