My name is Dr. Michael Steward Sr. I am one of four founders of this association. Being very unhappy with the slowly deteriorating and poor condition of sports ethics and values in our society, I felt an immediate change was necessary. To try to correct this problem I needed to start with my own sport first. Many sports suffer from this sad condition and martial arts have suffered as well. I had dreamed of building an association that would attempt to turn around the negative clouds that over hang our martial arts competitions today. The win at all costs philosophy is unfortunately too prevalent in today’s society.

I gathered three great martial arts masters and friends of mine, so I could voice my opinions and dreams to them. We had a meeting in the spring of 2001, and they immediately joined in with my efforts to form this association. They are Soke Calvin Campbell, Soke-Dai Patrick Albrecht and Hanshi Dan Neal. We gave ourselves the nickname of "The Four Horsemen". I along with these men, are the four founders of this non-profit association. We then began to talk to other martial arts teachers and masters, who we knew held the same philosophies that we were trying to foster. These masters also immediately joined our board of directors. Their names are Dr. Jake Allen, Dr. Tom Manson, Soke Terry Wilson and Hanshi Jeff Disney. Because this is an international association we are currently talking to several of our friends here in North America, South America and overseas to join us as well. We want this to be the corner stone for what was, and what can be again good and great about martial arts competitions.

      We want to use this non-profit association to:

·        change the direction of sports value and ethics in our sport today.

·        make behavior that was once unacceptable, but which is now tolerated, unacceptable again.

·        change the mindset of the win at all cost philosophy.

·        re-inject into spectators, parents, athletes, coaches and referees the respect for each other that is missing.

·        educate administrators, coaches, referees, athletes, parents and spectators, on the true virtues of our sport.

·        develop and maintain a style of competition that is almost lost today.

We wish to promote those positive aspects of our sport, which not only lead to better displays of sportsmanship, but to the development of better citizens, as well. Those values include the promotion of the intrinsic value of sport; academic and social achievement; of the value of diversity; of drug-free athletes; and of ethical conduct. We have also aligned ourselves with a fantastic organization called Citizenship Through Sports Alliance. This group has the backing of all of the major sports organizations here in the USA. We want to do our part within the martial arts community here in the USA as well as internationally.

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