Sensei James Gydosh led some 120 Summit Academy Akron Elementary K-5 students through a series of awe-inspiring therapeutic martial arts promotion ceremonies last week.
Grins, hugs and other remarkable moments marked the day.
In proud-parent fashion, family members politely cheered on their students, capturing their achievements on smart phones and collectively applauding classes of students as they broke wooden boards and performed katas, or sets of martial arts movements.
“Our students work so hard learning their katas during Martial Arts class. They also study key principles of karate such as respect for self and others,” says Principal Dawn Presley, noting that the school’s therapeutic martial arts program is a key offering. “We believe it helps our students with their social/emotional skill development as well as their physical fitness.”
Taught by beloved sensei Gydosh, the school’s therapeutic martial arts classes lead up to twice-yearly promotion ceremonies, which are crowning moments when students advance to higher level belt promotions and display their skills to family members. For fifth-grade student Lynte Henderson, a newly minted brown belt and the school’s highest level student martial artist, a ceremony highlight emerged as
he led his classmates in katas.
Shihan Chuck Rickard, who leads Summit Academy’s Therapeutic Martial Arts program, likens students’ step-by-step progression of performing single techniques to recognizing letters. “They then move on to combinations of two or three techniques which are like learning to read words. Then they move on to performing these combinations in four different directions, which equates to reading sentences,” describes Rickard, explaining that a kata can contain anywhere from 20 to more than 100 movements, analogous to reading a paragraph or short story.
While the students demonstrate physical marital arts techniques and break wooden boards by hand and foot, their abilities represent their mental and emotional strength even more so, explains sensei Gydosh, a Summit Academy alumnus.
“That board represents the struggle. It could be social, not being great at making friends, or maybe not excelling academically, or maybe dealing with anxiety,” says Gydosh, explaining that the act of breaking a board is symbolic of the students’ ability to overcome obstacles.
“They learn that with continued practice and tenacity, they can break through barriers that have held them back,” adds Presley. “We are so proud of each and every one of them.”