BUSINESS REPORT OF THE MONTH: MARCH

MIND, BODY AND SPIRIT MARTIAL ARTS

INSTITUTE GAINS POPULARITY

By Frederick A. Hurst

The Mind, Body and Spirit Martial Arts Institute (MBS) was the topic of an earlier Point of View article which focused on its annual awards banquet (January 2005). We have selected it as our March Business of the Month because of significant programs that have been planned and implemented by its owner and manager, Leo Williams, since our last article.

Leo, who has a Bachelor’s Degree in economics and business administration and a Master’s in marketing, started MBS with young people. He places a strong emphasis on teaching youngsters balance and fitness, self-control, discipline, respect and confidence and, last but not least, a healthy dose of martial arts. The youngest children are taught how to tell time and identify geometric angles and directions as they coordinate their moves with floor drawings that Leo’s educator-wife, Vanessa, encouraged him to draw on the practice floor.

MBS’s newer adult martial arts program aims to take adult minds off the stresses and hassles of the outside world and offers the additional benefits of increased fitness, flexibility and self-defense.

Since POV last visited MBS Institute, many exciting things have happened. For a start, the school has dramatically expanded its senior citizens program. Besides adding more senior students on site, it has recently completed a pilot program for Springfield’s Department of Elder Affairs where seniors were taught self-defense, walking with proper balance, preventive falling, environment awareness, how to get up after a fall and other things that added to the level of self-confidence of the older participants. Also, in April, MBS is starting an eight-week program in senior martial arts, which is open to all members of Elder Affairs.

Since our last visit, MBS has also hosted seminars and self-defense workshops for the Springfield police department and the parks’ department security personnel and for other private security groups, as well as for the corrections officers at Connecticut’s Somers Prison. It has also completed exclusive training for the Springfield College campus police and is currently speaking to students in Springfield schools, helping them to understand the relationship of martial arts to such educational concepts as angles, fulcrums and physical sciences and the anatomy. MBS is also training girl scouts in foundation martial arts.

The Institute is located at 18 Maple Street adjacent to the Springfield School Department. It has two large workout rooms and a Jacuzzi. It is a fast-growing business in which Leo reinvests all profits. He shares responsibility with his wife, a highly respected teacher at Freedman Elementary School, and a highly skilled staff, who, when it comes to professional credentials, leave nothing to the imagination.

Instructor Larry Garron of Boston is a former New England Patriot and a retired college business professor with a Ph.D. in martial arts who has 50+ years of martial arts experience. Instructor Kent Davis, also from Boston, is a sergeant on the police force with 25 years experience in law enforcement and 45 years experience in martial arts. Instructor Tom Belton, former Vietnam Veteran of the Year, holds several Master’s degrees relating to psychology and counseling and is a 2nd degree Black belt who has worked at the school for 12 years. He and instructor Craig Jackson also perform mentoring duties for young MBS students. Craig Jackson is product manager at Mercedes Dealership and has been an instructor at the school for 12 years. Assistant instructor, William Witherspoon, has been a Springfield police officer for 18 years, while assistant instructor, Gary Smith, is a Connecticut corrections officer as is assistant Daniel Hackett, who is also a certified member of the prison’s extraction team. Leo has worked 23 years as a high tech medical salesman and has thirty-six years of martial arts experience, while his wife, Vanessa, is MBS’s administrator and curriculum developer. She is a second grade teacher at Springfield’s Freedman Elementary School and was selected as Springfield Wal-Mart’s teacher of the year.

Although Leo is wisely reluctant to reveal the details of his future plans to the competition, he informed POV that he plans to expand his involvement with the personal growth and development of all ages and will also be expanding his programs to include the physically challenged, hearing and sight impaired and others who can benefit from the martial arts.

For information on how you or your organization can become part of this rapidly expanding martial arts phenomenon, call Leo at (413) 739-6596. n