The way of the fist, foot and fun: Pacific Fusion Martial Arts opens Bainbridge Island dojo

Published 9:46 am Tuesday, June 30, 2015

If a loud “Hi-yah!” suddenly rings out over the Coppertop Loop Business Park — followed by the sounds of punching or kicking, and then maybe of a body hitting the ground — islanders are less concerned these days than they might have once been.

It is just a ninja battle, after all.

The scene of the sound-originating scuffle is the newly opened Pacific Fusion Martial Arts dojo (9723 Coppertop Loop, Suite 204), the latest location for the school, which has been introducing young students to martial arts in various venues around the Pacific Northwest for more than 15 years.

Lead by master and head instructor Stephanie Aduddell, a fourth degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do and second in Moo Duk Kwan, the program blends fighting styles from the Pacific countries of Japan, Korea, China and the Philippines.

Core group classes, organized by the age and skill level of the students, are a mixture of the Japanese and Korean hard style martial arts of Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and HapKiDo, with basic weapons and self- defense courses included as well.

Aduddell explained that she and her husband — also a high ranking martial arts instructor — moved to Bainbridge nearly three years ago, seeking to enroll their daughter Lillian in one of the island’s renowned schools. She has been commuting ever since to maintain operation of her Tacoma dojo, where she still teaches two or three days a week. However, in meeting other island parents and getting a feel for the available fitness options, Aduddell said she was encouraged to bring her beloved discipline to Bainbridge. Eventually, she intends to close or turn over ownership of the Tacoma location, and focus entirely on the Bainbridge school, as her current students down south grow out of the program.

Pacific Fusion has always been primarily for children and teenagers, she said, and observing the myriad of ways in which involvement in the discipline of martial arts benefits young students is one of the most rewarding parts of her job as a teacher.

Student goals run the gamut, Aduddell said, from those looking for a fun way to lose weight or a new way to stay in shape for their primary sport in the off-season to those looking to move up in the discipline, achieve the next belt ranking and maybe someday compete or teach.

Mentally and emotionally, too, she added, martial arts are powerfully effective in teaching kids confidence, discipline and responsibility in a fun and active way.

“[It’s] martial arts,” Aduddell said. “There’s a ‘martial’ part and there’s an ‘art’ part. The martial part is the cadence of it and the respect and the traditional part and the honor — and the art part is all the creative [challenges] and the fun energy.”

Aduddell said that the individuality of martial arts makes it a great counterbalance for a young athlete looking for a different way to train for and improve in one of the more traditional team sports as well, as students are free to decide for themselves how deeply involved they want to become in the discipline.

“It’s pretty simple for me: Nobody in this building ever gets benched,” she said. “This is not a team sport, this is definitely an ‘I’ sport; it’s an individual journey.”

To that end, Aduddell said she has gone to great lengths to structure each class throughout the program as specifically as possible to the skills of the students, organized by both their age and experience.

“It’s very measurable,” she said of her program. “It gives them very set goals and standards. Most martial arts schools do not do this. They do not teach on a rotating curriculum. They just teach to the belt rank and a lot of times they just put everybody into one bucket.”

Grouping every green belt in the program together, be they 4 or 44 years old, isn’t fair to any of the students, Aduddell insisted.

Instead, she structures her program around smaller groups of students who all have more in common.

“I divide everybody up based on rank [and] based on age,” she said. “So they get what they need in their particular grouping.”

Aduddell said she has begun training students as young as 4 — though the typical beginner student is older.

Regardless of age or prior experience, each new student is given a free private half hour lesson, an introduction to the basics of the program and a personal interview between Aduddell, the student and the parents. The intro session, she said, is an opportunity to visit the training area, move around on the floor with an instructor and learn some basics, and to see if martial arts is something that a student actually wants to pursue.

Pacific Fusion has also hosted self-defense seminars for young islanders, especially girls, which is something of particular importance to Aduddell.

“Last week, a Girl Scout troop came in and I did a complimentary self defense workshop with the Girl Scouts,” she said. “I didn’t even know there was a patch they could earn, and it’s the self-defense patch.”

Finding a balance between being accessible to the modern youth and still maintaining the crucial traditions of martial arts has been a fine line to walk, Aduddell said. However, she believes the balance she has struck makes her program unique and more successful.

“I find that now, in 2015, you have to have a balance between the two,” she explained. “I always talk about the origin of the arts, the countries where they originate,” she said. “We do speak in both Korean and English and some Japanese.”

In some ways, though, Pacific Fusion is a little different.

“I’m not called by my traditional teaching title,” Aduddell added. “I’m just Mrs. A.”

Not that her sometimes less formal tone affects business on the mat, she laughed.

“I bring every bit of who I am, body and soul, every time I teach.”