 Stephen James Tannler - Instructor
My first experience with martial arts that I can remember is watching Teenage Mutant Ninja
Turtles on television I guess you could say that was where the interest started. My childhood was
spent moving around a lot because of my father’s work. I spent my younger years growing up
in Idaho, a little time in Nevada, and finally landed in Ramona in 1989. Needless to say I was
not a well behaved child. My fights with my brother often escalated to physical violence.
Sometimes my brother was on the receiving end and sometimes it was whatever wall or
door was closest.
In junior high my brother was having some confrontations with some bullies and that got us
interested in the after school martial arts program with Mr. Delmas. This was my first real
training in the martial arts. With Mr. Delmas I achieved my first rank of yellow belt. It was just a taste of what was to come with
me and martial arts.
June 7, 1993 is a day that I will always remember as a day that completely changed my life. That was the day I started my
training with Master Steve White. I started training with him mainly because my brother was doing it. However, I stayed for a
whole different reason. At first martial arts was something I did to stay in shape. In high school I competed on the boys swim
team and I found that during the off season I could stay in shape with the martial arts. With this training regiment I was able
to earn my varsity letter for the boys swim and was only the second guy at Ramona High to do that.
 One of my goals throughout my life has always been to be a teacher. I started to assist
classes when I became a 6th Gup. As my love for the martial arts increased so did my
interest in teaching it. My goal then became not only to achieve my black belt rank, but also to
be certified as a teacher. In 1996, when I was awarded my black belt I was also certified as a
1st Dan Assistant Instructor. This allowed me to start running classes on my own. In 1998,
after a few more years of training and instructing I was promoted to 2nd Dan and certified as
an instructor of Tang Soo Do.
My goal has been and always will stay the same. I will continue to spread martial arts in the
best way I know how, and try to positively affect as many lives as possible through the martial
arts. I’ve fSound in my 13 years of study that there are many benefits the martial arts have to
offer, and if you give it a chance it can improve your life too.
Read about another instructor - William Joseph Hazlitt
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