Location: Franklin Park, 1755 E. Broad Street, Columbus, Ohio 43205

Martial Arts seemed to be a major component of the Asian Festival.

You are wearing unique outfits. I just got here. What did you do?

We just competed a Wushu demonstration. Everyone calls it Kung Fu, but Wushu is the official name of Chinese martial arts.

What are the different levels of belts?

I’m a coach, he is an assistance coach, and he is a red belt. White belts are the beginners, then it goes yellow, orange, red, green, brown, then black.

Anything else?

We have three locations. One here, one in Dayton, and one in Cincinnati. We have an international tournament in August. Ohio Kung Fu Tai Chi Day is coming up in October. Different high-level master’s come to that event.

Tell me about your discipline and your studio.

Our school is in Gahanna, Ohio. We are disciplined in Tae Kwon Do martial arts. Joined art means flexibility and develop your internal energy and increase circulation. If you have a good energy, you don’t need self-defense because people know you are already strong.

Anything else?

We have the trial program for one month. The method is a natural way. Our stance and our movement are walking steps and stretching. Darimar means balance your life first.

Tell me about your discipline

I have been doing Karate now for 44 years. I started in Brooklyn NY. Kyokushin style. In Japan Kyokushin is the hardest style of Karate. It is a modern style. It is full contact Karate. All our tournaments are bare knuckle at the brown and black belt level. Now there is about 44 million people practicing the Oyama style of Karate. We consider it a Karate of war.

I keep hearing Osu (to me it sounded like oooooshhh, not to be confused with OSU (Ohio State University) what does that mean?

It means push yourself to that limit, then go over that limit. We always want to challenge ourselves. I completed my 30-man fight. I fought one black belt after the next in 2006. It was the roughest thing I have done. It should have been 50 black belts, but I was 40 years old at the time and living in the United States, so they reduced the number. After that I had knee surgery, but I completed it. That’s out there for all you old men, you can still do it.

Anything else?

I love doing it. I might holler a lot, but I want the best for my students. The better they get, the harder I get.

Sidebar: This young lady appeared confident and broke the board on the first try. Good to see young people participating in positive activities.