Martial arts instructor is honored at Madison Square Garden for working with youth:
{Q}”I felt the award was for the kids, and that this recognition would help me reach even more kids,” said recent inductee to the Martial Arts Hall of Fame, Mark Carfagno.{Q}
Carfagno’s program Life Skills seeks to help youth effectively diffuse violent situations, especially among the peers.
“They learn that they have choices and not to be controlled by fear,” Carfagno said. “Most conflict comes from fear. A bully chooses his target by looking for someone who is afraid.”
Life Skills teaches children how to cope. It’s about learning different choices. “Rehabilitating someone brought up on the streets and that has been in the correctional system is a huge task,” Carfagno said, “but at five years old, had he been taught that he had choices? If he had learned to think instead of fear, maybe his life would have been different.
“Youths who bring a gun to school, or attack a parent or other authority figure, or turn a gun on themselves, are young people who feel they have no choice. Teaching children at a young age that there are many ways to deal with any situation is the answer. Many children feel there is only one thing that can be done in a conflict or situation, when in reality there are limitless choices or alternatives. Life may be hard but knowing there are so many alternatives would almost eliminate those extreme choices.”
Skills learned?
Carfagno’s students learn coping skills such as simply walking away, befriending the other person or using humor.
“There are well over 20 choices to avoid conflict,” Carfagno said, “but the best thing is, while you’re thinking of what you can do, you’re not afraid so you’re not a target and most of the time the conflict never happens at all.
“This alone will probably avoid any conflict as most assailants don’t want to deal with someone who is confident and thinking. They are looking for someone cowering and fearful.”
Life Skills also includes respect, a good attitude, cooperation, discipline and self-defense.
“Our youth can learn better ways to deal with the problems that confront them, and what life has for they’re future. Life Skills gives them the tools to go through life with self-esteem and honor,” he said.
This program, in coordination with the Syracuse City Schools, offers affordable after school childcare with free bussing from the schools.
Carfagno’s motivation
As a small child he was a witness to domestic violence.
“My mother divorced when I was small,” he said. “When I was seven or eight, she married a man who intimidated me and battered my mother. Mom did not stay with him long, but that experience planted within me a deep fear. That fear soon transcended every area of my life. One day, I observed a neighbor practicing karate in his yard. I longed to develop his lack of fear and toughness. I received my opportunity a few years later when we opened a business near the neighbor’s karate school and I was able to begin training in martial arts. As my self-confidence and ability increased, I was no longer afraid. I eventually began teaching martial arts.”
He said that when he began learning martial arts as an older child, his self-confidence grew and the fears of the past receded.
“My goals in martial arts,” Carfago said, “are to help those who need the art: children, women, peace officers, military and anyone needing self-defense. I want to help eliminate fear and show our youth they do in fact have choices. Conflict comes from fear and those that feel they have no other choice, whether that conflict be between two kids on a playground or two countries.”
Since beginning in 1972, Carfagno earned black belts in numerous martial arts styles, including a sixth-degree black belt in goju ryu, and first degree in Beikoku Shido-kan Shorin-ryu. He also studies judo and Kobuto.
He opened his own school in 2002 and began the Life Skills program a year later in conjunction with the YMCA at the Van Duyn Elementary School. The class has since moved to his dojo. Traditional Karate & Fitness is a shibu School for the North American Beikoku Association under Sensei Seikichi Iha (10th degree black belt), his sensei for Shorin-ryu Karate. Carfagno is also a member and instructor for Matayyoshi Kobudo, under Sensei Franco Sanguinetti, his sensei for Kobudo.
The skinny
Mark Carfagno – 729-9200
Traditional Karate & Fitness, Inc.
1415 Genesee Street, Syracuse
Traditional Karate & Fitness
A shibu School for the North American Beikoku Association
Under Sensei Seikichi Iha (10th-degree black belt), his sensei for Shorin-ryu Karate. Carfagno is also a member and instructor for Matayyoshi Kobudo, under Sensei Franco Sanguinetti, his sensei for Kobudo.
