Health Mind & Body January 2020

Women’s karate club a lesson in strength, endurance and self-improvement By Josette Keelor The Northern Virginia Daily

FRONT ROYAL - When Sensei Carol Corbin started a women’s karate club in 1991, she had just one member: Tracy Turybury. Corbin considered canceling the class, officially called Drago’s Kuge Karate Do. Instead, she kept it going, teaching Turybury one-on-one, month after month. “She was my only student for over a year,” said Corbin, who now has an average of 10-12 students for ladies-only karate ranging in age from 13-63. “She’s the reason I continued to do it,” Corbin said. Turybury, of Front Royal, started taking karate to make friends and have something to do in her spare time. New to town at the time, the newlywed liked the idea of joining a women’s-only karate class. When she had her first child, she brought him along to lessons and set him in portable play yard. Now her son is 28, and after a few years away from Virginia and karate, she’s back and rebuilding her skills. Turybury, a first-degree black belt in the Japanese martial art, has been fine-tuning her skills with Corbin and other students. Jayne Winterkorn, 25, a former member of the Juniors karate class, has been a huge help to her.

Rich Cooley/Daily

“We help each other out,” said Winterkorn, who has been studying karate for 19 years.

Madison Booth, 17, left, and Tracy Turybury, right, both of Front Royal, use tonfa sticks during their karate class at the Front Royal Karate Club.

There’s always something to learn, said Winterkorn. “You’re never finished learning.”

a bike, but “some of it comes back.”

Studying with the younger students Turybury had helped teach years ago is “very humbling,” she said. Taking up karate again isn’t like remembering to ride

The women’s class studies technique, also incorporating weapons like the eku bo, saber, tonfa, sai, nunchucks and brass knuckles.

The women’s class meets from 7:30-9 p.m. Tuesdays and Thursdays at Front Royal Karate Club, 7 Kidd Lane, which also offers mixed classes for adults “Every move is a defensive move,” Corbin said. “All the weapons were used in Okinawa.” and home school classes for ages 5 and older.