Family teaches taekwondo, life skills
May 20—Taekwondo is an important tradition for the whole Blauer family.
Melanie and Jake Blauer have black belts, as do three of their four children. The fourth, their youngest, is currently training to earn one.
They started practicing martial arts in their former home town of Boise. When they moved to Pullman after Jake Blauer was hired by Washington State University, that meant saying goodbye to their taekwondo instructors and school.
"We missed it," Jake Blauer said. "The program did not exist in this area."
So the Blauers decided to create one of their own. They started Inspired Martial Arts, a chapter of the National Martial Arts Alliance, last year at Gladish Community Center.
"We wanted to continue and build that community and the benefits we saw with our family here in Pullman," Jake Blauer said.
Since then, the number of students they teach grew to 50 and they needed more space. At the same time, the Gladish room they were sharing with a yoga studio went under renovation.
That is why, in February, they moved into their new location at 1475 S. Grand Ave., in Pullman.
Melanie Blauer said she believes Inspired Martial Arts has attracted students because it meets a need in Pullman. She said parents have told her they had wanted to try this kind of martial arts for years, but were faced with a lack of options.
"I think it's something that wasn't available here in Pullman," she said. "And so now that we can bring it here, people want to do it."
Melanie Blauer stressed that it is not just about learning self-defense. She said they try to teach life skills along the way, particularly to their younger students. She said they teach a different skill every week.
Respect is the life skill her class focused on this week. Other weeks, it might be discipline, setting goals or perseverance.
The Blauer's ask parents to grade their children on how they show these life skills at home.
"We're able to really support and help our families with helping develop their children to be good people," she said.
A mere 30 or so yards away from Inspired Martial Arts on South Grand Avenue is the future home of V7 Martial Arts, the Moscow martial arts school that teaches Brazilian jiujitsu, functional fitness, boxing, mixed martial arts and karate. It is expanding to its second location this summer in Pullman.
Jake Blauer said the rise of martial arts options in Pullman is good news for the community.
"There's different styles of martial arts that attract different types of people and so I think it's great that there's different forms in the community now that people can have those choices," he said.
Inspired Martial Arts operates Monday through Thursday and teaches students ages 4 and up.
Kuipers can be reached at akuipers@dnews.com.
