MARK SLANE, Head Instructor

Mark Slane has studied the martial arts for over twenty years. Mark started his training in Tae Kwon Do and holds a fourth degree black belt in that art. In Olympic style Tae Kwon Do he won a national championship in sparring in the light weight division - 33 to 40 year old age group. He has taught martial arts to hundreds of students in various schools over the past twenty years and has coached and trained dozens of national medalists, national champions, U.S. team members and even two World medalists. Mark has also trained in boxing for several years with Olympic Gold Medalist, Jerry Page.

In 1999 Mark was a member of the very first group of outside instructors ever trained at the Krav Maga National Training Center in Los Angeles. He then went on to open one of the first half dozen Krav Maga schools in the United States.

To become a black belt in Krav Maga is difficult. Prior to 2007, instructors who wished to become black belts must have been personally invited to test in Los Angeles by Krav Maga Worldwide. Krav Maga Worldwide tested, on average, only four or five black belts each year. Mark became a black belt in November of 2003 and tested with the United States Krav Maga Association to Second Degree Black Belt in 2009.

Mark retired early from his firefighter/paramedic job to devote his life to making others safer. Mark founded the United States Krav Maga Association to spread Krav Maga throughout the U.S.

JERRY PAGE

Jerry was the light-welter wt. on the 1984 U.S. Olympic Team. Before that Jerry had an extremely impressive amateur career (101-30) in which he was a six time golden glove champion, three time parade all American, the number two ranked light welter weight in the World for two years, National sports festival champion, and the 1983 Pam Am games silver medalist. As an amateur Jerry won the prestigious State of Ohio Governor's Award and was inducted into the Columbus City Hall of Fame.

In 1984 Jerry was invited to the Olympic boxing trials for the U.S. team. At the trials Jerry went 5-1 to win gold and become a member of one of the strongest U.S. boxing teams in history.

Jerry was on the U.S. team with Evander Holyfield, Terrel Biggs, Henry Tilman, Virgil Hill, Frank Tate, Mark Breland, Pernel Whitacre, Meldrick Taylor, Steve McCrory, Robert Shannon and Paul Gonzales.

At the Olympics Jerry went undefeated and won the Gold for the U.S.!! After the Olympics Jerry turned professional and went 11-4 before injuries shortened his career.

Jerry retired in 1990 and has since coached and trained many amateur as well as professional fighters and has been in the corner for six World Championship bouts. Jerry is highly regarded as a coach and trainer in boxing cirlces and is highly sought after for his coaching skills by fighters throughout the country.

JOHN BURTON
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John has studied martial arts for many years including Kung Fu, Kajukenbo, grappling, Aikido and Krav Maga. Having earned his black belt in Krav Maga, he is one of the highest ranking Krav Maga practitioners at the Center and one of our top Krav Maga instructors.

SUE BURTON, Program Director at Gahanna
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Sue has studied martial arts for years, including Kajukenbo, Kung Fu, grappling and Krav Maga. She has competed in traditional martial arts tournaments bringing home several medals, trophies and belts. Most recently, she was awarded her black belt in Krav Maga.

Sue has a passion for physical fitness that has helped her to lose over one hundred pounds! She is now driven to share this experience by leading and encouraging others as much as she can. More recently Sue has taken on a Paleo diet challenge and had changed her body composition and increased her work out performance.

Sue is the only female Krav Maga black belt in at Ohio Krav Maga, as well as Facilities and Program Director at the Gahanna location. She currently teaches Krav Maga, and CrossFit classes. She also does personal training and private lessons. Sue is a level 1 certified CrossFit trainer.

MATT KISSEL

After several years of training under Mr. Slane at Ohio Krav Maga Matt has recently earned a black belt in the United States Krav Maga Association.

He serves a local Police Department as a full time patrol sergant. He is certified through the Ohio Peace Officer Training Academy as an instructor of police defensive tactics to include expanding baton, chemical spray, edged knife defense and control tactics. Matt has 11 years experience on the SWAT team and is currently a team leader and member of the Sniper team. Matt is also current in first aid and CPR certified.

As an NRA instructor, he trains civilians in the basic pistol handling and shooting disciplines. He has taught many self defense workshops specifically for women to include verbal skills, empty hand, pepper spray/ key chain defense.

JOHN LOVINS
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John has studied martial arts since 1996 when he began Tae Kwon Do and holds a first degree black belt in that art. He started training in Krav Maga in 2005 and over the years has trained with some of the best: Mark Slane, John Whitman, Darren Levine, James Hiromosa, Ryan Hoover, Jeff Jimmo and others. He trains the upper level Krav Maga students at our Gahanna location as well as the level 2 CrossFit classes. John earned his black belt under Mark Slane in 2009.

John is also an avid CrossFitter, who holds a CrossFit Olympic certification and Level 1 sport coach certification by USAW. Along with Krav Maga and CrossFit, he practices Brazilian Jiu Jitsu regularly under the instruction of 2nd degree black belt Arthur Ruff. He attends seminars by world champions, which include Rodrigo Medeiros and one of the original “Dirty Dozen”; David Meyer.

AARON JANNETTI, Program Director at Hilliard
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Aaron began training Krav Maga in early 2008 and currently holds a Level 5 rank in the system. He immediately fell in love with Krav Maga and the passion of the instructors at OKM. Over his time training he has had the opportunity to train with many of Krav Maga’s greatest instructors and black belts across the nation: Mark Slane, Ryan Hoover, John Whitman, Eyal Yanilov, Kelly Campbell, Jarrett Waldman and many more. Aside from his Krav training, he has also trained with many high ranking students at OKM in the offensive knife tactics of the MBC. In October of 2008, he helped to open the Hilliard location where he is currently the Program Director and Head Instructor of both Krav Maga and CrossFit. He is also a Head Instructor for the United States Krav Maga Association and in charge of Curriculum Development for the system. To this day he continues his studies under Mark Slane in pursuit of his black belt in Krav Maga, and continually attends outside seminars and studies books and tapes to further his knowledge of the system and to assure the efficiency and accuracy of the USKMA curriculum. His one goal is to make sure everyone instructed under the USKMA receives the top form of Krav Maga and Self Defense.

Along with his Krav Maga Training Aaron also holds a Level 1 certification for CrossFit and Level 1 Sport Coach Certification by the USAW for Olympic lifting. He trained CrossFit with John Lovins and the OKM staff and received further instruction at Rogue Fitness throughout 2008. After receiving his Level 1 certification he began coaching others at the Hilliard Location. In the year to come he has plans to receive his Level 2 certification and Power Lifting Certification.

Aaron has trained personally with Jerry Page in boxing since his start at OKM in 2008. He had the privilege to train hand-in-hand with Jason Lai (muay thai black belt) in Muay Thai for two years and continues his training in both Muay Thai and MMA instruction with Chris Larkin. Since his arrival at OKM he studied in Jiu-Jitsu and in 2009 he began training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu consistently under the instruction of Arthur Ruff (2nd Degree Black Belt).

JUAN ACOSTA, Program Director at Lewis Center
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Juan is a Certified Personal Trainer and fitness expert as well as a United States Krav Maga Association certified instructor. He is currently pursuing his Blue Belt in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu as well as refining his techniques in Boxing and Muay Thai. Juan is the Program Director at our Lewis Center location and is available for private sessions.

ALEXIS ACOSTA

As a very small female, when Alexis came to do her intro at OKMF, she was fairly intimidated.  However, once her husband convinced her to become a member, she quickly realized Krav really was a useful defense system for everyone—regardless of their size or any other factor. 

She has been coming to classes ever since, enjoying the variety and challenges of each Krav level as well as the variety of other classes offered.  From her experiences, every work out at OKMF is mentally and physically stimulating as well as a wonderful stress-relief and a lot of fun. 

MIKE CONTRERAS

Mike Contreras is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu coach through the Gracie lineage. Mike has been passionately involved in the martial arts for over 17 years. From Boxing, Tang Soo Do, Wing Chun Gung Fu and Weapons training…Mike found his heart and talent take off when he began to study the gentle art of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu under the Rickson Gracie Association.

He started training Jiu-Jitsu in the latter part of 1996 when his coach attended a Rickson Gracie Seminar in Chicago. From that point he began his Jiu-Jitsu training under Dino Costeas (at the time a Rickson Gracie blue belt representative) and also Rodrigo Vaghi, the only Black Belt under Rickson Gracie in the Midwest Region at that time.

He was promoted by Dino to purple then brown belt after getting a chance to compete in the first Worlds held in the US back in Aug of 2007. By this point he was able to travel quite frequently and made trips to any school he had a chance to visit while working in various parts of the country. From East Coast, to TX to CA, Mike became a familiar face at many schools and began to develop great relationships within the Jiu-Jitsu community. He had the privilege to train at many schools and also people like Rickson Gracie (several times out of the Rickson Gracie Academy in Santa Monica), Renzo Gracie Academy in NY, Alliance out of SC, Carlos Machado and students out of Dallas, TX, Randy Couture’s Academy in Vegas and many many more.

