When I was taking violin lessons as a kid, my twin brother did Tae Kwon Do. Every few weeks, I would go with my mom or dad to watch him test for his next belt. Watching a bunch of 8-year-olds do the same set of moves over and over was not really my idea of fun. I’d like to say I was being a supportive sister, but really I kept going with the hopes of witnessing the magic of someone breaking a board. Steve Carter can break six bricks.
Flagpole: How long have you been teaching Tae Kwon Do here?
Steve Carter: The school has been in operation since 1992. We used to be located over on the Eastside… This location used to be the upstairs balcony for the [Alps] movie theater… We’ve been here for seven years, I guess. My wife, Kathy, and I bought the school from my instructor six years ago.
I’ve studied martial arts for 16 years. In fact, that’s where I met my wife. We’ve been married for 11 years at the end of this month. We met at the school… and ended up getting married.
FP: So, what drew you to martial arts initially?
SC: I had fooled around with it in high school and college, and then the real world intruded, and I just didn’t have time. Then, when I reached my 40s, I looked in the mirror one day and said, “Holy cow, I’m putting weight on!” So, the school was actually near where I used to live, and I’d pass by it quite a bit. So, I decided to go in… I’ve been with it ever since.
FP: So, it was mostly health benefits that drew you to it initially, but what made you stick with it?
SC: The people. Yeah. We run what’s kind of a family operation. We get to know all the parents, all the students. Everybody knows everybody. From our point of view, there’s two kind of schools out there. There’s the family-type arrangement… and there are what are called “fighting schools”… While our kids compete in tournaments, it’s not the be-all and end-all. We want to teach confidence and self-control… A lot of the parents bring their kids in for that more than anything else…
We have four instructors all together, including my wife and myself. We trade off. I work a full-time job, my wife’s in the process of getting her doctorate at UGA, so life is busy.
FP: So, you work a full-time job. What do you do?
SC: I’m a team-lead at Academy Sports and Outdoors… My schedule bounces all over the place… My wife right now is running back and forth between here and Louisville, Kentucky. She has a teaching position at the University of Louisville while she works on finishing her doctorate.
FP: Sounds like you guys have such busy schedules. How do you keep it all in order?
SC: Thank god for cell phones. We use calendars… and schedule as much as two weeks out. I can adjust my schedule to an extent with my other job… but Kathy, right now, she’s gone more than she’s here, with her commitment up in Louisville.
FP: How long have you been working with Academy?
SC: Five-and-a-half years. I’ve been with them since they opened the store.
FP: What did you do before that?
SC: I grew up outside of Philadelphia. I worked… in the plumbing and heating industry. A company that makes plastic pipe down here in Greensboro hired me away and paid for me to move down here. I worked for them for 13 years. They were bought out by another company and, as sometimes happens, they cleaned house: they brought all their own people. I went from there to a company by the name of Eagle Global Logistics down in Atlanta… I worked for them for a couple of years, but the commute was killing me. So, I turned around, took a job at Academy.
FP: You were living in Athens when you worked in Atlanta?
SC: Yeah. I would leave at four in the morning to start at shift at seven, and the shifts were 12 hours. So, you worked four days a week, which made it a little easier, but you had to work every other weekend. I mean, great money, but the stress was just too much.
FP: So, you came here because of the job… Was that less of a transition than I’m perceiving it to be?
SC: Yeah. I lived outside of Philadelphia for, let’s see, 28 years. I moved down here in 1989, so I’ve been here just about 22 years. But yeah, sold my house, packed up everything and came down here. All my family is still up there.
FP: I was always fascinated by the people who could break boards…
SC: Oh, I break bricks… I’ve done as many as six. Here, I’ll show you. [He shows a photo of himself breaking several bricks in half with his hand.]
FP: Whoa! How? How do you learn that?
SC: Part of it is believing you can do it, but obviously part of it is technique, because you could break your hand otherwise. That’s part of the reason I’ve stayed with martial arts. I’ve seen people do things that I just couldn’t believe. This is little stuff… Grand Master Chung [the founder of the American Taekwondo Foundation]… he’s studied martial arts since he was 12. He’s in his 60s now. I’ve seen him do things that… I’ve stood five or six feet away and watched him… I mean, I don’t know how he did it, but he did it.
FP: Like, what kind of things?
SC: They brought out a mat… and they dumped broken glass on the mat. He lay down on the broken glass, and they put three concrete blocks on his chest, and broke them with a sledgehammer. And he got up. They dusted him off, and there wasn’t a mark on him… And I’m here to tell you.
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