Born in a small fishing village of the Philippines Grand Master Rick’s Martial Arts training started as a young child in Filipino boxing. At age 8 he came to the US living in Nj with his family. Through the after school programs he studied boxing until moving to Miami, Florida at age 10. While living in Miami Grand Master Rick studied under World renowned tae kwon do Grand master Soo se cho. Grand Master Cho was one of the original masters to bring tkd to the us and founder of macho sparring gear. He also studied Shendo goju ryu under 9th dan Sensei Russ Rogg at the national karate academy in Miami, Florida,

After moving to Bradenton/Sarasota area, Grand Master rick studied hwa rang do under master ki tae yum , tae kwon do & hap ki do under Grand Master Sung Cho, and Ming Wu under Sigung Jessie Vi.

In 2011 Grand Master Rick, along with his son Sifu Brandon opened their own school and formally started The Taganas System. The Taganas System contains part of all these styles along with his families original arts from the Philippines of kali and Filipino boxing, to attempt to give students a full base with techniques that can work under different situations from basic empty hand to defending against weapons attacks. We also consider it important that our students feel a part of our school as family not just a place they come a few times a week. incorporated within the system is also many awards for school grades, family nights, and many other functions to make everyone feel a part of our family and give kids a healthy environment to come and have friends while learning the importance of hard work and discipline. We believe in helping our students , their families and the community as much as we can, and our currently working on starting a fund to help students with costs of opening their schools based on donations from self defense classes and other classes we offer to the public on donation base. The Taganas system is not just teaching how to kick and punch , it’s about teaching respect, being a good part of your community, being someone peers can look up to, and more.