Courtesy of Elevate Martial Arts
A sport of respect and confidence, taekwondo is more than what you see in The Karate Kid. The Korean martial art emphasizes both physical and mental discipline and includes a wide range of kicks, punches and blocks, along with forms or patterns of movements known as “poomsae” that practitioners learn and perform. Taekwondo is not only a viable self-defense method, but a sport that promotes physical fitness, flexibility, balance and mental resilience.
Almost two decades ago, Kevin and Michelle Pavlik brought this dynamic martial art to Pickerington when they opened Elevate Martial Arts. In the past year, many of its students experienced success in competitions on a global stage.
Michelle began training at 5 years old at a gym her father eventually took over. Kevin quickly picked up the sport when he and Michelle started dating, and now the two train students from all walks of life.
“Some of our students are star athletes who excel at everything they do, and our goal is to challenge them,” Michelle says. “We’ve got other students that have physical, emotional or mental differences and we work to create a safe space for everybody.”
Once students are ready, they can put their skills to the test in competitions against their peers from around the world. In July 2023, Elevate Martial Arts sent 27 students to compete at the American Taekwondo Association World Championships in Phoenix, where six students combined for eight individual world titles. They also won several team world titles and many more students earned a place on the podium.
Courtesy of Elevate Martial Arts
The tournament hosts many events including combat, which pits competitors against one another. Rather than encourage full contact in a martial art form that focuses on self-defense, the competition utilizes a point system that mitigates the risk of injury to competitors. It also hosts performance-based events in which students are judged on technique and skill.
“We’ve had students make their way to worlds and we try to describe what it’s going to be like, but they don’t really know until they get there,” Michelle says. “When you walk in you see flags from different countries and hear all these other languages, then as soon as you get to your competition area it’s like one big happy family.”
“The biggest thing for us in this sport is respect,” Kevin says. “We bow when we start class and before we spar and that goes in the competition too. We kick each other for two minutes and then are high-fiving afterwards.”
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
