Barefoot children, loud noises and broken boards would seem like a nightmare to most businesses, but that is exactly what Gainesville’s newest martial arts studio wanted.
PRO Martial Arts Gainesville held an open house for its grand opening Saturday to give the community a taste of what classes and lessons are offered. The studio is part of a national program and is one of several martial arts studios in the city.
The program’s grandmaster created a version of Korean martial arts formed by combining three types of karate: taekwondo, tang soo do and hapkido, said PRO Martial Arts Gainesville owner Bill Wright.
The instructors will also be teaching their students about moral lessons during their classes, which are available for all ages.
“We are teaching life skills through the tagline of marital arts: building character for a lifetime,” Wright said.
When looking for instructors, Wright said, he picked candidates who could would work well with kids.
Parent Jackie Sarviwas said she thought he succeeded.
“They are very good with children,” Sarviwas said. “You can see they know how to bring them out of their shell.”
Sarviwas is the mother of 4-year-old Darwin, who is part of a long line of shy family members. He was shying away from the activities when the open house started but was soon jumping over a noodle then landing in a pose that made it seem like he already knew what he was doing: right fist on the mat, left arm straightened out to the side and body in a lunge to the right.
Along with the physical aspect of martial arts, instructors will emphasize the importance of respect in their lessons, said chief instructor Corey Sparks.
The students are withheld from progressing if they don’t follow the respect and discipline rules, Sparks said. Students are not given their white belts until they have proven and demonstrated they are learning these skills.
“With respect we want to teach them how to respect and not necessarily that fighting is the cure to everything,” Sparks said.
[A version of this story ran on page 5 on 2/10/2014 under the headline "New martial arts studio combines three types of karate"]
