Ben Ferguson Leadership Student Interviewing Sensei Gibson (Text Only)
Ben Ferguson [00:00:01] Hi, I’m Ferguson, and I’m interviewing Mr. Gibson today at Premier Martial Arts, so let’s go ahead and get started. Hello, Mr. Gibson. How are you today? I’m well, thank you. How are you doing today, Ben? Good. How are you?
Sensei Gibson [00:00:15] I’m good.
Ben Ferguson [00:00:17] OK. OK, so when did you actually start karate?
Sensei Gibson [00:00:23] I actually started karate when I was 13 years old, which is a long time ago.
Ben Ferguson [00:00:29] OK, so when you were 13, how long did it take you to get to karate?
Ben Ferguson [00:00:37] As far as like, how long did it take you to get to black? Oh, the black vote OK to get to black? I want to say it was probably at that time, right. It probably took close to three years maybe. Right. OK, so how long have you had your current belt that you have right now?
Sensei Gibson [00:00:54] My current belt. I have held that since. Well, it’s been almost 11, 11 years, 12 years now.
Ben Ferguson [00:00:59] OK, so what are you examining? 4TH degree black belt and window for three black belt in taekwondo, OK.
Ben Ferguson [00:01:09] What is your favorite activity to sort of do in karate?
Sensei Gibson [00:01:13] My favorite activity, and it always has been has been doing forms.
Ben Ferguson [00:01:17] OK, what what makes you like forms so much forms?
Sensei Gibson [00:01:21] Or one of those things that it’s just kind of like you get in your own little zone. Yeah. And, you know, you just you just kind of go at your own pace and you can just picture it’s like just you can let your imagination run wild because it really is just a simulated fight and and you can make out fight as aggressive or as docile as you want it to be.
Ben Ferguson [00:01:38] Yeah. OK, have you actually ever made up any of your own forms?
Sensei Gibson [00:01:42] Yes, I have. I don’t think they were very good.
Ben Ferguson [00:01:48] What do you think that the hardest thing about karate is the hardest thing about karate?
Sensei Gibson [00:01:53] I think and and I’m saying not just for me, but I think for a lot of people is the repetition. There’s a lot of repetition and there’s a lot of things that we do. And we do it over and over. Yeah, it feels like it’s just like, oh, we did this yesterday. We did this the day before. But the thing is, you know, great martial artists don’t have hundreds of awesome techniques.
Sensei Gibson [00:02:13] They have one awesome technique or two that they’ve just worked on and dedicated their skills to. And that’s where they become really awesome for that. Most martial artists are known for one spectacular technique or two techniques, not a whole bunch of.
Ben Ferguson [00:02:27] Yeah, like Bruce lee once said, if I can remember right. I fear not the man who did a thousand techniques once. I fear the man who did. One technique a thousand times.
Sensei Gibson [00:02:35] Absolutely. And there’s another another martial artist. His name is Bill Wallace, that I’m sure that some people at are familiar with.
Sensei Gibson [00:02:43] He they call him Super Foot for a reason, not super feat, because he is really awesome and kick in with one foot and so perfect examples.
Ben Ferguson [00:02:54] What do you think the hardest thing about karate is?
Sensei Gibson [00:02:57] The hardest thing, dedicating yourself there is going to be bad days when we just we’re tired or maybe we don’t feel one hundred percent at our best.
Sensei Gibson [00:03:07] And those days are the ones we have other things going on. You know, it might be a struggle at school or a struggle at home. And that that kind of affects our our emotional status a little bit. And so we get we get kind of it’s kind of tough to remember that we’re working out we’re trying to set a goal. We need to stay dedicated to it. We need to keep pushing forward. And then when we come to the school, those certain things that we need to make sure that we just kind of check them at the door before we walk in and put that belt or our uniforms on.
Ben Ferguson [00:03:35] In what would your favorite part of being an instructor be?
Sensei Gibson [00:03:39] My favorite part is definitely helping people everywhere from kids all the way to adults and helping people figure out their goals and set their goals and push themselves and leadership. I definitely the leadership part and being a positive influence among people, I think is a great thing. And why those things? You know.
Sensei Gibson [00:04:02] Basically, because when it when it came to martial arts and I started training my instructor at that time, Ken Gillenwater, he was a great influence on my life. And, you know, I tried it was something I always wanted to do and there was not a place to do it. And then all of a sudden money became available to me.
[00:04:19] I mean, I was there every day and we had a little different type of school setup, but I was able to go to classes every single day and I would actually walk from school to the dojo because it was in the same town as my school and just like two blocks away. So I’d actually walk to the dojo every single day of the week that that I was able to. And I would be there usually from about four o’clock until seven o’clock every night.
Ben Ferguson [00:04:43] OK, so what would your current goals for martial arts be?
Sensei Gibson [00:04:47] My current goals for martial arts is basically just to continue training. And then, you know, as far as rank goes, I’m not so concerned with that. But as far as just making sure that I’m still staying physically active for myself and just helping other people feel like, well, I will aim for is once you get to where you are, rank is as big a deal as it was when you were my age or something.
Sensei Gibson [00:05:08] Actually, when I was younger, that was everything to me, going from one rank to the next. That was a big issue. But then once once I got kind of passed, you know, that whole phase of it. Yeah, I realized there was so much more learning. And then the friendships that you make along the ways are awesome.
Ben Ferguson [00:05:25] OK, so can you describe premier martial arts in one word?
Sensei Gibson [00:05:31] A family, a family, yes, and why that word, because everybody here, we we all work together and we’re all we’re I mean, we do a little friendly competing in class against each other when we run some of our battles. But we are always trying to improve and help each other. There might be days that we get upset or somebody might accidentally bump somebody. When we’re doing self-defense, it happens.
Sensei Gibson [00:05:54] You know what I do? We always take some time and sometimes we spar. We take shots we don’t like.
Sensei Gibson [00:05:59] But that being said, we’re still a family family. And at the end of the day, we know that we’re all just trying to help each other get better.
Ben Ferguson [00:06:06] Yeah. So like one team, one family is sort of one of our quotes. So like we’re a team, but we’re also a family. So we’re like we do a lot of that or not that we do a lot of things together, but we help each other out in a way. Yes. But yeah.
Ben Ferguson [00:06:21] Um, can you briefly describe a tournament?
Sensei Gibson [00:06:24] A tournament? All right. Well, there are several aspects to tournament.
Sensei Gibson [00:06:29] One of them is what we call sparring, which is sparring is where we put our gear on and we’re going to go and compete. Usually it’s against other schools that are in our area throughout the Midwest, sometimes, you know, some mostly local schools, but some from out of state. And there’s a series and several different circuits that you can compete at and compete against different people in different venues. Uh, and there’s other divisions that we have a lot of forms, which is where you run in a competition.
Sensei Gibson [00:06:56] You run your forms for, you know, technical abilities against other students in other schools.
Ben Ferguson [00:07:03] What do you think that your favorite part about sparring is sparring, sparring is just it’s like that. It’s like just to get all that out, you know what I mean?
Sensei Gibson [00:07:14] You working on all these techniques and you just kind of until you start sparring, you just kind of doing them in the air, you’re not really working against you’re not really testing your physical skills or inspiring. We do that.
Sensei Gibson [00:07:25] It’s a very safe and controlled environment where you can test your timing and your speed that get in and get out and try to the way that we do what we do. And as a point systems. Yeah, you know, it keeps it safe for everybody. We still take our bumps and bruises once in a while, but it keeps it safe.
Ben Ferguson [00:07:42] What do you like most about karate that isn’t necessarily an activity, but like just something in general that’s like not the activity that you said earlier, you kind of get what I mean?
Sensei Gibson [00:07:52] Yeah, I do know you guys have questions that have been.
Sensei Gibson [00:07:58] You know, the thing about karate is there isn’t I don’t really know that there’s a lot of my life that it hasn’t impacted in some way, shape or form. And it’s really tough for me to just describe it in one way. Yeah. Like everything that everything that has happened in my life since I started working out when I was 13 years old, I can always I could always relate or I could always find a way to go back to the school and work on. I used that just to work on being a better person. As far as you know, we all we all have our our days, like I said, when when I didn’t want to when I didn’t want to maybe go work out or participate, I just knew that karate was like that was like my my safe haven was my place to go and just do my thing.
Sensei Gibson [00:08:44] And I could do it in a quiet place by myself or I not the same as doing with a bunch of other. It is if you’re by yourself.
Ben Ferguson [00:08:55] OK, so what do you think your future in martial arts will be? My future? I think it’s going to you know, I think it’s it’s it’s going to be slowed down a lot.
Sensei Gibson [00:09:05] And, you know, as I start to get older, my body doesn’t like it doesn’t like a lot of like a lot of the jumping kicks that I still try to work with you guys on and the spinning kicks. So in that aspect, you know, it’s it’s like now is the opportunity to start showing you guys that are younger in class, some of those kids.
