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'Martial arts geeks' find their place

With new space, teachers take tai chi and kung fu indoors.

By JACKIE RIPLEY Times Staff Writer
Published September 7, 2007

From the cinder block walls to the stark concrete floor, this is as bare bones as a school can be.

Fans move the air around in warm waves. Fluorescent lights cast a sallow glow. And sounds echo off hard surfaces.

But the instruction is anything but basic.

"We give the good stuff and it's worth the sweat," said Mike Hewett, who owns the Song Shan Washu Guan martial arts school with Mario Salazar. "We never wanted a storefront."

Salazar and Hewett, who taught tai chi, kung fu and kick boxing on beaches and in parks until this year, moved Song Shan Wushu Guan inside in January.

Now, weights and punching bags take up one end of a 4,500- square-foot building at 5638 W Waters Ave. Students fill the other end.

There are classes for adults and for children.

"It's very serious work we do but we have lots of fun," Hewett said.

Salazar, 27, is an award-winning martial artist who has traveled the world honing his art.

Hewett is a crack marksman who earned his reputation teaching law enforcement officers the ins and outs of firearms.

He teaches at a firing range in Brooksville.

Each approaches his discipline from his own perspective, but both adhere to what they call the "warrior philosophy."

"We have an unusual arrangement," Hewett said. "On the firing range I'm the shifu Chinese for father or teacher and he's the shixiong (older brother). But in here, he's the shifu and I'm the shixiong."

It's been nearly 10 years since Salazar struck out on his martial arts quest. He left his home in eastern Hillsborough County, and for six years traveled the world in search of the best martial arts teachers he could find.

"I'm a small guy," Salazar said. "And my father wanted me to be able to defend myself, defend my brother and defend my family."

During the years he traveled, Salazar lived either in the martial arts schools where he was studying or with the school's master.

He studied with some of China's top martial artists and competed nationally and internationally. Some of his ribbons and awards line one wall of the gym.

On a recent Monday evening Salazar spent an hour taking students through the fluid and graceful movements of tai chi. And then it was on to kung fu and the "tornado kick."

Salazar illustrated the move several times. Each time he defied gravity by spinning through the air, landing gracefully on his feet.

When it was time for the students, there were awkward imitations, and some not so awkward.

"Not everybody can do that," explained Hewett as he demonstrated a modified version of the kick where only one foot leaves the ground and the body twists only part of the way around.

"We're just big martial arts geeks," said Hewett with a grin. "We love it. We live the life."

Not all of the school's students are martial arts geeks, however. Some are regular people like Kris Ronning, a 64-year-old Countryway woman who simply wanted to learn tai chi. "I was always losing my balance and banging into walls," Ronning said. "I was getting bruised up."

So, four times a week Ronning is in class, practicing the ancient Chinese art that proponents say helps not only with balance but also provides a sense of physical and emotional well being.

Classes cost $89 a month and students can attend four classes a week. They can also take just one course, but Hewett says it's helpful to take all three.

"A low stance in tai chi is a low stance in kung fu is a low stance in kick boxing," he said. "The aspects of all improve on each other."

Despite her improved balance and growing prowess Ronning won't be throwing any punches or entering any contests.

"Can you just see some 70-year-old woman trying to take somebody down?" she said.

Abagail Susik, on the other hand, does hope to take a few people down.

The 30-year-old art history Ph.D. candidate has been studying tai chi, kung fu and kick boxing for three years. She now is in training for an amateur kick boxing match to take place in New Jersey.

"It's absolute medicine for me," said Susik, who travels to the gym from her home on Davis Islands three or four nights a week. "It helps level me out physically and emotionally," she said.

Jackie Ripley can be reached at ripley@sptimes.com or at (813) 269-5308.

[Last modified September 6, 2007, 07:57:46]