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Recent Press Releases:
HALL OF FAME 8/2/08
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sarasota Woman Martial Artist inducted into the Hall Of Fame!
Powerful, humble and caring – this woman won the hearts of many judges!
Orlando, August 2, 2008. At the annual meeting and banquet of the Southeastern Martial Arts Hall Of Fame (www.southeastern-hall-of-fame.com), Sonie Lasker was inducted into the Hall Of Fame as the Competitor Of The Year – an honor that is bestowed on very few Martial Artists out of thousands who compete and win regularly. What makes Sonie unique is that she possesses equal parts of winning ability, humbleness and giving back to the community.
Inductees to the Martial Arts Hall of Fame are gathered at the Disney Hilton in Orlando for a festival and black tie dinner. The awards were presented with honor to these hard working athletes.
Sonie’s interest in Martial Arts came to her relatively late, at the age of 30, when she was laying in bed, ill with pneumonia. She was also 70 lbs overweight. She had been stuck in her Tel Aviv apartment for a couple of weeks, weakened by the virus. Her only salvation were bags of Cheetos, a DVD player and a shelf filled with Bruce Lee and Jet Li movies, which she watched intensely, over and over, fascinated by the movements of the Master Martial Artists. That one April day Sonie made a decision to transform her life by entering the world of Martial Arts. Her determination was additionally fueled by the fact that her then-husband told her he did not believe she could do it. That was like pouring gasoline on a fire.
As soon as she was well, Sonie researched and interviewed every single Martial Arts Dojo in Tel Aviv before finding one that she resonated with the most. She immediately began training and discovered that Karate was her true life calling. After moving back to the U.S. a few months later, she sought the best dojo she could find in Sarasota and was fortunate to find the 11-time World Champion Shihan Donna Judge who runs Suncoast Karate Dojo. Shihan Judge became Sonie’s teacher, mentor, role model and friend for life.
Sonie embraced Karate as a way of life, with full dedication and to the exclusion of all other options. “Do or do not – there is no try” became Sonie’s motto.
Through focused Karate training and disciplined nutrition, Sonie shed some 70 lbs of excess weight. She also rediscovered her passion for human anatomy and began intense study of Exercise Therapeutics, Nutrition, Exercise Programming and Advanced Anatomy. She quickly became one of the top trainers at Shapes Total Fitness for Women and began developing and perfecting her own fitness system, based on the principles of Martial Arts.
As a Martial Artist, Sonie embarked on the long journey of competing in State, National and International tournaments. The long hours of training combined with days spent away from home and the stresses of traveling. The trophies didn’t come easy. In fact, in the beginning, she didn’t always win. But Sonie knew she could win, so she was always very interested in the best competitors. She was not sore when she lost, instead she was glad she could find something to improve her performance. It wasn’t long that her scores were better than those of her competitors and she started bringing home the big trophies and gold medals. Yet, she always remained humble, congratulating all the competitors on their performance, volunteering as a scorekeeper at the tournaments, and never talking about herself in public. Her multiple wins soon combined to secure Sonie’s status as Florida State Champion in not just one, but multiple divisions – an uncommon achievement for most Martial Artists in her age group.
Another part of Sonie’s life is that she contributes to her community on many different levels. She donates her time for Susan G. Komen organization and is active in other charitable organizations, including donating personal fitness sessions to school fundraisers, national awareness silent auctions and more. Sonie volunteers at her dojo twice weekly to teach children’s classes. She also performs free self-defense demonstrations at various events and contributes her knowledge and expertise to the public via Rochelle Herman's Radio Talk show, Health Beat of America.
Working as a Personal Fitness Trainer at Shapes, Sonie knew that she was in a position to help people be healthier, feel better and have a more fulfilling life. She knew the difference Martial Arts made in her life and desired to share it with her clients as though they were her students. Her bosses at Shapes would have none of it, though: Karate was not allowed inside of Shapes in any way. What they didn’t know was that Sonie was determined to bring it to her clients and that she knew the way of the old Masters, who were also forbidden from practicing their Martial Art, so they disguised their weapons as ordinary tools and their warrior stances as spiritual rituals for practice. Sonie studied the anatomy and fitness books and designed exercises that are rooted in Karate, but gave them “ordinary” names. She began teaching her system with the approval of her bosses and her clients began to reap the benefits of highly efficient and effective training without knowing that hidden inside of their exercise routine were specific moves taken directly from Karate. Only after 2 years and many repeated successes with her clients did Sonie reveal her secret. Now that she was the top producing trainer, Shapes management listened. Sonie was allowed to “officially” open her own Dojo inside of Shapes, where she teaches Karate and self-defense classes for women. To date, Sonie has successfully implemented her fitness system with hundreds of clients. In fact, Sonie’s success rate is 100%.
For more information about Sonie, please visit her web site at www.sonieshine.com or contact her agency:
See a live personal safety demonstration by Martial Arts Champion!
Not just another pretty face – this World Class athlete helps countless women live healthier lives and feel more secure, confident and safe
In case you haven’t heard, Sonie Lasker is our resident Florida State Champion in Karate. She recently achieved another significant success winning at the U.S. Open World Martial Arts Championships against athletes from all over the World – Europe, Japan, South Africa, South America, Australia and more.
Sonie brings her relentless training and experience in Martial Arts competitions right back to the people here in Sarasota. As a nationally certified Master Level Personal Trainer and using her unique system of Martial Arts Resistance Training, Sonie provides additional instruction in self-defense at her Karate class inside of Shapes Total Fitness. Helping countless women live healthier lives and feel more secure, confident and safe has been the subject of a recent feature on ABC Channel 7 WWSB News.
Come and see a live demonstration of Sonie’s personal safety classes and her Karate Forms performance at the upcoming Audi Club event at Suncoast Audi this Saturday, July 12, at approx. 11 am.
Inductees to the Martial Arts Hall of Fame are gathered at the Disney Hilton in Orlando for a festival and black tie dinner. The awards were presented with honor to these hard working athletes. 
In case you haven’t heard, Sonie Lasker is our resident Florida State Champion in Karate. She recently achieved another significant success winning at the U.S. Open World Martial Arts Championships against athletes from all over the World – Europe, Japan, South Africa, South America, Australia and more.