Sensei Gibson [00:09:20] So that way I’m not the guy that’s trying to be the leader, but you guys will be able to be the leaders, you know what I mean?
Sensei Gibson [00:09:26] But I mean, martial arts until you know, until I can’t physically do it any more. Martial arts will always be a part of my life. I don’t ever see not doing some type of martial arts, even if it means just slowing down. And like now I just you know, I don’t spar like I used to because it’s it takes a lot more time to recover and a slight injury or something. It takes definitely a little bit more time for the recovery and everything like that. So I don’t nearly complete nearly as much as I used to either. And it’s just time has a little bit of has a little bit of slowing you down just a little bit.
Ben Ferguson [00:09:58] OK, so what do you think your favorite thing about judging entertainment would be about judging entertainment?
Sensei Gibson [00:10:04] Um.
Sensei Gibson [00:10:06] You know, just seeing everybody grow, it’s one thing in this when you’re inside a school, it’s kind of like when you have a puppy and you see it every day, you don’t really see the changes that it makes over that period of time, let’s say, in a first year or two. And so sometimes with the students in class, it’s really difficult to watch how they’re improving every day. But when you get to a tournament, everybody’s always on their best that day or they’re trying their best that day. So you can see a big jump and and how they’ve changed and how they’ve progressed, especially when they get that warrior face going. And, yeah, I mean, the.
Ben Ferguson [00:10:42] What will one word to describe yourself be?
Sensei Gibson [00:10:52] Dedicated.
[00:10:53] OK. Why that word, why dedicated, dedicated?
Sensei Gibson [00:11:00] Because I try to make sure that it doesn’t matter what I’m doing, that whatever it is I’m going to do, that I try to dedicate myself to doing that one particular thing. You know, multitasking is great. But, you know, when sometimes you get too many irons in the fire, you kind of lose track of some of those irons.
Sensei Gibson [00:11:15] And so I try to make sure that I accomplish one task at a time. You know, that goal setting, you know, get those small goals out of the way to try and get to that big goal. And that takes dedication.
Ben Ferguson [00:11:26] Yeah. Um, what do you think that your favorite thing to do, like outside of martial arts would be?
Sensei Gibson [00:11:33] Outside of martial arts, I like being outdoors, doesn’t matter what it is, I love to hunt and fish. And so just if it’s just being outside when the weather’s nice, even sometimes when it’s not so nice, provided there’s the right activities. So I just I really do love being outdoors.
Ben Ferguson [00:11:48] Why do you like being outdoors so much?
Sensei Gibson [00:11:50] Because it’s a good place to spend time with the kids. I have three children and so it’s a great place to spend time with them that we’re we’re not or they’re not so much engaged in electronic devices. Am not to say that they don’t usually have them along the way, which is fine.
Sensei Gibson [00:12:06] But just the fact of the matter that when we’re outdoor doing outdoors and we’re doing things, that they tend to lose that connection with those those other activities like that. And we can spend time together as a family.
Ben Ferguson [00:12:22] OK, I think we’re going to wrap it up. I’m Ben, this is Mr. Gibson. Thank you for listening. And we will see you later. Thanks for having me, Ben.
Premier Martial Arts has been in business for more than 20 years, and since our founding in 1998 we have helped thousands of students of all ages realize their full potential. Premier Martial Arts delivers a best-in-class martial arts experience that helps our students develop the personal skills that are necessary to build a successful life. Our mastery of teaching martial arts over the past two decades is evident in our structured and thorough curriculum, which is standardized across our 100+ locations across the United States, Canada and England.
Our curriculum focuses on character development far beyond the importance of self-defense. We teach our young students how to respect their elders, how to be accountable, how to focus and how to stay in shape in a fun and exciting atmosphere. We empower our adult students with the self-confidence to overcome anxieties and trauma, in an environment that fosters inclusion and social belonging.
Premier Martial Arts Fort Wayne founded in 2015 by 6th Degree Black Belt and Master Instructor Ron Kuhn. Master Kuhn had a distinguished management & engineering career working for such companies as Verizon, NIPSCO, Frontier Communications and Mediacom. In 2019 he made the decision to operate his Martial Arts School fulltime which has always been his lifelong dream. That one location has grown to three in the City of Fort Wayne.
Master Ron Kuhn is married to his wife Anita (retired Special Needs Teacher) of 27 years. They have three wonderful daughters, Jordan, Ally and Katie. Jordan is a nurse who lives in Indianapolis. Ally has a computer science and business background and works with her dad at Premier Martial Arts. Katie is Chemical Engineering graduate and works in the pharmaceutical industry in Indianapolis.
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