CONWAY — J.D. Swanson of Conway was a small child in New Zealand when his parents decided he needed karate lessons.
“I was a kid horsing around, and I threw a friend of mine on the ground,” he said. “My parents said, ‘If you’re going to do that, you’re going to learn how to do it properly.’”
They had one other rule as well.
“After six months of training, they said if I was going to continue, I would have to do it until I got my black belt.”
Fourteen years later, Swanson earned the black belt ranking and hasn’t looked back since.
Swanson trained in his home country and even did a short stint with the New Zealand national team in 1976 before he left to study in the United States.
While earning a master’s degree in biology, Swanson founded a karate club at Pennsylvania State University.
“It became the biggest collegiate karate club in the U.S.,” Swanson said.
After finishing his studies, Swanson accepted his first teaching job at the University of Central Arkansas and couldn’t leave his karate habit behind on the East Coast.
“The karate community in central Arkansas is relatively small as far as I know,” Swanson said. “I have about 30 that train with me at UCA. Some of them are professors and other members of the UCA community, but it’s open to anyone.”
Swanson also serves as Southern Region director of the International Shotokan Karate Federation. The job requires more travel than Swanson thought it might.
“I just go around to different clubs to make sure they’re doing everything right and help out,” he said. “It’s all about keeping traditional karate alive.”
Swanson also travels with the UCA club once a year to the National Collegiate Championship.
The location changes each year. This year’s competition was held Nov. 6 and 7 in South Dakota.
There’s nothing there, Swanson’s students said.
But team members still had a good time. They were able to socialize with students from other schools, such as Ohio State University and Penn State.
“We met a lot of people our rank,” said purple belt Adrea Walker, a junior.
Walker won third place in the kumite, the fighting division.
When the UCA students returned home, bragging rights in hand, there wasn’t much time to rest.
On Nov. 10, George Vance of the Penn State karate team paid a visit for a special training session.
“[Swanson and I] trained together very often when he lived in Pennsylvania,” Vance said. “We did testings together and created a great bond. He’s invited me to visit before, but I could never make it, and I’ve been dying to come out here.”
Vance said the session went well on Nov. 10.
“They worked hard, and that’s all we asked,” he said.
The students agreed.
“It’s good to have someone else come in because you learn some things and get a different perspective on what you’re doing,” Walker said. “It makes you work harder because you want to show off a little bit.”
The instructors, or “senseis,” said karate is all about discipline.
“What it comes out to is that karate is not about kicking and punching,” Swanson said. “That’s part of it, but it comes down to becoming a better person and connecting to who you are. You can do that through movement.”
For more information about the UCA Karate Club, call Swanson at (501) 450-5472.