This month, he opened his third karate school, Komodos, at 351 Main St. in downtown Wilton, where students ages 5 to 99 can learn martial arts and boxing.
For more than a year, he’s taught karate and boxing at satellite schools in community centers in Newport and Windham, he said.
Now living in New Sharon, he chose to open Komodos in Wilton because of the people there who gave him a chance when they didn’t have to. While he was growing up, they didn’t turn away, he said.
He would like to do the same for youngsters there now, providing them with a different way of thinking.
“Karate is a real confidence builder,” he said. “It will bring anyone out of their shell— child or adult.”
He likes teaching because he likes “seeing the kids’ base as a human being become more solid and confident.”
Effort, respect and control are the rules he expects students to follow at all times.
“Martial arts and boxing is not about fighting — it’s like playing chess,” he said. “It’s a tactical thinking game. On the higher levels, it’s a real problem-solving game, strategical.”
After gaining some knowledge of martial arts, Martin said he was a bit cocky about his abilities. While in the Navy, there was an older fellow on the base that embarrassed him in the rink, and it made him continue learning.
“It’s not what you see in the movies,” he said. “You have to think ahead.”
He started learning Kempo, earning his first black belt in the martial art. He spent eight months in Japan and and has taught in North Carolina.
Kempo is a style he enjoys seeing others learn at their own pace, while having fun.
Kempo developed from many styles of martial arts, including Kung Fu, Jiu Jitsu, boxing and some traditional karate.
In the service, he also started boxing. He’s boxed in some amateur and semipro circuits since, winning North Carolina’s equivalent of the Golden Gloves championship, he said.
He would like to develop a competitive boxing team here that would compete at larger clubs in New England, such as the Portland Boxing Club.
Komodos will also offer a women’s kickboxing group or self-defense classes. Private lessons are available, but group rates are lower, he said.
“Komodos is a learning facility, first and foremost, and a business, second,” Martin said in his brochure. But he hopes the business will pay for itself.
So far, the response has been good, he said.
Komodos is open from noon to 9 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturdays. On Saturday afternoons, members can enjoy an open gym and use the punching bags, he said.
For more information, contact Martin at 860-0655.
abryant@sunjournal.com
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