In 2003, the ASP was first offered at Lawrenceville First Baptist Church, with over 150 children and their parents actively participating. In 2006, Gwinnett County School Board approved the ASP to be conducted in the schools. In 2015, over 500 (3^rd – 5^th grade) children diagnosed with ADHD enrolled for a county-wide study conducted at the Atlanta Events Hall in Duluth.

Having witnessed a wide array of benefits from martial arts, I used to frequently refer students and their parents to martial art schools to help improve a variety of things. At that time, however, knowledge was more anecdotal than research-based, and outcomes did not always meet expectations. Parents had shared with me classes were too expensive, their child received little attention or benefit, and several parents were told their child was not a good fit.

In effort to remedy this, I began spending a lot of time visiting martial arts schools. I would ask parents and instructors about perceived strengths and weaknesses of their school, student/instructor ratios, amount of one-on-one time, levels of patience and experience instructors had in teaching children, approaches used in working with special needs, interactions between and responsibilities of students, whether advancement in class was linked to a child’s performance at school, and what benefits classes were having for participants. I also offered instructors training in how to meet a variety of special needs, but it became clear that in spite of some very good and patient instructors, martial art schools cannot compromise their bottom line.

This experience was invaluable and motivated me to come up with a scientific alternative to enhance martial arts benefits for all students. After several years of research and development, the ASP was first offered in 2003. Ongoing research and development remain central to continually improving what we offer—as we believe helping others (over ourselves) is why we all are here.

While most did not support this program until repeated research did, we are grateful for our many active supporters today and are humbled by many martial art schools having utilized aspects of the ASP, as this ultimately serves the greater good and addresses many of the former limitations.