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James Solis

         James Solis from El Sobrante, CA began his martial arts training at age 5 at his fathers karate studio.  He study’s Kajukenpo, a blend of karate and Ju-jitsu from Hawaii.  James began competing in local tournaments at age 6 in sparring only.  In 1996 in his first full year of sparring he won a competitor of the year award by the AMAPA League of North Carolina.  At age 9 he began competing in Kenpo Forms as we as continuing to compete a lot in sparring. His first big tournament win was winning first place in both forms and fighting at the 1997 Long Beach Internationals with over 30 competitors in each division.

In 1998 and 1999 James was rated #1 in both Kenpo Forms and Fighting by AMAPA and the United States Martial Arts Federation.  In 1999 At the IMAC World Championships he competed in musical forms and took first place.  It was there when he first met world open forms champion Jon Valera.   After watching Mr. Valera compete his goal was to someday become world champion like him.

James took 3^rd place in his first national tournament competing as a Black Belt.  In March of 2000 Jon Valera decided to recruit James and Two other juniors to represent the Valera performance Team to perform at Martial Arts Shows and compete at NASKA World Tournaments throughout the Unites States.  The team first performed at the 2000 IMAC World Championships in Las Vegas, the 2000 U.S. Open in Florida, and Guatemala and Honduras.  

By the end of the year 2000 James competed in 9 NASKA World Tournaments and finished #1 in the boys ages 10-11 Black Belt Open Forms.  In March of 2001 James and the Valera Performance Team traveled to Paris France to compete and perform at the Bercy Show.  James won first place at the first French Open and performed for over 20,000 spectators.

In August of 2001 James auditioned for a kids GAP Commercial.  The GAP auditioned over 600 kids and James was picked to be featured in kids Martial Arts GAP commercial, which aired nationally for 5 weeks.  In Sept of 2001 the GAP flew James and the others who were in the commercial to appear in the Today Show in New York.  

James finished #1 in both Open Forms and Musical Forms for the Black Belt boys 12-13 for the year 2001 NASKA World Tournaments.  

He also won 1^st place in open forms and fighting at the 2002 Bluegrass Nationals in Kentucky as well as first place in musical forms at the 202 Battle of Atlanta in Georgia.  

James not only enjoys competing but he has made many friends on the NASKA Circuit.  James is in the 10^th grade.  He enjoys music and computers.  His goal is to continue to train hard in the martial arts and to win a NASKA Grand championship and do more commercials and film work for television.  He is now teaching at his dads martial arts school and helping his dad train his little brother Kyle who is now competing at NASKA Tournaments and who’s goal is to also be a champion like his brother.  

In 2003 James is still training and working really hard in the martial arts.  

James is one of the most talented and polite young individuals I have ever met in the Martial Arts “Says Reporter Mark Huard.  James, good luck with your future in the martial arts and in life.

by Reporter Mark A. Huard