Age-old Martial Arts Training Gets a Boost from Modern Technology. Perch Design Studio launches crowdfunding campaign for martial arts and fitness training companion app.

PORTLAND, MAINE – MARCH 3, 2015 – Across the country, participation in martial arts training continues to rise alongside a growing national interest in mixed martial arts (MMA). While training techniques differ among the various styles – karate, taekwondo, jujitsu, krav magah, etc. – all martial artists must remember and train hundreds of skills, often using many different drills to practice each. Many martial artists use an old-fashioned system of pen and paper to log and track their training history, because no digital tool exists to help them.

Perch Design Studio plans to develop a mobile application, SKILLFUL, that will act as a digital toolbox for tracking and improving martial arts workouts. One of the founding partners of Perch, Stacy Kim, has trained and taught as a martial artist for over ten years, earning a black sash along the way, but has often felt the need for a companion application to improve her training efficiency. “As a martial artist, I’m expected to know well over 100 techniques, and many hundred more drills to practice those techniques. Keeping all of these skills and drills fresh in my memory is difficult, and this is a problem that every martial artist faces, from beginners to experts,” says Kim.

After creating and soliciting feedback on a fully designed prototype of the app, Perch is ready to make this idea into a reality. SKILLFUL will allow martial artists – and anyone else whose training requires a wide variety of memorized techniques – to log their workouts, track progress towards goals, and tailor their training sessions to improve skills that might be getting rusty. It will be the first mobile application that specifically addresses the needs of the estimated 7 million martial artists across the country.

Perch hopes to raise $15,000 in 30 days on Kickstarter to fund the development of SKILLFUL. Thanks to the all-or-nothing funding model used by Kickstarter, project backers can be sure that their donation will result in a real product. Consider contributing as little as $1 to help this exciting project come to life!

View the project on Kickstarter, where it was named a Staff Pick immediately after launch: www.kickstarter.com