Over the past sixteen years, Lima Taekwondo and Martial Arts Academy (Culver City and Torrance locations) has established itself as one of the premiere martial arts studios in the state of California providing high quality instruction and attracting a large number of students from all over the great Los Angeles, San Fernando Valley and the South Bay area. It is a tradition of excellence that has kept students coming back to study and experience the enthusiasm inside the classes.

Lima Academy has a flexible schedule of classes and at least three instructors per group to assist the student. The Academy offer “round the clock” instruction since is open seven days a week. Private, one on one coaching is accessible at any time, even weekends. Besides learning discipline and self-defense, students find themselves making new friends and having fun besides getting in shape. In Taekwondo there are classes for all ages (starting at 3 years old) and in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu there are adults program only. Master John Machado is responsible for the BJJ course.

Both locations are equally well situated in first-class spots providing easy access and good environment for their members. The Culver City location is a 3.500 s/f facility across the street from the Westfield Mall, the premises is surrounded by three parking lots. The Torrance location is a stunning 8.000 s/f facility (one of the biggest in the State) the building is next door to a number of well-known restaurants. Besides Martial Arts the Torrance location also has a Full Gym with modern exercise room equipment and private training available. The Academy originally was founded in middle 90s by Grandmaster Andre Lima and today it’s commanded for by its (CEO) Master Christianny Lima.

Children Classes

There are three age groups of instruction, LITTLE NINJAS (ages 3-5), JUNIORS (ages 6-12) and PRE-TEENS & TEENS classes (ages 10-14). Each class is subdivided into smaller groups according to belt color, or level (beginner, intermediate and advanced) so each group gets instruction tailored to their specific needs. With a multicultural and fairly even mix of boys and girls at all levels, any child find easy to fit right in. By studying Martial Arts children learn not only self defense skills and discipline, but mental training as well, skills they will need to be successful at school and in life. Lima Academy instructors request students to bring in a report card before belt tests to check if they are making satisfactory progress in school. Competition Training

If you decide you do want to compete, you will be joining “Competition Classes” and the training will become a lot more demanding than regular classes. Competing is one way to evaluate your developing skills as a martial artist, by facing an opponent of similar ability, age and weight. It is also good motivation to improve your skills. Meeting up with another competitor in front of a large crowd of spectators is not only a great thrill, it gives you the opportunity to push the boundaries of your potential. And competition is an unforgettable experience. It’s like summing up your whole life as a martial artist in those few minutes in the ring. When you win, your pride and confidence increase. When you lose, you learn how to analyze your strengths and weakness, so that you’ll do better the next time. Competition isn’t really about winning or losing, it’s about pushing your limits, about learning and striving to become better. If you do this, then you’re already a success. Lima Academy competition teams have collected several hundreds of gold medals in Local and State competitions since the middle 90s in Sparring and Forms. Our Junior, Adult and Senior teams represented the state of California numerous times in the Junior Olympics, US National Competitions, and the US Team Trials and also internationally at the US Open.

