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Stuart High School senior Linda Vu knows what people think when they hear about the school’s traditional karate club.
“Everyone’s mind goes to punching and kicking,” the 17-year-old said. “They want to know: Do we fight? We do the moves, but we don’t fight each other.”
In fact, though it might not mesh with general expectations for martial arts, traditional karate is a non-contact sport. Training focuses on controlled movements, including punches, kicks, blocks and other typical martial arts techniques, but each one stops half an inch from an opponent’s skin.
While traditional karate offers self-defense training, the purpose is a more holistic honing of mind, body and spirit. Soolmaz Abooali and Cassandra Haynes started the Stuart High School traditional karate club with the goal of offering that to students.
“I’ve learned so much about myself and become a better version of myself through traditional karate,” Haynes said.
Haynes works as a music teacher at Stuart and started participating in traditional karate classes about eight years ago. Through the classes, she met Abooali, a national champion and world medalist in traditional karate.
“One day, we started having a discussion about how our traditional karate practice has influenced our identities,” Abooali said.
“We were saying that we wished we could give that to these kids,” Haynes said. “Then we thought, ‘Hey, maybe we could.’”
Haynes and Abooali, a doctoral student at George Mason’s School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution, approached Stuart principal Prosperanta Calhoun about their idea last year.
Calhoun first reacted with hesitation, her mind jumping to the violence she associated with karate.
“But then once I learned more, I realized that traditional karate is really about empowerment,” Calhoun said.
The club started with a pilot program in spring 2014, and the success of that 10-week workshop encouraged Haynes and Abooali to continue with a full-fledged club this year.
The instructors capped the club at 20 students and quickly filled their roster. The club meets two days a week after school in the dance studio, where students gather in white uniforms and perform karate techniques in unison with Haynes and Abooali.
Abooali, who is studying how to use sport as a vehicle for peacebuilding at George Mason, has threaded themes involving conflict resolution throughout the practices with students. While her work at Stuart is not connected to her research, she sees traditional karate and conflict resolution as linked.
“In traditional karate, the goal is for you to remain calm and keep control of your emotions in a conflict situation,” Abooali said. “We’re trying to help students develop that reflection, that awareness, so they can apply that in all aspects of their lives.
The first group of students in the traditional karate club are preparing to test into a higher level of the martial art next week. Haynes and Abooali plan to open the club to more students. The current members will help teach their classmates even as they continue to develop their own skills.
“We already made an announcement today and we’ve already had five kids sign up,” Abooali said. “We really believe in this, and we’re looking forward to seeing this grow.”
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