Chris Casamassa Fights Obesity and Bullying...and Ninjas.

Imagine a child practicing karate. Now imagine that child continuing to practice karate for 45 more years, refining his abilities and expanding to other forms of martial arts. What you have been imagining this whole time is Chris Casamassa. A legend on the mat and on the screen, Casamassa has combined his love of martial arts and children with a series of KickNFit Kids videos.

Born in 1965 to Red Dragon Karate founder Louis D. Casamassa, Chris has honed his body and mind to become skilled in all things martial arts and gathered quite a few titles when he competed in the professional competition tour: he was the national open forms champion four times and was in the top five of middleweight fighters. The whispers in the wind even say that he amassed as many as 36 consecutive first-place finishes. He is an eighth degree black belt in Red Dragon Karate. After he retired from beating people up professionally, Casamassa moved on to film and television, most notably starring in Mortal Kombat in 1995 as Scorpion, the undead revenge-seeking ninja.  

 Shortly after he became a parent, Chris grew concerned with the rising childhood obesity epidemic. When he learned of the ways that obesity was linked to many diseases (including diabetes and heart disease), he realized that he was in a special position to fight this national health problem. He had continued to coach and train other martial arts athletes, even after he had stopped competing professionally. He also knew that, with parents' on-the-go Web 2.0 lives, there isn't often energy or time given to take kids to the gym. With that in mind, he developed the KickNFit Kids fitness program specifically for children. Consisting of high-energy martial arts exercises, KickNFit Kids gets kids active and also teaches them healthy lifestyle choices that they can continue to benefit from for the rest of their lives.

But he didn't stop there. One of the effects of the many success stories from KickNFit Kids is that kids become more self-confident. While this can deter bullying, he knew more was needed to keep kids safe. This is why he created Fast 5 Kids, the followup to KickNFit Kids. In addition to physical training, the bully defense portions of the Fast 5 Kids DVD set teaches kids to be attentive to their surroundings and to be wary of potentially dangerous situations. It also shows them how to identify bullying behaviors and stop them before they start.

Chris Casamassa can also be found on YouTube channel for Red Dragon Karate, an organization he happens to be president of. Check him out and leave a comment if you've had the pleasure of his instruction.