Meet Ms. Lucie: It's Never Too Late to Step Onto the Mat

If Mr. Tony brings the discipline, experience, and tough love to Whole Body Family Karate, Ms. Lucie might just be the counterweight.

She's the one who's a little more likely to say, “Try it again.”

And maybe again after that.

But don't mistake kindness for a lack of expectations. Ms. Lucie believes kids need boundaries, discipline, and accountability. She also believes they sometimes need a second or third ... chance to get there.

Perhaps that's because she knows exactly what it feels like to be a beginner.

Starting From the Beginning

Unlike Mr. Tony, Ms. Lucie hasn't spent a lifetime practicing martial arts.

She's a yellow belt, currently preparing to test for orange, and she didn't exactly run onto the mat enthusiastically when she started.

She wanted exercise, but she also wanted to learn something while doing it.

After years of gravitating toward more solitary exercise like weight training, karate was different. She's always loved movement and dancing and the feeling that comes from working hard, sweating, and pushing her body. Martial arts gave her another way to experience that ... but this time with new skills, new challenges, and plenty of opportunities to fail.

And that's exactly why she keeps training.

When students see Ms. Lucie struggling with a technique, forgetting something, getting corrected by Mr. Tony, or trying something again, she hopes they're learning something important:

• Adults don't automatically know how to do everything either.

• Owning the dojo doesn't earn her a belt.

• She has to do the work.

The Other Side of Discipline

Ms. Lucie is the oldest of three children and grew up helping care for her younger sister and brother while her parents worked. Responsibility came early.

Today, her family has grown in a different way. Through her marriage to Mr. Tony, she became a grandmother and now has eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. That lifetime of family experience follows her onto the mat.

Mr. Tony believes strongly in discipline, rigor, and tough love. Ms. Lucie believes in those things too ... but she often approaches them from another direction.

Sometimes a child needs correction.

Sometimes they need consequences.

And sometimes they need someone to recognize that they're frustrated, overwhelmed, confused, or simply having a hard day, and give them another opportunity to succeed. Together, Mr. Tony and Ms. Lucie bring both sides to the dojo.

Why the Dragons Have Her Heart

You'll often find Ms. Lucie working with our Dragons, although she participates with our Tigers and Jaguars too.

There's a reason she's especially drawn to the Dragons. Our youngest and newest students often need more attention and guidance. They may need more reminders. More patience. More redirection. More celebration when something finally clicks.

Ms. Lucie believes that what we tend carefully has a better opportunity to grow.

So she'll celebrate the stripe that took weeks to earn.

She'll redirect the child whose attention wandered.

She'll encourage the student who's frustrated.

And she'll still expect them to try.

Give Us Your Best

There is something Ms. Lucie wants every student to understand, whether they eventually earn a black belt or spend only a short time training with us.

It's okay to cry.

It's okay to be frustrated.

It's okay to fail.

It's okay to win.

It's okay to be confused and not know what you're doing.

What's not okay is deciding you aren't capable simply because something is difficult.

Give your best. Get back up. Try again.

That's all she can ask.

Sometimes children can't yet see everything that's inside them. Part of her job is helping them discover that they may be shinier, brighter, stronger, and more beautiful than they can see for themselves.

Growing Together

As the child of immigrants, Ms. Lucie also has a deep appreciation for the United States and for values she believes are worth passing forward: opportunity, responsibility, hard work, service, and the belief that effort can change where you end up.

Those values fit naturally into what she and Mr. Tony are building at Whole Body Family Karate.

The dojo isn't supposed to be a factory that produces perfect children.

It's supposed to be a place where kids can be themselves while working toward becoming better versions of themselves.

And Ms. Lucie isn't standing on the sidelines asking them to do something she isn't willing to do herself.

She's on the mat.

She's starting later in life.

She's learning.

She's sweating.

She's messing up.

She's earning every stripe and every belt.

And when she asks one of our students to get back up and give it one more try, she can do it knowing that she's asking the exact same thing of herself.

Because at Whole Body Family Karate, growth doesn't have an age limit.

You just have to be willing to step onto the mat.