Madison Martial Arts offers comprehensive curriculum of karate to kendo

Sensei Russell Newquist owns Madison Martial Arts at 11156 County Line Road. (CONTRIBUTED)

MADISON – Sensei Russell Newquist offers hard-to-find tai chi and kendo classes and karate instruction at Madison Martial Arts.

The dojo’s address is 11156 County Line Road, Suite F in Arbor Crossings. “My karate curriculum is grounded in Shin Nagare Karate style, a mixture of Shotokan Karate, kickboxing and jujitsu,” Newquist said.

The school offers karate classes for adults, youth and pre-schoolers, along with Japanese swordsmanship of Iaido for adults. Huntsville Kendo Club practices there.

The dojo’s comprehensive training keeps a family-oriented, community-based environment.

“We aim to provide our students with improved fitness and weight loss, practical self-defense skills, honest self-confidence from real achievement and a community to belong to,” Newquist said.

Newquist’s study started in 1995 at Spirit Made Steel Dojo in Madison. For 10 years, he studied, trained and eventually taught there. He and wife Morgon then moved to Georgia, where he studied Goju-Ryu Karate with Shihan Michael Elsner.

So committed, he even taught karate at tennis courts, parks and his garage before teaching at Riverwalk YMCA in Bethlehem, Ga. The Newquists returned to North Alabama in 2011, and he finished his master’s degree at the University of Alabama in Huntsville.

At Madison Martial Arts, instructor Eric Harrah studied Iaido and Isshin-Ryu Karate from Sensei Lance England and Satori-Ryu Iaido under Grand Master Dale Kirby.

Since the 1970s, Steffan de Graffenreid has trained in judo, taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, kung fu and tai chi. Lewis Chi studied kendo in southern California, Nashville and Atlanta, eventually founding Huntsville Kendo Club.

Morgon Newquist also studied at Spirit Made Steel and now owns Ever After Videography. Russell Newquist graduated from Bob Jones High School. Their children are Seamus, 4, Evelyn, 2, and August, seven months.

Hours for Madison Martial Arts are Monday and Wednesday, 11 a.m. to noon; Monday, 5 to 8 p.m.; Wednesday, 4 to 8 p.m.; Tuesday, 6 to 9 p.m.; and Thursday, 8 to 9 p.m.

For class information, call 256-258-8554, email to info@madisonmartialarts.com or visit madisonmartialarts.com or Facebook/MadisonMartialArtsAcademy.