Since August 1991, TRAD AM KARATE on Santee's Carlton Hills Boulevard has delivered Traditional American Karate instruction through a system developed in Southern California in 1982. TAK's curriculum fuses shorin-ryu and shotokan karate foundations with kung fu, judo, jujutsu, aikido, and kickboxing techniques, a multi-system approach that distinguishes it from the single-lineage Brazilian jiu-jitsu training at Infinity Brazilian Jiu Jitsu nearby on Carlton Hills. The dojo partners with the Santee recreation department to offer introductory karate through the city's community programming, funneling new students from park-based clinics into the full dojo curriculum. Annual events include the Stardefender Camp, Mountain Retreat, and MEGA Self-defense Seminar, plus the Starfighter Tournament Series for in-house and inter-school competition. Formal kata, judo throws, jujutsu ground techniques, and Oriental weaponry including bo staff and nunchaku are all integrated into the TAK belt-advancement system, a movement-arts range that parallels the choreographic training at Expressions Dance & Movement Center on Riverview Parkway. Promotion testing evaluates students across formal kata patterns, situational self-defense scenarios, continuous free-sparring rounds, and hand-foot-body change technique sequences drawn from the system's five co-founders' combined expertise in shorin-ryu, shotokan, and American kenpo.