The Hollister Chinese Kempo school recently hosted its first
tournament last month.
Instructor Marieta de La Cruz, who contracts through the
Hollister Recreation Department, couldn’t have imagined that almost
half of them would have placed.
The Hollister Chinese Kempo school recently hosted its first tournament last month.
Instructor Marieta de La Cruz, who contracts through the Hollister Recreation Department, couldn’t have imagined that almost half of them would have placed.
“I was a little reluctant to tell anyone about it because I didn’t know how we would do,” de La Cruz said. “These guys that we are fighting have tournaments every single month, so they are very well seasoned. But for the first hour, all I was hearing was ‘California,’ ‘California.'”
The tournament was held at Sacred Heart on Jan. 24. There were 42 participants from Nevada and eight from Oregon who competed in the three-school event. There were 18 local fighters who participated.
As opposed to a point-system that is normally used in tournaments, fighters were judged by their performance in three one-minute rounds.
The team competes in just one or two tournaments a year. The next one is planned for July.
“We are not a tournament-orientated school,” de La Cruz said. “We focus more on self defense and character building. We’re more into the long haul of improving a person. We did spend a couple weeks working on sparring when we were preparing for the tournament. But that is a rare occasion.”
When de La Cruz first took over as the instructor in 1999, only 13 people were in the program. Now there are between 30 and 40 people in the year-round program between ages 4 and 46.
De La Cruz started off as a student in the school, which has been around since 1977, as a way to protect herself.
“I was getting bullied and beat up in my neighborhood,” de La Cruz said. “I was one of those kids who wasn’t very confident. I was always picked last for sports teams. Martial arts helped me with my coordination and confidence.”
She graduated from San Benito High in 1986 before majoring in Art Studio at UC Davis. At Davis, de La Cruz was in the ROTC program and became an army officer. She has since seen action in Samalia, Panama and Saudi Arabia.
In September, de La Cruz quit her job as a supervisor at Sun Microsystems to devote her full efforts to teaching. Shortly after, she opened American Self Defense Academy in Gilroy.
De La Cruz is encouraged to see more adults coming out and participating and also helping instruct.
“Parents are signing up with their kids,” de La Cruz said. “And they are inviting their friends, cousins, brothers and sisters to join.”
De La Cruz has a second-degree blackbelt in Chinese Kempo and a first-degree blackbelt in Okinawa Kempo that she received in the military. She would eventually like to get a third-degree belt but said she doesn’t want to go any further.
“My biggest love is to see lives change,” de La Cruz said. “I’ll get students that start out really shy but after a couple months will start getting more confident.”
A big part of the program involves confidence building. Parents are consulted on aspects of the child’s life they would like to see improved. Students are then taught to concentrate on one item each month.
Teachers give comments on areas they are improving on, and students receive report cards so they can judge their progress.
“It’s like my family,” said 9-year-old orangebelt Conner Bouch, who trains in the advanced class. “I spend a lot of time with many of the people.”
Each week, Conner and his brother Trister, 7, and sister Lilly, 5, attend practice.
“It has been a really good experience for them,” said their father Will. “They have learned a lot of discipline and self worth. There are a lot of ‘yes sirs’ and ‘yes ma’ams.'”
De La Cruz has attended different schools in the area, trying to change some of the misconceptions of the sport.
“A lot of people think that karate is just punching and kicking and violence,” de La Cruz said. “People see the movies where people are getting their throats cut and getting cut in half with swords. The majority of schools are trying to make a person better all around – not just physically. We teach them to avoid fights or get out of them without hurting anyone if possible.”
Three different classes are offered by Hollister Recreation: Little Dragons (ages 3-7), Beginner (8+) and Intermediate/ Advanced (8+). The Little Dragons class is $23, while the other two classes are $37.
Classes are held once or twice a week. Details: Call the Community Center at 636-4390.
