Constructive kicking and screaming has a new home on Thursdays in the Heskett Center.
Peak ICT Martial Arts is a martial arts school that has expanded from its previous focus on taekwondo. The club is run by husband and wife, Sam and Michelle Mayo. John Lee, the director of campus recreation, has approved their new home in the Heskett Center.
“We’re super happy to work with John (Lee),” Sam said. “He’s been super gracious, and it’s been awesome.”
“(Sam) has been a student since January of 2010,” Michelle said. “So we’ve been a part of the school for a while. In 2022, Master (Ron) Brockman approached us and asked if we would like to take over because he was retiring.”
Previously, the school had its classes at the Wichita Hoops complex in Bel Aire. After Wichita Hoops went through a rocky period of possibly shutting down or repurposing, the Mayos decided to move when their lease ran up this year.
“They wanted to bring in new things like soccer and other events,” Michelle said. “Staying there wouldn’t have worked best for them or us.”
While Michelle handles the business side of the school, Sam instructs the class. There is a large range of ages in the dojang, from young children to 60-year-olds.
“(Sam) has an open perspective of the martial art,” graduate student Brenda Blasetti said. “He is not only (going) with the classic, he opens his horizons, and that’s he’s also in personal defense with different martial arts. So I really like that, and it’s amazing that we have people of different ages and gender here.”
One of the hopes of the school was to expand the reach it could have in the class. WSU is in a relatively central location compared to the Wichita Hoops complex, at 53rd and Webb Road on the outskirts of town.
“I feel very lucky,” sophomore Matthew Schmidt said. “It’s kind of hard to find schools around here that I’m able to afford as a college student. So it’s nice finding somewhere that’s on campus.”
Schmidt and the Mayos are both from Oklahoma. Coincidentally, Schmidt attended the same school that a young Sam did in Stillwater.
“It’s my second time, and I love it,” Blasetti said. “It’s getting better and better every class, and I recommend it for students — there is a big discount for WSU students.”
Sam has been dedicated to martial arts for over 30 years, but outside the dojang, his day job is being an airworthiness engineer for Bell Helicopter.
“Martial arts has been a part of my life since I was little,” Sam said. “I was five with a different martial art entirely, but it’s always been part of who I am, and I just love it … One of the things that I love about taekwondo especially is whatever you put into it, that’s what you’re going to get out of it.”
Master Sam has supplemented his taekwondo teachings by introducing hapkido and kumdo (a weapons-based martial art) into his classes.
“My hope is that amongst all those things, that there’s an improvement in helping someone become more disciplined, someone improving their self-esteem, someone improving their physical fitness,” Sam said. “And someone obtaining some skills and abilities that could maybe help them if they get caught in this dangerous situation.”
In such a dangerous situation, Master Sam said that taekwondo teaches a person how to control their body so that they’re not just “flailing around when someone tries to attack you.”
“It’s not necessarily about fighting,” Michelle said. “It’s about being able to take care of yourself. It’s being able to be a part of the community. And we have some phenomenal fighters, but it’s taekwondo, not MMA.”
Part of the appeal of WSU as the new location is the college atmosphere.
“College is where you make friends that last a lifetime,” Michelle said. “We wanted people to be another outlet for that.”
Peak ICT Martial Arts holds a class in the Heskett Center room 141 every Thursday from 6-7:30 p.m. Email [email protected] for more information.
