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Show Utah Self Defense trains pupils in much more than just karate ment. He said that while the influx of karate movies of the 'past decade, de-cade, even family-type films such as "Karate Kid," heve helped arouse interest in the sport, they've also depicted a false image of violence and paim "There are about 8 to 10 tournaments tourna-ments in the valley a year for karate, ka-rate, including two we sponsor, and no one could get away with what we saw in 'Karate Kid.' We teach balance, concentration, the importance of gaining inner strength. It's the fighting we see glamorized that scares people away from karate," he stated. The majority of tournaments held in Utah are only semi-contact competitions. Competitors wear protective pads, are not allowed to hit their opponents in the face, and can be disqualified even for the slightest touch to a prohibitive area of the body. Carlos praised Utah for its safety record as a whole, adding "you make contact, but it's controlled contact." Students of all levels are among his members. He takes pride in his stringent requirements for advancement. adv-ancement. The fastest that any student stu-dent of his has ever achieved a black belt (the highest level of achievement in karate) was in just under 3 Vi years, and that was by an ex-Marine who was a student at the University of Utah. Needless to say, the road to a black belt isn't an easy one. Carlos does not like criticizing other karate schools or clubs, but he admits that brown and black belts are too often made available too easily. "Karate can be expensive if you want the true benefits of the sport. But the biggest part of karate is teaching the mental part, using your inner power to gain strength. We make achievement worth something. If a student takes karate ka-rate one step at a time, he'll make it," he stated. Currently Carlos has his students, stu-dents, along with hundreds of others along the Wasatch Front, involved in raising money during a Labor Day Weekend Kick-a-thon for Muscular Dystrophy. Pledges are for the number of kicks a student stu-dent can make in an hour. Last year over $5,000 was raised, more than a third of that from the Bountiful Bounti-ful club alone. Those who'd like to learn more about Carlos, his club and the fund raiser can contact him at 295-9274. By TOM HARALDSEN Sports Editor BOUNTIFUL Perhaps no sport is more misunderstood than that of karate. Glamorized through the years in movies as an "offensive" "offen-sive" sport that inflicts pain upon its victims, it has created a stereotype that instructors and participants par-ticipants have been trying to counter. And that's a challenge that Carlos Car-los Ferrer welcomes. As owner of Utah Self Defense and Fitness in Bountiful, Carlos is sharing his love of karate, and his personal philosophy that the sport is much more than simply a physical exercise, exer-cise, with many of his students. He abhors the sport's image as one of violence. Carlos, who was born in Cuba but moved to Dallas, Tex., as a teenager, became interested in the martial arts when he was 16. When his instructor moved to Utah, he followed him there. He opened his first club in Centerville five years ago, then moved to his current location later that year. With the help of assistant Bryan Grimes, Carlos opened a second location in Kaysville 18 months ago. He describes his efforts as those for "training people who are a little more serious about karate than simply taking a recreation center class." With Bryan joining him full-time, he uses several other black and brown belt karate students stu-dents as teachers to train an average aver-age of about 100 per month. All age levels participate, from as young as four to older adults. Carlos keeps classes small, and those with like skills and abilities train together. Both men and women take classes, and schedules permit plenty of time for practice or working out. There are many different styles of karate Carlos' classes concentrate con-centrate on a form called American-Do and those styles "vary as much as singing or dancing," he said. Some styles are totally hard, others totally soft. He credited .Americans in pellicular with fostering fos-tering a style that is a mixture of both. "People do have misconceptions misconcep-tions about karate," he said. "By definition, karate means 'open hand.' But many forms, such as .American-Do, are of a more eclectic eclec-tic style." He invites those interested in taking classes to observe one, and even try one out, first, free of charge. "Any school or club should be willing to do that," he said. "You should be allowed to check one out, in order to find one that gives you what you need." Costs can vary as much as styles, and Carlos said some schools "can price you right off the map." He is more concerned with teaching students skills and abilities abili-ties they can use in their daily lives than in making a killing at the bank. Classes range from 45 minutes to an hour, and students usually average aver-age two classes a week. "We feel we have a good mixture mix-ture here," he explained. "We start slowly enough so no one feels lost, and we have a perfect safety record." On the latter point, Carlos is ada- |
