Way Martial Arts

Way Martial Arts Traditional martial arts in Mattawan, Michigan. Structured programs for kids. Meaningful training for adults. Built on a philosophy of Truth Through Training.

Chung's Martial Arts Academy is dedicated to the enrichment of its students through martial arts. We teach the traditional arts of Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do and Hapkido/Aikido.

08/27/2026

“Once I’m in better shape, I’ll start.”

It sounds reasonable. But it can become a finish line that keeps moving.

You don’t need to arrive at your first martial arts class already strong, flexible, coordinated, or confident. Those are things we develop through training.

Being a beginner doesn’t mean you failed to prepare. It means you’re ready to begin.

08/26/2026

This is kata—not a simulation of a fight.

In this exercise, one person reaches for a training knife while the other controls the arm to prevent the draw. The sequence that follows explores several ideas at once: changing the angle of the grip, disrupting balance, controlling the arm, freeing the weapon hand, and maintaining the ability to use the weapon.

In live practice, it probably wouldn’t look this clean.

You might only see one small piece of the sequence—a turn of the wrist, a change of angle, a moment of control.

That’s one of the purposes of kata. It gives us a clean model where principles can be studied clearly before we go looking for them in the messier world of resistance.

Kata gives us the vocabulary. Live training teaches us how to speak.

08/26/2026

One of the most common worries before starting martial arts is:

“Everyone else already knows what they’re doing. Am I going to hold the class back?”

No.

For adults, working with someone more experienced is part of the process—and teaching and helping newer students is valuable training for the senior student, too.

For children, we have multiple instructors on the floor and classes designed so that new students can join throughout the year.

You don’t need to catch up before you start.

You start. Then we help you catch up.

08/24/2026

Some martial arts techniques look much more dramatic than they feel.

This one is almost the opposite.

From the outside, there isn’t much to see. A small movement of the hand and wrist, a change in angle, and suddenly the other person is heading toward the floor.

What you can’t see is the intense pressure being transmitted through the wrist and into the arm. When applied correctly, it creates a very immediate kind of discomfort that makes standing there and ignoring it extremely difficult.

That’s one of the interesting things about joint-control techniques: the visible movement can be surprisingly small compared with what the other person actually feels.

08/22/2026

Today (8/22), Chung’s Martial Arts Academy becomes Way Martial Arts.

This is a change I have been thinking about for a long time, and I’m excited to finally share it.

Over many years of teaching, training, and continued study, the academy has gradually developed an identity of its own. Changing the name is simply a recognition of that growth.

I also want to make something clear: this change is not a rejection of where I came from or of the teachers who helped form me.

I remain grateful for the instruction, opportunities, and foundation I received. That history remains part of who I am as a martial artist and teacher.

The name Way Martial Arts reflects where my understanding of martial arts has gradually led.

There is a character found at the end of both TaeKwonDo and AikiDo:

道 — Do — “Way”

It is the same character commonly rendered as Dao or Tao in Chinese.

At its simplest, it means “way” or “path.” But historically, the idea carries more weight than simply choosing a road to follow. Dao can point toward the underlying order and pattern of reality itself, and toward bringing one’s actions into harmony with that order.

There is an interesting connection here for Western readers. The opening of the Gospel of John says, “In the beginning was the Word.” The Greek word translated as “Word” is Logos, a term that also carries the sense of reason, meaning, and order. In well-known Chinese translations of this passage, Logos is rendered using this same character, 道 (Dao).

I think that helps capture something important about the word “Way.” It is not merely a personal journey or a path we invent for ourselves. It suggests that there is an order to reality that we can gradually learn to perceive, understand, and bring ourselves into greater alignment with.

That is increasingly how I understand martial arts training.

Training constantly confronts us with reality.

Balance either works or it doesn’t. Timing cannot be forced. Strength has limits. Tension has consequences. Another person will not cooperate simply because we want them to.

We act, reality answers, and we make corrections.

Over enough years, that process begins to shape more than technique.