He has also had the opportunity to organize and run seminars held by Marcelo Garcia and with the help of a good friend, Donald Park, also Xande Ribeiro, both of whom are known to be some of the most top notch technicians in the world!

JASON HOLT

Jason searched for a complete martial arts system for years before finding Krav Maga and has been hooked since his first class. This led to intensive study and eventually completion of the grueling Phase A training in L.A. Jason is now a certified Krav Maga instructor as well as ongoing student. BJJ and Muay Thai round out his arsenal of self defense/martial arts techniques.

SCOTT HOWARD

Scott has been strength training since early 90's with a lot of boxing and kickboxing experience. He is working on his Blue Belt in BJJ and is a high level Krav student and certified instructor. Scott owns his own business and hopes to be a Columbus Firefighter very soon.

CHRIS LARKIN

Chris has been studying MMA since 1995. At the time he was stationed at Ft. Riley, Ks while serving in the U.S. Army for four years. Once getting out of the Army and moving back to Columbus he started to Train with UFC Hall of Fame fighter Mark Coleman, along with UFC/ Pride fighter Kevin Randleman.

Chris has studied Muay Thai kickboxing and Jiu-jitsu since 2002 at Black Dragon Martial arts. Chris is a blue belt in Japanese Jiu-jitsu under 3rd degree Black Belt Todd Conley. Chris holds a professional record in MMA of 7-3-1-1nc . He has trained over 7 amateur MMA Champions. Chris has had the opportunity to train with many of today's top Fighters in MMA, UFC Veteran- Rich Franklin, UFC Veteran-Luke Zachrich, Elite XC Veteran- Mike Bernhard and YAMMA fighting Veteran George Bush.

BRANDY MEADE

Brandy is a USKMA certified Krav Maga instructor and even by our standards, she is an extremely aggressive fighter. She has always been smaller than your average attacker and needed to rely on technique and aggression over brute strength. This gives everyone plenty to learn from her classes.

Brandy currently teaches Krav Maga classes and self defense for women seminars.

BARRY ROSEN
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Barry worked as a New York State licensed private security officer for 4 years before obtaining a degree in Criminology from The Ohio State University. He is currently pursuing employment within the law enforcement community in central Ohio. He is a certified Krav Maga instructor by both the United States Krav Maga Association and Krav Maga Worldwide.

TERRI ROSEN
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Terri is the marketing director for OKM and has been a graphic designer for nearly 10 years. Terri’s passion for physical fitness eventually led her to pursue certifications in teaching self defense and fitness. In 2008, Terri received her level 1 certification as a CrossFit instructor as well as becoming certified to teach Krav Maga by the United States Krav Maga Association. In 2009, Terri completed her 200-hour Yoga Alliance certification in the Ashtanga and Hatha styles. She received her USAW level 1 sport coaches certification in March of 2010. Terri is a major nutrition fanatic and is pursuing her personal training certification with the NASM. She is an avid CrossFitter and participated as a competitor in the 2010 CrossFit Sectional qualifiers at the Arnold Classic, finishing in the top half of women overall, and competed at the regional level in May.

KEN RUNDELL

Ken has been a firefighter/paramedic for 10 years. He is a USKMA certified Krav Maga instructor, and teaches at both Gahanna and Hilliard regularly. When Ken isn't saving lives or teaching Krav Maga, he enjoys advancing his own Krav training, CrossFitting, and bike riding.

JOE WILE

Joe Wile has been teaching Tae Kwon Do for over fourteen years and is a fourth degree black belt in this art. He has competed at the national and international level in Olympic style Tae Kwon Do and is a graduate of the prestigious Ultimate Black Belt Test and the Cooper Institute Instructor Certification program. Joe is the head instructor of the youth program at Ohio Krav Maga & Fitness as well as our main instructor for BJJ.

JUSTIN WISER

Justin developed a love for fighting late in life and rather suddenly.
Having only ever studied math, he came to Ohio Krav Maga and
immediately started his study of Krav Maga. Since then, as with most
things in life, he has gone way off the deep end - teaching Krav Maga
as well as training Krav Maga, Muay Thai kickboxing, Brazillian Jiu
Jitsu, and Mixed Martial Arts. He is also enthusiastic about fitness
and occasionally allows some of that enthusiasm to find its way into
his classes. Occasionally....