Ryan Pinkston is a 14 year old 9th grader from Highland, Maryland. He has been involved with the martial arts for over nine years, more than half his life. As long as he could remember, he has always wanted to do karate and has excelled ever since the first days of classes. Ryan is currently working towards his 2nd degree Black Belt. He trained for seven years with mentor, and world champion Willie “The Bam” Johnson. From the very beginning, Ryan would love to go to the NASKA Tournaments and watch Mr. Johnson and other great performers on stage at the night time super shows. His dream of course, was to some day follow in their footsteps.

After seven years of Kung Fu, Ryan began training in Tae Kwon Do at the Charlie Lee Karate School in Herndon, Virginia. He is now a very dedicated student of Mr. Dave Moss and Charlie Lee. Ryan is also a member of the Charlie Lee Karate National Demo Team.

“When we first joined the school other parents found out that we would travel almost 90 miles round trip to train at Charlie Lee Karate, they use to tell us how crazy we are, but we knew a lot of the Charlie Lee Team from traveling (on the NASKA Circuit) and loved the family atmosphere we always observed with them. We also knew their reputation and knew the kids would be getting the best training possible. Once you get to this level of training, convenience is not priority. We, after two years, wouldn’t have it any other way.”

This is Ryans 4th year on the NASKA Circuit and he is ranked in the top 3 among the 14-15 year old Black Belt Boys, in all five of the divisions he competes in. Last season he finished in the top two spots in all of his divisions, for the 12-13 Black Belt Boys. After spending time with his coach Dave Moss, Ryan perfected his traditional forms and finished #1 in the division going undefeated for 11 tournaments. He was also the National Champion in NASKA for all 12-13 boys/girls forms. Aside from attending regular classes, he takes private gymnastics classes and religiously practices a minimum of 15 hours a week for his competitions.

Competing individually just was not enough for Ryan. He wanted to find someone to be his partner and do team forms. After seeing him in the nighttime finals show at the Battle of Atlanta, Ryan asked Anthony Atkins (#1 in Mens forms for three years) to be his partner. To his surprise, Atkins said sure. This was going to be quite a challenge since Ryan lives in Maryland and Anthony lives in Alabama. In 1999, their first year competing, was a trial year for Ryan and Anthony, better known as “Team Air” many times that year they placed second, non only to their teammates at Charlie Lee Karate. The year 2000 was theirs all the way. With the new rating system in NASKA for team forms, Team Air was ranked #1 in the Synchronized Forms Division. The tricks and flips they perform on stage are hard to put in words, but to see them do it in synchronized fashion is truly amazing. They finished #1 again in 2001 and looks like they are on their way to a “threepeat” for 2002. One of their proudest moments doing team forms was at a NASKA Tournament in 2001 when a judge came up to them and said “I have never in all my years of martial arts seen two individuals perform and look like one” That night they received 4 perfect 10’s out of 5 judges.

Because of their success in teams and individual ranking Ryan and Anthony have been invited to perform and hold seminars all over the world. The past year included two trips to Paris France, (Where they performed at the Bercy for over 20,000 spectators, Guatemala (one week after Sept 11th) where Ryan achieved six first places and a grand, and Quebec City Canada where Ryan won two grands.

But through all of his traveling one of Ryans most memorable moments was a seminar that Anthony and he both put on in Maine for students at Huard’s Martial Arts School and the Huard’s Sport Karate Team. This was one of the greatest sport karate seminars ever put on in the state of Maine “says Mark Huard” These two individuals really are a class act.

Ryan has had some really great years and thanks to people like Jenny Jones and Ed McMahon things look really bright for his acting career.

Ryan won the www.nextbigstar.com Ed McMahons international star search gone internet. After viewing Ryans video professional judges choose him as one of the finalist. He was listed in the kids dance division (doing a musical form) and 12 weeks after the contest started Ryan received a phone call from McMahon while he was in Disney World performing for ESPN 2 at the ISKA Martial Arts Championships, informing him that he was the winner. Ryan won over $5000.00 worth of prizes that included a Gateway computer system, furniture, hotel stays and gift certificates. This was the beginning for Ryan. Soon after he received a call from the “Jenny Jones Show” inviting him to perform on their “Most Talented Kids Show” Ryan performed and it was a huge hit! He has also been featured on ABC Sports/Washington DC (filmed at the Charlie Lee Karate School.) “Good Day Philadelphia” in Pennsylvania and Grant Paulsen radio show, a XM station, just to name a few.

This year Ryan has gone beyond his performing with just martial arts. He acquired a talent agency in Los Angeles and spent two weeks out in Hollywood during pilot season. In the short time he was there, he auditioned for 7 pilots (five of which will air this fall) was on hold for a commercial and landed a pilot for ABC. The last word was that it will air mid-late season.

Through everything he has done in such a short period, Ryan has managed to stay grounded. Most of his friends at school didn't even know about much of his successes until the principal plays the Jenny Jones show during the morning announcements, or the school newsletter announces Ed McMahon winner. When asked how he feels about all of his accomplishments, Ryan replied “this has been so much fun! I have accomplished so much more than I expected. I guess the hard work is paying off.’ And although Ryans acting endeavors do not include martial arts physically, he knows that his years of training has given him the ability, patience, and confidence required to do all of this.

“RYAN IS A GREAT EXAMPLE FOR ALL UPCOMING MARTIAL ARTISTS. HE IS A VERY POLITE SPOKEN YOUNG MAN, WITH GREAT TRAITS AND A LOT OF SUPERIOR TALENT. “SAYS REPORTER MARK HUARD.

To keep up with Ryan and all of his endeavors, check out his website at www.ryanpinkston.com