We become better at seeing clearly. Acting decisively. Remaining composed. Using only the effort necessary. Recognizing our weaknesses. Exercising restraint.

The goal is not merely to accumulate techniques.

It is to use training as a means of discovering what is true and gradually bringing ourselves into better alignment with it.

That is the idea behind the name.

Way Martial Arts

Truth Through Training.

I’m excited for the next chapter.

-Paul Van Schoyck

Congratulations to our students who earned new ranks in August! The belts we wear in the martial arts are symbols of the...
08/22/2026

Congratulations to our students who earned new ranks in August! The belts we wear in the martial arts are symbols of the time and effort a practitioner has put into their training. Students should be proud when they receive a new rank.

Perfect Testing Score:
-Violet Rafacz

08/21/2026

Truth Through Training 👊

08/20/2026

Progress doesn’t look the same for everyone.

For a young child, progress might mean standing still for two seconds longer than they could last week. It might mean learning to keep their eyes focused on a target.

For an athletic adult, progress might mean the opposite: doing less. Using less strength, wasting less movement, and allowing better technique to do the work.

Both are progress.

Good martial arts instruction isn’t about forcing everyone toward the same benchmark at the same pace. It’s about meeting the person where they are and helping them take the next step.

Here is a strange thing about old martial arts:Sometimes the person with the weapon is the good guy.That sounds obvious ...
08/19/2026

Here is a strange thing about old martial arts:

Sometimes the person with the weapon is the good guy.

That sounds obvious when you read it, but it runs against a surprisingly powerful modern assumption.

Show someone a martial arts technique in which one person is trying to prevent another from taking his weapon, and many people instinctively identify the armed person as the threat.

But many classical martial arts developed in a very different social context.

Being armed could be associated with duty, profession, status and protection. Naturally, those martial arts didn’t only teach people how to take weapons away. They also taught people how to keep them.

And that problem hasn’t entirely disappeared. People still carry weapons for professional, practical and defensive purposes. For some, particularly law enforcement, preventing someone else from gaining control of a weapon remains an extremely serious concern.

But there is another reason I find weapons training valuable.

Weapons compress the conversation.

Unarmed fighting can become an exchange. You make a mistake, recover, adjust and continue.

Introduce a weapon and the consequences of a small mistake can increase dramatically.

That changes the way you think.

And eventually, it changes the way you move.

Distance becomes critical. Timing becomes critical. Initiative becomes critical.

Hesitation becomes expensive.

You learn to recognize the moment when action is necessary and then act completely.

There is a kind of aggression in this, but I don’t mean anger or hostility.

I mean being proactive rather than passive. Decisive rather than hesitant. Moving toward a problem rather than waiting for the problem to dictate what happens next.

At the same time, decisiveness is not recklessness. The goal is to perceive clearly, decide quickly and commit fully.

That’s what I find so interesting about weapons training.

The weapon changes the consequences of the problem. The consequences change the way you approach the problem. And, practiced long enough, that begins to change you.

Perhaps that is one reason these methods have survived.

The circumstances may change.

The weapons may change.

But learning to recognize when it is time to act, and then acting without hesitation, remains a very human problem.

08/19/2026

Two people. Two different objectives. Eight seconds.

One person starts with the training knife.

The other starts with a grip on their arm.

When the drill begins, one person is trying to break free. The other is trying to take the knife away.

Neither person cooperates.

That last part changes everything.

This is a resistance exercise from our Jiyu Aikido class. Instead of practicing a technique against a predetermined response, both people are given a problem to solve while the other person is actively working against them.

Sometimes one succeeds. Sometimes the other does. Sometimes eight seconds expire and neither gets what they wanted.

That resistance is what makes the exercise valuable.

Address

52362 N Main Street
Mattawan, MI
49071

Opening Hours

Monday 4pm - 8:15pm
Tuesday 4pm - 8:15pm
Wednesday 4pm - 9pm
Thursday 4pm - 9pm
Friday 4pm - 7:30pm

Telephone

+12696242211

Website

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