
DATE: Wednesday, August 27, 1997            TAG: 9708260188

SECTION: DAILY BREAK             PAGE: E1   EDITION: FINAL 

SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER 

                                            LENGTH:  116 lines

PUNCHES & PRAYER JOE GARCIA BLENDS CHRISTIANITY AND KARATE TO TEACH HIS STUDENTS LESSONS IN LIFE AS WELL AS SELF-PROTECTION.

WHEN KARATE coach Joseph L. Garcia asks his students to get into position for lessons, he doesn't mean a martial-arts stance with feet apart and hands ready for attack.

``Let's pray,'' he tells the boys and girls gathered on the floor of the First Christian Self-Defense Academy in Chesapeake. Most drop to one knee and bow their heads.

This unusual club, which combines karate and Christianity, recently went to its first national tournament. Though outclassed in the team competition, the youngsters brought home several individual trophies from the U.S. Capitol Classics held Aug. 8 and 9 in Washington.

As the students gather for their twice-a-week lessons, Garcia leads a prayer to God, peppered with references to parents, school work, integrity, victory and a variety of concerns voiced by the kids - illnesses of relatives, hopes that dad or mom can find a good job, doing well in tournaments.

Other self-defense ``warm-ups'' include counseling sessions with the kids and parents, readings of scriptures and ``coaching'' about the Bible's relevance to issues facing modern youth.

``What are your bodies?'' asks Garcia during a recent discussion with the youngsters. ``That's right! Temples.

``OK, I want to ask you guys this: When you go home and you turn on the TV brain with?''

``Negative messages,'' one youngster replies.

Garcia confirms the answer and continues: ``If you hang around with filth, eventually that's going to be absorbed in you. You really have to watch what comes in these little bodies of yours.''

And keep your body in shape.

``Are you stretching every day?'' Garcia asks while circling the students as they begin a few minutes of loosening-up exercises. ``Stretching and prayer! Are you reading the Bible every day?''

Some children and their parents have worked out home routines that combine stretching and prayer. Donnie Glover of Knotts Island said he reads the Bible to his son, Dustin, as the boy does his daily stretches.

Many parents say they enrolled their kids in Garcia's program because of its Christian orientation.

``We didn't want all the religious connotations from Eastern mysticism and stuff,'' says Bill Will of Chesapeake. ``I really like the spiritual side of the coach's interest . . . making sure the kids know there's more to this than karate. He instills obedience to their parents and doing well in school.''

Even with the Christian emphasis, Garcia's self-described ministry takes several unique turns. He has adopted the Jewish prayer-song ``Shalom Aleikhem'' as the club's official theme. The title translates to ``we wish you peace,'' with verses referring to God's instructing angels ``to guard you on all your paths.''

Finally. Karate.

The youngsters don their protective shoes, gloves and headgear. Garcia organizes them into several lines along the edges of the blue-and-white linoleum floor. He matches combatants by size.

Two by two, Garcia calls them to the center of the floor. As the kids size each other up, Garcia directs them to shake hands karate-style - ``with the old nogger.'' That means lightly hitting your helmeted head against your opponent's headgear.

As the students circle each other, watching for the right moment to attack, Garcia calls out a series of reminders about karate techniques and personal pride.

``Lead hand out . . . that's your first line of defense. . . . If you think you know better, then keep that hand down and see what happens. . . .

``Pull up your pants! You look like a gangsta. No gangstas here! . . .

``Mess up here, mess up at home; give me an attitude, give Mom and Dad an attitude, you have no right to be on the team.''

If he notices a tattoo, even one that can be washed off, he bears in on the youngster. ``A dinosaur tattoo!'' an exasperated Garcia says as he stops practice. ``What does the Bible say about marking your bodies up?''

His instructions often take the form of quiz-like queries: ``Does practice make perfect? No, perfect practice makes perfect!''

Garcia, 29, has been practicing karate since age 6 when he was growing up in Washington, D.C. ``I was mugged by a couple sixth-graders and they took my lunch money,'' recalls the Chesapeake resident. ``My dad put me in a self-defense class.''

A holder of two black belts, Garcia also is a certified master of many lethal weapons. Occasionally, he volunteers to teach a self-defense class, called ``Street Survival,'' to women. It's not karate but the basics of biting, scratching, punching and kicking to escape assaults.

An ex-Air Force sergeant, Garcia - 5-foot-7 and 210 pounds - also is a sheriff's deputy and a SWAT-team instructor for prisons. His inch-thick resume is so bulky it could be used in a karate chopping stunt.

Humor is another side of Garcia's approach - even when he makes himself the butt of a joke.

At a recent practice, Garcia tells his students that he plans to kiss each one of them on the forehead as they enter the ring at upcoming tournaments.

``Don't worry, I'll brush my teeth this time,'' he says.

Humor, yes. But not necessarily good spelling.

``What is the most important thing you are learning tonight?'' he inquires. ``It begins with a `t' and ends with an `e.' ''

A boy calls out, ``Technique!''

Garcia brushes him off and asks the rest of the class. No one can figure it out. Finally Garcia answers his own question: ``It's timing!''

Several kids point out that ``timing'' ends with a ``g,'' not an ``e.''

``Whichever,'' Garcia says. ``The basics are what's important. The basics are going to win.'' MEMO: For more information about the First Christian Self-Defense

Academy, call Garcia at 502-0000. ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photos]

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