As an extremely proud dad, I bring you this story. My son, Mark Tassler, Jr., is a very dedicated martial artist. He is only nine years old, but he has been studying and training in martial arts for several years already.

And I am talking about martial arts being a way of life for our family. Unlike different types of sports that have seasons, martial arts has no begin and end dates within the year. Martial arts is continuous year round.

We plan our lives around training every Monday, Wednesday and Friday night 52 weeks a year. Plus sparring on Saturday mornings every week.

We top all that off with tournament competition on multiple weekends during the year. To commit to what I have just described, takes total dedication. For a young boy it means giving up football and basketball seasons with his friends.

It means brutal training for hours upon hours each week. It involves 100's of push-ups and sit-ups daily. It means fighting that many times results in crying competitors due to inflicted pain during the competition. This is an extremely hard sport. It means working out until you drop.

I have witnessed my son's total dedication to all of this over the course of several years without missing a beat. And please know that I am not forcing this on him. This is all his deal and I support it.

How well is he doing? Well, he is at the very top of his class. The pictures pretty much tell the story on his success level. When Tiger Academy in Sioux Falls chose Mark to be the face on the front of their building on East 10th Street (located just East of the Hy-Vee Store), it was a great honor.

Mark Jr Image On Tiger Academy Window
Mark Tassler
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The business also put his face on their team vehicle and company van. Mark earned this honor thru his hard work.

Mark Jr Image On Tiger Academy Van
Mark Tassler
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