GRANDMASTER ANDRE LIMA

Grandmaster Andre Lima is the “founder” of Lima Academy. He’s officially certified by the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) as a 7th Degree Black Belt and one of few worldwide to obtain the internationally recognized diploma of the Kukkiwon. He began studying Taekwondo in Brasilia, capital of Brazil, 30 years ago when his father signed him up for lessons as a present for his birthday. Young Andre began studying and competing under the guidance of Masters Soo Myung Choi and Carlos Eduardo Loddo. Eventually Master Loddo, became his mentor. At 17, his family moved to the Oceanside resort city of Fortaleza, in the north of Brazil. Because there were no Taekwondo schools in the city, he decided to start the first Lima Taekwondo Academy in middle 80s. Today he is recognized by the Brazilian Federation as a pioneer of this art in the north of the country. Currently, there are several Taekwondo schools in and around Fortaleza and some of those schools are actually owned by his former students, including former Brazilian national champions. During his time in Fortaleza, he attended medical school for a year before deciding that he’d rather focus on a career as a martial artist. At 22 he left Brazil, moved to Europe and started to fight in the International Tournament circuit. He competed all over Europe winning numerous medals and expanding his experience and knowledge. During those years he began to be featured in a variety of internationally renowned Martial Arts magazines from: England, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Belgium and Italy. In most of his two years stay in Europe he lived in France where he worked for French Grandmaster Edouard Branco, teaching Taekwondo in his two schools in Paris. Besides Martial Arts he devoted some of his time in France studying and enhancing his skills of speaking four languages: Portuguese, English, French and Spanish. In addition to his expertise in Taekwondo, Grandmaster Lima is also an avid participant and former competitor in other martial arts, holding a black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, style that he began training in Brazil under Grandmaster Francisco Sa in 1986 and got his black belt from Master Rigan Machado in Los Angeles. Grandmaster Lima as well holds a black belt in Japanese Shotokan Karate. Although he officially retired from formal competition in 1993, Grandmaster Lima competed few times pitting his skill and experience against players in the younger division, just for fun of it. In early 90s, he participated in a few Point Fight Karate tournaments in New York City and in 2001 Grandmaster Lima took 2nd place at the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Pan-American Championships in Florida. In the course of the past three decades Grandmaster Lima has put his knowledge and skills to good use as a fight choreographer and actor in Hollywood movies as well as a writer of best selling Martial Arts books. He was featured on the cover of the top Fighting magazines in the US, Europe, South America and Australia, made TV appearances, competed, taught and studied Martial Arts in 30 countries, including Korea, the birthplace of Taekwondo. His vast work is internationally recognized by the Martial Arts community in newspapers, movies, the Internet and etc…

MASTER CHRISTIANNY LIMA

Master Christianny Paiva Lima is the “CEO” of Lima Academy; she is a 5th degree black belt by the World Taekwondo Federation (Kukkiwon). Master Christianny Lima first heard of Taekwondo in 1988 while on a three-month vacation in Italy visiting family members. Having been absolutely fascinated by all the spinning kicks, when she got back to her home in Brazil, she immediately found a local Taekwondo school and signed up. She studied with two Brazilian Masters: Adalberto Benevides and Halder Gomes and by the time she was 15 Taekwondo had became a strong influence on her life.

Before starting Taekwondo, “Master Chris,” as she is called, had studied ballet for nine years. Her initial progress was fast, aided by the strength, flexibility, and agility she had developed as a dancer. Although Master Chris had enjoyed ballet, the more she studied Taekwondo, the more she grew to love this Korean martial art, for several different reasons. First, she felt that there was something exotic, to some extent special about Taekwondo. Ballet is a beautiful, graceful art that tends to be somewhat aesthetically motivated. Taekwondo, however, blends grace and artistry with the more practical application of self-defense, which made it much more appealing to her. Second, she loved the idea of the belt system of advancement. To her it meant concrete goals and challenges to be met and conquered. Lastly, competition in Taekwondo would allow her to compete in an individual sport where her success depended only on her and how well she had prepared for the challenge.

After completing her first year of study, Master Chris decided to begin competing. At that time she was the only female at her school competition team, her training partners were the boys, and they made it very clear to her that they would not be losing to “a girl” any time soon. Because of that, training was practically demanding, but she never let someone else stop her from achieving her goals as a teen, Master Chris met the boys’ challenge head-on and trained even harder, determined to succeed. And succeed she did. Though her training was not easy, she worked so hard that by the time she was actually competing, winning came easily for her. She found that she was having fun and taking home a lot of medals, too!

Her successes were not limited to the competition ring, however. In 1994, Master Chris took part in a rigorous national test in order to become a Federal Agent for the Brazilian Police. She passed the test, but by then she had already met her future husband, Master Andre Lima, and she decided to move to Los Angeles to marry him in 1995. Soon after, they opened LIMA TKD ACADEMY. Besides her life in Taekwondo, Master Chris enjoys two rather interesting hobbies: scuba diving; and handgun shooting, which she learned from her father, an avid gun collector.

In addition to her 5th Dan in Taekwondo, Master Chris also holds a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. Currently Master Chris dedicates her time administrating both studios and caring for her teenage daughter, also a 3rd Degree Black Belt, Aycka Lima

LimaTaekwondo.com

LIMA TAEKWONDO ACADEMY (Culver City)

LIMA TAEKWONDO ACADEMY (Torrance)