IATC 2026:  Stepping Forward

This year’s IATC theme is about leadership—active, confident, and self-motivated leadership. This is what a leader does: step forward to do the work and show the way. What I want to see more than anything in the next couple of years is Cuong Nhu instructors and heads of schools Stepping Forward to grow the style by teaching with confidence, growing their classes, and opening new schools.

In Cuong Nhu, one of the first lessons on a person’s first day is literally about stepping forward: how to move in forward stance. Soon come more ways: diagonal stance, cat stance, side stance and so on, each taught with exact foot positions, dimensions, posture and balance, and each one – if we instructors are doing our jobs right – drilled toward perfection. Stances are the essential foundation for everything else we do.

Stancework is a great metaphor for what leaders need in order to excel: the ability to step forward confidently, in a variety of ways, with appropriate strength, balance, and agility, and in ways adaptable to any situation. This variety and adaptability is also a defining quality of Cuong Nhu as a style.

Stancework is also literally a requirement to be an effective, successful leader in Cuong Nhu - and in growing the style. The discipline, focus, and exactness required for excellent stancework is the foundation for building not just one’s own excellent technique, but also passing on the proper mindset for discipline, hard work, and skill to our students, so they too can excel.

Stepping Forward as an active, confident, self-motivated leader means, first of all, evaluating your own foundations and knowledge – making sure they are the best they can be – and then actively setting out to be an example and share your knowledge with others. Confidence comes from believing in your own understanding and abilities – trusting yourself to step up and teach independently. Self-motivation grows from your passion for training and the desire to share that passion (see: the 5 Loves of a Sensei).

I would like to see every black belt, every instructor, and every head of school Stepping Forward with those qualities. And I’d like to see all of us training our students toward those same qualities, including the confidence to step outside our own influence and build new classes and new dojos of their own. That is the only way to grow, and Cuong Nhu deserves to grow!

IATC 2026 marks 55 years since O’Sensei Ngo Dong established Cuong Nhu in the United States. It is high time for growth. Be a part of Stepping Forward for Cuong Nhu!