The Begining With Nick

 THE BEGINNING OF MARTIAL ARTS ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB.




Hello and welcome to the Virtual Competitions' new online Platform, I'm Ron Tramontano, and today we are taking a look back at why this Platform needed to get made. We'll investigate how it was done and the people that did it.

The year was 1996. The Martial Arts Network http://tman.com/index.html/ had just made its debut on the World Wide Web. It wasn't long before we were receiving ONE Million views a month. The Martial Arts community was on fire with the news of a platform dedicated to all styles of martial arts and their practitioners. Our Guestbook is filled with congratulations from all parts of the world. Industry icons from everywhere became commonplace on the site.

Team Paul Mitchell https://www.facebook.com/teampaulmitchellkarate/ had Mike Chat, https://www.martialartsentertainment.com/mike-chat/ John Valera, https://www.martialartsentertainment.com/jon-valera/ Beca Ross, and some of the best competitors I have ever seen. Chat and his wife just had a baby, and I had just decided to start The Martial Arts Network or T, MAN dot com as it became known to millions of martial arts enthusiasts worldwide.

Our network was on track to be a 24/7 cable television network. People were looking at us. People like the head of operations, Andy Forssell of Time Warner, came to our booth at Cable 97 in Anaheim, California. This started a weekly call from Andy to our offices at Universal Studios Florida each week. Andy needed progress reports on network involvement. At that time, we were renting and buying up martial arts libraries. Our website was the talk of the martial arts community. All thanks to the masterful skills of our webmaster Dr. Ron Valli. Remember, this was 1996.

Enter Mike Sawyer; https://www.facebook.com/mike.sawyer.9674/ Mike is one of the most prominent martial arts tournament promoters in the United States. The U.S. Open. With his partners Mike McCoy https://www.facebook.com/mike.mccoy.77920 and Cory Schafer, https://www.facebook.com/cory.schafer.5 Mike Sawyer reached out. He invited my partner Tony Interdonato and me to the event he and his partners have every year in Orlando.

That night I remember being invited to the penthouse after the tournament and speaking with Mike and some other leaders in the martial arts industry. I was blown away by what I had just witnessed, and I remember telling them I did not understand why these kids were not in the Olympics. Later that night, I spoke with Mike Sawyer, letting him know I would work toward getting these kids notoriety and possibly a payday for what they have accomplished. Well, this became my focus for the next thirty years right up to now.

Our Virtual Competitions Platform https://virtualcompetitionsonline.com has given way to a much-needed small business experience for all school owners, not just martial arts but dance, gymnastics, music, and any business that teaches and has the word school after their business model.

I have always been a person that can get things done. I will take you, the reader, on a fascinating journey in the pages that lie ahead. It happens to be the same journey I have been on since 2011 when I decided that my karate school West Boca Karate, established in 1986, needed to be on the internet. While reading this letter, one will acquire the specific methodology I used to develop and build the Virtual Competitions Platform.

I remember some of the first thoughts I had. What would this Website have to look like? How would we judge events? How do the school's owners make money? What about prizes? Then reality set in. Ron, what are you thinking?

How could I compete with that? Was I barking up the proverbial wrong tree? What was I doing, trying to change how things were done forever? Then it hit me; I didn't have to change a thing.

Let me tell you about one of the first times I used the Platform at my school in Florida, West Boca Karate in Boca Raton.

Nicholas was a new white belt, small in stature. Mom was sitting in the spectator area while Nick was getting ready to record his video. In a previous meeting with Linda and I, Nickolas had just turned five, and his parents expressed their concern for him. Nickolas's mom said Nick was very shy and possibly on the spectrum. Nick's parents just had him tested and were waiting for the results.

Nickolas did a few takes with me, and between my personality and the funny responses to Nicholas's bloopers, Nick was smiling and getting better with each take. We did three takes that day. I adjusted Nick's gate, posture, tonality, and how he interacted with the camera. Nicholas did just fine, smiling and proud of himself.

In Conclusion

However, this is not why I am telling you this story. Nicholas's mother was sitting on the side and crying to a point; I had to go over to her to see if I had done something wrong. To my surprise, Nick's Mom hugged me and told me she had never seen Nickolas respond to any activity or anyone this way. I was hooked, and, in a flash, I saw the potential of what could be. The year is now 2022, and we are ready to unleash our project on the world. Visit our platform at virtual competitions with the s online dot com. You can be part of what we are doing by sharing our story and watching for our national marketing. Thank you, and GOD Bless you all.
Location: Lake Worth, FL, USA

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