FAIRMONT — Sawyer Ammons was all sound and (controlled) fury as he performed his kata — the collective kicks, punches and other moves that are the traditional opening of any karate tournament — before an appreciative crowd at East Fairmont Middle School last Saturday morning.
Well, check that: He had the sound part pinned cold, yelling exuberantly with each maneuver.
And it was true that every kick, spin and punch to his imaginary opponent in the ether appeared to land with each outing, crisply executed as the arsenal was.
But the fury? Forget it.
That’s because the perpetually grinning, 11-year-old pipe-cleaner of a kid — all elbows and knees — was just having too much fun on that basketball court-turned-dojo to be taken, well, too seriously.
Even if he is an obvious, serious student of the discipline.
“Saw-Man!” his buddies called out, using his second-most popular nickname.
“Soy Sauce!” they sang, summoning the most popular.
Such overtures were hardly irreverent, though.
Not in context.
There were still the bows, and other shows of respect that were simply ingrained, and not forced.
And those moves, which were as solid and defined as any kid still finding his martial arts-legs could make them.
The occasion was the 23rd edition of the “Battle on the Hill,” a tournament that brought 17 teams from across West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio to town.
Off to the side, Shihan Garry Freeman — “shihan,” translating loosely to “master teacher” — watched as his pupil had at it.
The shihan showed a response that didn’t require an interpreter.
He nodded and smiled.
“That’s what I tell our kids all the time when we do these tournaments,” he said.
“I say, work hard, but go out there and have fun. We’re not gonna worry about trophies.”
Of Bruce Lee, and not letting up with your homework
They may not worry about trophies at his Mushin Do Martial Arts School, the tournament’s host.
Even so, his students have garnered a shiny array of such triumphant hardware in regional, national and international competition over the years.
Freeman runs the enterprise from a shopping plaza in Fairmont’s once-bustling Bellview neighborhood with his fellow shihan Pat Wilson, a Marion County circuit judge.
Visit Mushin Do’s Facebook page or call 304-612-6869 to learn more about the school.
Both grew up in the outlying reaches of the county — Freeman hails from Farmington and Wilson is a Mannington native — and both couldn’t get enough of all those Bruce Lee movies on cable in the 1970s.
Hollywood and Hong Kong aside, however, both said they were ultimately drawn to martial arts for deeper reasons, rather than the celluloid histrionics and occasional grasping plotlines of the above-mentioned kick-flicks.
Freeman and Wilson are practitioners of Shotokan Karate, which, as in all forms of the martial arts, is built on a shared foundation of philosophy and physical discipline.
“Discipline” is the watch-word, as both will emphasize.
“Well, yeah, it is just that,” Wilson said.
“And it starts here,” he said, pointing an index finger to his temple.
Freeman delivered the same verdict.
“These kids are taking that philosophy and that discipline, and it’s theirs, forever.”
Mushin Do student Brea Presley, 15 — “Presley, as in Elvis,” she said, smiling — brought that signature left roundhouse kick of hers to Chicago for a Shotokan national championship last year.
She came home to Fairmont with gold and silver medals.
Her dad, Frank Presley broke it all down while instinctively looking up — yes, up — at his daughter’s airborne foot as she demonstrated.
Brea was always a good kid, he said. After she got into karate and Mushin Do, she was an even better kid.
Homework, household chores and other responsibilities weren’t an issue, he said.
“She’s focused, for sure,” he said.
Mattox Murray, also 15, enjoys the sparring events, where he gets to anticipate and block his opponent’s punches and kicks — while thinking two moves ahead with his own.
Karate is definitely a thinking person’s pursuit for the home-schooler who plans on a career in the Army or Marines after graduation.
Right now, he’s not batting an eye about Basic Training.
“I’ve got self-esteem now,” he said.
“I have respect for myself and others. I know that I can push through.”
Which is also why Kelly Ash regularly motors her daughter Lydia, 14, to Mushin Do from their Doddridge County home for training sessions.
“She loves it, and I can see a difference in her, in school and other things,” the mom said.
‘Just be sure and remember your dad’
School psychologists and others in the field have long gone to the mat for karate, for all those reasons and impressions.
Karate for them means self-actualization and attuned problem-solving skills, not to mention an Eastern-inspired mooring for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other behavioral barriers that can get in the way of everything.
Sawyer’s dad, Gary Ammons, a clinical therapist, can only add to the chorus.
“I see these kids reaping lots of benefits,” he said.
Which is precisely what his karate kid plans on doing: Sawyer didn’t even have to set up for his kick of a response when a guy with a notebook asked him what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“Sir, I would like to be a self-made millionaire.”
“Just be sure and remember your dad,” the elder Ammons said.
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