Author: TSMA Page 164 of 202

Making a living teaching martial arts was not a goal for Larry Meeks then, neither is it a possibility now.

What began as a hobby for Meeks gradually grew into a small business that is celebrating its 33rd year this month.

“I can’t make a living teaching martial arts but it’s certainly an enjoyable small business,” Meeks said. “The real rewards are not monetary. They are in seeing people of all ages benefit from a well-rounded exercise program and one that enables young people to be better athletes.”

Meeks teaches Hap Ki Do, a Korean form of martial arts, and grappling at his studio in downtown Troy.

“Hap Ki Do is standing defense and grappling, which is like wrestling, is ground defense,” he said. “They both train the mind as well as the body. The martial arts help you to be an all-around healthier person.”

Meeks said his interest in martial arts grew out of his desire to excel in a sport.

“When I was young, I played all sports but I was just mediocre,” he said. “I wanted to participate in a sport that I could excel in. I wanted to participate in a sport where I could make my own mistakes and then correct them. The martial arts was that sport.”

Meeks trained with Chris Dickinson and with Rick Hayes. The more he trained, the more dedicated and committed to the martial arts he became.

He realized the value of the training for men, women and children and opened his own martial arts training facility in Troy.

“We started meeting in different places, in barns and sheds, before we got a permanent place on South Three Notch Street,” Meeks said. “The interest in the martial arts increased as people began to know more about the art through television and the movies and, too, as people became more aware of the importance and need to be able to protect themselves.”

Meeks has trained people from all walks of life – including those in the military and in law enforcement.

“Right now, we have about 35 students of all ages,” he said. “We have young girls and a lady who is 59 that we call ‘Granny.’ She will soon be a black belt.”

Meeks said that, in today’s world, people of all ages and from all walks of life need to know how to protect themselves.

“With all of the bullying that is going on, it’s important for young people to know how to handle themselves in confrontational situations,” he said. “They need to be able to respond with ‘the bullying stops here.’ It’s just as important for women – and men — to know what to do if they are in a threatening situation. Knowing how to defend yourself if physically attacked could save your life.”

Meeks said that, most importantly, the martial arts teach day-to-day values that form a foundation on which character is built.

“The martial arts teach the traditional values of respect, honor, integrity and loyalty,” he said. “Students of the martial arts develop characteristics of good citizenship as well as appropriate judgment in confrontational situations.”

The mid-1970s were life changing for three men.

It was then that Steve Sapp, David Feldman and Harry Payne discovered taekwondo. Now, in 2013, all three men have their own academies in Middle Georgia.

Taekwondo, a form of martial arts founded in Korea, has impacted all of their lives.

For more than 40 years, the three have grown from young men who wanted to be just like the people they saw on television to owning their own buildings where they teach the sport to new generations of students.

Feeling young

Feldman, 60, is a former school teacher and now works as a communications specialist at Air Force Reserve headquarters at Robins Air Force Base.

He owns Perry Taekwondo and teaches in the evenings after he leaves his day job.

A member of the American Taekwondo Association, he also had an academy in Greenville, Ala., and taught from 1980-84 at what is now called Maxwell-Gunter Air Force Base.

Feldman was in college at the University of Alabama and became fascinated with martial arts after watching the TV show “Kung Fu.”

What started as just something fun has turned into a lifelong passion. The teaching is fun and makes him feel young.

“I’m scared to stop,” said Feldman, a seventh-degree black belt.

Belts are a form of telling others what forms and moves the students have mastered.

The grand master of the American Taekwondo Association holds a ninth-degree black belt and is the only one who can do so.

The freestanding building for Perry Taekwondo was completed in May 2003.

“For someone to build their own place, you’ve gotta be doing something right,” Feldman said.

He has taught thousands of students, from the very young to senior citizens.

“I want to always be able to do more than yesterday,” he said.

Old school teaching

Sapp was a senior at Southwest High School in Macon when he found his way into Edward Ahn’s taekwondo classroom at the prodding of his boss at a gas station where he worked part-time.

“It proved to be what I was good at,” he said.

Sapp, 57, has owned Warner Robins Karate Academy since 1974, when his business was on Commercial Circle.

The business has moved three times since then, ending up in Bonaire, also with a freestanding building, which opened in October 2000.

“I’ve got students all over the world,” Sapp said.

Each month, he has 120 to 170 students taking lessons at his school.

His specialty is in the traditional form of taekwondo, which he learned at Ahn’s school. Ahn is president of the Haesan Martial Arts Association, to which Sapp and Payne both belong.

“I stick to the old school way of teaching,” Sapp said.

His teaching style focuses on the artwork of patterns and forms rather than sparring, which is another side of the sport.

He said picking out a martial arts school is sometimes just a matter of convenience, whichever is closer to the student’s home. The personality of the instructor is also key.

“I’ve been around so long. Everyone knows about me,” said Sapp.

Growing confidence

Payne can remember the day he took his first martial arts class taught by Ahn because it changed his life.

“It was May 29, 1974, on a Wednesday after school when I was in 10th grade,” he said.

As a little boy, other children picked on Payne, and after watching Bruce Lee movies, he knew he wanted to try martial arts.

Driving to the business in Macon when it was on Second Street, Payne pulled his 1966 Ford Mustang into the parking lot and used the money from his job to purchase a uniform and lessons.

He spent the next summer in the mornings with Ahn as his personal trainer. It gave him confidence and the knowledge that this was what he wanted to do with his life.

Payne, 55, started teaching in 1978 in Fort Valley. He moved to Arkansas in 1986 and moved back to Byron in 1995.

When he returned to Georgia, he taught at Ahn’s for a few years before opening his own place, Byron Taekwondo Academy.

After being in the martial arts so long, Payne knows quite a few people in the sport. He said he has several students who own their own academies in various parts of the U.S.

Some of the names include sparring partners and students of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, who he credits with making taekwondo popular.

Between Feldman, Sapp and Payne, their students number in the tens of thousands.

All three agreed the sport has kept them young and active.

“Isn’t the phrase, ‘If you like what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life’?” Sapp asked. “That’s been pretty much it.”

Arizona polymath, Grandmaster Hausel, remains as  one of the top martial arts instructors in the world. He was awarded the Instructor of the Year, the International Instructor of the Year, Man of the Year, Grandmaster Instructor of the Year and Grandmaster of the Year, and inducted into several Halls of Fame for both martial arts and geosciences.

Hausel began training in martial arts in the 1960s and later taught at four universities. He was certified in 2 dozen martial arts and certified as grandmaster of traditional Okinawan Shorin-Ryu Karate in 1999. In 2004, he was promoted to Judan (10th degree black belt). Recently, he became one of only a handful of martial artists to ever be awarded the rank of Junidan (12th degree black belt)since the early 19th century.

Soke Hausel teaches martial arts to adults and families on the border of Gilbert with Mesa at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate.