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Combined Force Martial Arts offers specialized classes
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Published: November 7, 2009
Michele Henderson's weeknights are pretty booked these days.
On Monday, she studies Judo with Randy Ellsworth; Tuesday she learns mixed martial arts with Bryant Harrell; and Thursday she trains with Mike Ginnerty in a form of Kung Fu known as Wing Chun and yoga with Sharon Traylor.
Michele, 15, said the focus and discipline she learned alongside the six certified instructors at Combined Force Martial Arts has improved her health and maturity level to deal with the transition into Collaborative College Technology and Leadership at Mitchell Community College.
"I've got a better state of mind," she said while taking a break from training on Thursday. "I love Judo. It's very different."
The instructors at the Park Drive martial arts school teach Judo, Shotokan Karate, Mixed Martial Arts, yoga, Wing Chun and Kickboxing Aerobics.
The six instructors — Harrell, Ginnerty, Traylor, Ellsworth, Adam Szafranski and Tom Larmondra — met when Harrell operated Iron Eagle at the YMCA in Barium Springs.
Harrell, Ellsworth and Larmondra have black belts. Ginnerty and Szafranski have black sashes.
Ellsworth owns the building the school operates in, which allows the partners to keep costs low. Monthly payment for one style is $35. It is an additional $10 for each class after that.
The students helped the instructors renovate the storage room into a dojo — or practice hall — Traylor said. They even knocked down a wall — with a hammer, not their hands.
The move to the building on Park Drive allows them to hold separate, more specialized classes, and allows students to find a style that fits them, said Traylor, who teaches yoga.
A lot of different factors, including the economy, are making people feel like they don't have control of their lives, she said.
"Martial arts is a good program to get into," she said. "It allows you to have control."
Students don't learn how to beat someone to a pulp, said Larmondra.
Instead they are taught the principles of the Dojo Kun written by Gichin Funakoshi, which teach them to seek perfection of character, be faithful, endeavor, respect others and refrain from violent behavior, he said.
"We just like teaching," Larmondra said. "It's all learned tradition."
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