His humble beginning started in the basement and sometimes in the kitchen of his house where sparring was the thing to do. Taningco got the go-ahead from his Grandmaster Gasper to open a club back in 1976. Taningco started teaching at the Boy’s Club in Keowee Street in Dayton and started a club in Huber Heights by way of Wayne High School facility and down in Miamisburg by way of Habitat Community Center. He found himself travelling so much that he eventually settled in the Belmont area where the old Belmont Building was in the basement. From there, Taningco moved the studio from the basement of the Belmont Building to the Woodman Drive area where “Play Guitar” is now located. Eventually in 1988, with God’s blessings, he was able to purchase the land where Tama is now located to build his dream studio.

Grandmaster Taningco has also opened a martial arts training facilities in Centerville, Huber Heights, Beavercreek and West Chester martial arts studio. He eventually sold all of those to his students and just manages the Tama building on Woodman Drive. He brought Shaolin Kempo, traditional jiujitsu, Filipino Kali/Eskrima, Indonesian Pencak Silat, Muay Thai Kickboxing, Tai Chi, Chin Na, Full Contact, Tien Shan Pai Kung Fu, Aikijutsu, and Kendo. He pioneered the Children Martial Arts classes and developed a structured curriculum for most of the discipline.

There were NO children classes by themselves when he first moved to Dayton in 1976. Since his first two children, Joanna and Lee wanted to learn martial arts, Taningco decided to develop the Mighty Mites program for the very young and Superkidz karate classes for older kids.