Craven's oldest karate school teaches students to strike back at fear

When you walk into Ronnie Lovick’s dojo, you come with respect.

It’s a word the students at the New Bern School of Martial Arts, the oldest organized karate school operating in Craven County, hear time and time again. And as the school’s chief instructor, or sensei, respect is a word Lovick has held close since he took up the study of karate in the mid-1970s.

“When you enter the dojo you bow to show respect to the dojo,” Lovick explained during an interview Wednesday. “If we do that it will, in turn, be good to us.”

The New Bern School of Martial Arts was founded in 1974 by Sam Pearson, a Marine Corps veteran who worked for the Craven County Sheriff’s Office and later as head of security at Twin Rivers Mall.

Photos of Pearson, who died in 2014, are given places of honor on the walls of the dojo. Under his guidance, the school became a haven for students dedicated to Shōbayashi Shōrin-ryu, a style of Okinawan karate.

While it shares basic moves with many other forms of karate, Lovick said Shōrin-ryu has unique characteristics as well.

“We don’t do the high kicks, so that sets us aside from some of the other schools,” he said. “We punch using the two knuckles on the front side of our punches rather than the whole hand punch. And then we use the limbs of our bodies — the elbows, the knees, and the palms — to strike.”

Lovick, who had already studied taekwondo, joined the New Bern School of Martial Arts in the mid-1970s and studied under Pearson. Respect, it turned out, was something the instructor gave only grudgingly.

“I went to school with some of his students so after my taekwondo instructor left I talked to Master Pearson about joining his dojo,” Lovick remembered. “He told me ‘If you think you can hang in there you come on over and we’ll see.’”

Lovick has carried that “show me” attitude forward for a new generation of students. Though no special skills are required to join his dojo, a strong sense of discipline is crucial, he said.

“It seems like just fun at first but it’s hard, too. There are other places where the kids just run around and it’s more like a daycare, but that’s not here,” Lovick commented.

After some early conditioning and cardio training, students begin working on their kata, or forms, which emphasize moves they will need to learn to protect themselves.

They also begin learning the Japanese words for basic martial arts tools and necessities, such as dojo (school), obi (belt), and mizu (water).

As they advance the students earn stripes that show their development and the color of the belt they are working toward. All students begin as white belts and move slowly through yellow, green and, for the most dedicated, brown and black belts.

A total of 250 sit-ups are also part of Lovick’s requirements. If a student gives up before the last sit-up is finished, they are shown the door.

“That’s to show that you’re willing to work, that even if you get tired or worn out you keep going,” Lovick said. “You can’t stop.”

‘If you’re cornered, you defend yourself’

Ask one of Lovick’s students or fellow sensei why they decided to take up the study of Shōbayashi Shōrin-ryu martial arts, and you’ll likely get a very personal story.

Now in his sixth year, Lovick’s grandson, Brandon Forbes, said he has gained “mental calmness, breathing control and knowledge of self-defense” from his time at the New Bern School of Martial Arts.

Forbes, who has earned the rank of yellow belt, said he recently put each of those skills to use during a series of bullying incidents where he was called names and struck in the head and face.

“Sometimes if somebody is picking on you you have to use your mental knowledge to keep you from doing stuff that will mess you up in school,” Forbes said. “What I learned is if I keep calm, usually the guy who is messing with you will get in trouble.”

Both Lucy Sabitt, 13, and Antonio Montalvo, 9, said the classes had helped them gain confidence in their personal lives.

“I’m usually fairly quiet and they’ve taught me to speak up,” Antonio said.

Sensei David Harris, a fourth-degree black belt, said he began taking classes with Pearson in the 1970s after becoming a fan of the hit TV series “Kung Fu.” Like Forbes, he said his martial arts knowledge helped him deal with bullying at school.

“When I was in high school I had some confrontations so I figured I better learn some self-defense techniques,” he explained.

Lovick stressed that, despite depictions in popular culture, martial arts teachings underline the importance of avoiding conflict, not instigating it. But should other options fail, Lovick said, it was his job to prepare his students to strike back in a quick and decisive manner.

“If you’re cornered you defend yourself,” he said. “We go to work then, we do the kicks, we do the punches. We destroy those parts of the body that will disable an assailant and we break them down.

“If I’m assaulted my intention is to destroy the person,” he added, “I have no other choice.”

Taking a break from running through a set of kata forms with Antonio, Sensei Ray Clark said he came to martial arts as a way to gain a sense of independence.

“I have no intentions of ever hurting anybody, that’s not why I do this,” Clark said. “The reason I started was because I went into a situation where it suddenly dawned on me that I can’t depend on anybody else. So I began studying and I fell in love with the art. It's a way of life, that’s what it is.”

According to Clark, his martial arts training has also helped him live with a possibly life-threatening medical condition.

“They told me I had heart failure two years ago, my heart was only pumping at half. Well, I started to work out with sensei (Lovick), doing different things. The other day my doctor told me he’d see me in another year because my heart was pumping normally,” Clark said.

A moral code for life

Though the New Bern School of Martial Arts has operated at its current location at 623 Hancock St. for the last 15 years, Lovick said the school has been housed at numerous sites around New Bern, including the old Woman’s Club once located at Union Point Park.

“All the wind and cold would come in that building so we’d build a fire to heat it while we trained,” Lovick recalled.

Though he is serious about the rules that he sets for his dojo, Lovick, who retired in 2019 after 30 years with the New Bern Police Department, said he’s not quite as hard-nosed as his former instructor.

“He was so stern. You didn’t come in the dojo unless your shoes were off, that’s just how he was. And he wasn’t about publicity or the limelight at all. One time a reporter came down from New York to do a story and he sent him away,” Lovick said.

That kind of dedication to craft over flash has served Lovick well, he said, both in his police work and in his previous job as an investigator for S.E. Nichols Inc., a retail discount chain that once operated a store on Neuse Boulevard in New Bern.

“I think anybody I worked with would tell you that my martial arts training was put to good use,” Lovick said.

The training has also paid off in state and national competitions. Trophies and awards from throughout the years are prominently displayed by the dojo’s front door. Lovick said both students and instructors from the New Bern School of Martial Arts have competed in states from Virginia to Florida and New York, always with the New Bern flag in tow.

“We’ve done pretty doggone good,” he said. “We’ve been winning all over the place.”

Although he only recently turned 8, King Irwin has been taking classes with Lovick for two years and has competed in several tournaments. Although he initially shied away from the spotlight, he said the experience has helped him deal with verbal harassment he has faced at school.

“It’s made me stronger and taught me how to defend against bullies and stuff,” King said.

During the close of their training session last week, the students listened as Clark read from a book on Bushido, the moral code adopted by Japan's warrior class, the samurai, that dates back to the eighth century.

Bushido identifies eight virtues the samurai should possess: courage, mercy, politeness, honesty, honor, loyalty, character and self-control.

“It basically teaches how to be a good moral person,” Clark said. “With the physical skills we teach we want to make sure we never create a monster. The mental and spiritual part is just as important.”

This article originally appeared on Sun Journal: Craven's oldest karate school teaches students to strike back at fear