As the pandemic persists, several martial arts studios are thriving – even after Governor Ned Lamont was forced to close them down between mid-March and mid-June 2020 and they reopened with new challenges.

The studios include Black Dragon Martial Arts Academy at 113 Salem Turnpike in Norwich, Defense Martial Arts of Norwich at 15 Wawecus St. and the Japan Karate Association of Montville, 1242 Old Colchester Road in Oakdale. Their students include schoolchildren, police officers, firefighters, teachers, nurses, chemists and General Dynamics-Electric Boat workers.

The schools adapted their martial arts classes while closed by engaging students (ranging between 3 and adults in their 60s, depending on the school) online and providing recorded classes they could utilize for practice.

Their programs build confidence and self-esteem, as well self-discipline.

A special emphasis was put on “keeping the class schedules and structure the same,” said Master Daniel Jenkins, owner of Black Dragon Martial Arts Academy, where instructors teach three styles of Kempo Karate: Karate, Kung Fu and Kickboxing. With the financial support of his students and their families, Jenkins said during a telephone interview they have about doubled their student base to 150 since 2020.

Parents “realized we’re a community school,” after Black Dragon joined Norwich Mayor Peter Albert Nystrom and the Norwich Police Department in holding backpack drives/giveaways and food drives. “That was something that was really huge for our community, because a lot of people really needed that help,” said Jenkins, who also held Christmas toy drives, “as a way to keep parents, families and the community engaged” on a positive level.

“And we did it without expecting anything from them. No money. No signups. We did it because that’s what a business should do.”

Defense Martial Arts of Norwich didn’t reopen until June 29, 2020, Kristin McShane, manager and wife of sensei/owner Charlie McShane, said in an email. “This has been a crazy two years and it doesn’t look to be calming down any time soon. We appreciate how understanding and loyal our students have been; we couldn’t do this without them.”

Some students “lost their income and could not continue,” she said. The vast majority who continued to pay were “offered a discount voucher for the future,” she explained. “We are back to the numbers we had before shutdown and continue to add.”

Defense Martial Arts teaches Hybrid Martial Arts, which McShane described as “a blend of krav maga and kickboxing, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, fitness kickboxing (contact free fitness class on a heavy bag) and Judo.”

“The vast majority of our students are comfortable being in class. We hear a lot that they are ready for things to be ‘normal’ again,” McShane said. “For a lot of people, martial arts becomes a huge part of their life and they feel like they are missing something if they don’t train.”

After a week of vacation from teaching Shotokan Karate in March 2020, Andrew Bakoledis of the Japan Karate Association of Montville said he began creating a schedule for the different levels and ages of students to keep their training “warm” and offered Zoom classes four days a week. He also gave students their money back for March since they only attended for two weeks before they had to close.

In addition to teaching Shotokan Karate (which has an underlying philosophy of controlling the mind), the Japan Karate Association of Montville offers conditioning classes, including personal training methods for sculpting the body and punching, kicking, striking and blocking techniques, according to its website.

Knowing people were losing their jobs and probably couldn’t afford to keep the classes in their budget, Bakoledis said during a telephone interview that he offered students free online classes in April. He also created a beginner series for anyone – including parents to practice with their children.

“I still have it on my website and anybody can go there for free.”

He said he is “happy to have people exercise and have some fun. I decided that I would leave it up there. Why not? It’s just introductory lessons.”

Beginning in May, Bakoledis made his students an offer: If they could afford it, younger students could pay half the normal membership fee and adults could pay two-thirds for online classes. “So many people were so happy to just make contributions and make their situation work,” he said.

Bakoledis, who is also mathematics chairman at Norwich Free Academy, joked that his karate school made a profit of 25 cents in 2020.

Since these three schools reopened, owners said they took all the state safety protocols seriously. This involves sanitizing surfaces after each session, providing additional distancing between students and adding additional classes. Students are asked not to come to class if they have a cold, cough or fever. Also, all their instructors are vaccinated. However, they don’t require students to be immunized.

No contact was allowed initially, Jenkins said, and “people were still training in the mirror.”

Some sparring is now allowed with the appropriate face shield for the sport, he said. “If the numbers (of those contracting the virus in the community) are going up, we disengage in contact, because we don’t want to add to that problem. And we don’t want a problem in here.”

At Black Dragon, adult and child students, as well as parents, all have their temperature taken when they walk through the door. They must also use hand sanitizer.

“This is the hardest I’ve ever worked in my entire life,” Jenkins said, laughing.

“The rules in Connecticut are constantly changing and evolving as the pandemic goes on,” McShane said. “We do whatever we can do (to) be compliant which meant sometimes we held classes outside; sometimes we had to be contact free, and we follow whatever the current mask mandates are.”

When the Japan Karate Association reopened in June with all the safety protocols in place (including 6 feet between equipment and 12 feet for exercising), Bakoledis said attendance “was a little light, but not as light” as he thought it would be. He added he has about 40 students now (about 5 more than in 2020). “People really returned in person. And it was nice. I just felt like everybody was level headed about it.”

“Sparring” initially consisted of “facing somebody on the other side of the room,” he said.

When the state relaxed guidelines more, Bakoledis said he kept more distance for a while, because he “was still nervous about just how families and students would react to facing each other — shouting, breathing heavy, even with a mask on.”

When the weather was “right,” they “did more training outside.”

He believes over the last year, the daily habit of doing karate or something like it and paying attention to one’s mind and body got away from some people. “And then people realized, because they were lacking it so much, it became a focus.”

The emphasis today is so much “on the outside, to people posting digitally everything on all these different (social media) platforms and “no one’s ever working on who they are inside,” Bakoledis said.

MORE INFORMATION

Black Dragon Martial Arts Academy at 113 Salem Turnpike in Norwich

www.ctkarate.com; phone: 860-892-5425.

Defense Martial Arts of Norwich at 15 Wawecus St.

360defensemartialarts.com; phone: 860-889-1818.

Japan Karate Association of Montville, 1242 Old Colchester Road in Oakdale.

jkamontville.org. (Phone: 860-227-2769)