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Loretta Ual, of Jackson, brought her daughter to the Special Needs Martial Arts Program at Fudoshinka Dojo on Saturday for something new and fun to do.

Ual just moved to Jackson, and the class is making it possible for her daughter to meet other children her age, Ual said.

The program was started by Debra Taylor, who also teaches the class.

“I’m a pediatric physical therapist, and my children benefited from the physical and the mental training that they get from martial arts,” she said. “It’s very exciting because I know these kids are going to benefit from it, and it’s a way to work on physical exercise and conditioning in a way that’s really fun, and it also helps with a lot of other things.”

Taylor explained that the program is loosely affiliated with the Special Needs Athletic Association. She is able to go into it’s database to find children with special needs who are in different athletic programs to see if they’d be interested in learning martial arts.

“This is giving them the opportunity to do things that other kids get to do,” she said.

Because Saturday’s lesson was the first of the program, Taylor taught the kids martial arts basics.

The class began with some stretches, then went into blocking techniques.

“The first thing we have to learn is to keep ourselves safe before we learn to do something that might hurt somebody else,” Taylor said.

The children first learned to block their faces while watching a quick demonstration, and then they practiced on each other using soft blocks.

When everyone was able to block properly, Taylor taught them how to block the lower half of their bodies.

Lastly, the kids learned how to correctly make a fist and hit their opponent.

“You want a good, tight fist. The last part about making a fist is roll your thumb over your fingers,” Taylor said. “What you don’t want to do is put your thumb inside … because you will break your thumb if you hit something hard.”

After the class finished throwing punches, the children sat down and Taylor taught them breathing techniques to end the hour of training.

“Breathe in strength. Breathe out fear. Breathe in confidence. Breathe out fear,” she said to the class.

She gave praise to her new students and said an emotional first goodbye.

“You guys did an awesome job today. I’m about to get tearful,” she said.

Then she ended the class with a bow.

A bionic OAP is back to his karate black belt best at the grand age of 68 despite just recovering from cancer and having two replacements hips.

Bernard Taylor, is back to full health  kicking, punching and karate chopping his way through the gym despite his former ailments which included prostate cancer.

Nicknamed The Bull by his karate mates, he attends Colne Valley Black Belt Academy in his home town of Huddersfield, West Yorkshire.

‘It’s brilliant,’ he said. ‘I had one hip done, then I had treatment for the prostate, then I had the other hip replaced.

‘Now I’m back fighting, kicking and running around like a lunatic.

‘The younger lads can’t believe it.

‘I can still do everything – but the super power kicks maybe aren’t quite as hard and the flying kicks aren’t as high as they once were.

‘Doctors have told me I need to take it easy but I just love teaching the kids. I’ve probably got 250 pupils.’

The married father-of-two puts his rapid recovery down to his karate and general fitness levels.

‘I was never worried once,’ said Bernard. ‘I took it all in my stride and just got on with it.

‘Karate is about positive thinking and it instills discipline.’

Mr Taylor only took up karate when he took his children Leanne and Scott along for lessons.

Leanne secretly filled in the forms for her dad and he ended up joining too at the age of 42.

Mr Taylor, who had been sporty in his younger days, never looked back and quickly rose through the ranks, achieving his black belt aged 47.

Three years later he won the Martial Arts Illustrated magazine’s British Championship.

It was about four years ago that Bernard started feeling pain in his hips.

True to form he battled through the pain barrier, thinking it was a pulled muscle.

Eventually his wife persuaded him to go to the doctor’s and arthritic spurs were found on his hip joints, which could only be solved by replacements.

Shortly afterwards discovering his hip problem he was diagnosed with prostate cancer.

Mr Taylor said: ‘For me it was ‘okey dokey, let’s get on with it’. I wasn’t too bothered. It was my family who felt it most.’

Mr Taylor then had surgery on his right hip before embarking on treatment for his prostate.

He decided against an operation to remove the prostate and opted for three months of hormone therapy followed by radiotherapy.

Mr Taylor had to wait up to six months for the radiotherapy to leave his system before he could have the left hip done.

He went into hospital in August 2011 and again his rate of recovery amazed medical staff.

‘Now I’m back on top form,’ he said. One of the students brought a lump to my throat the other week when he made some comments on Facebook about this 68-year-old guy running up and down like a young ‘un. He said I must be a bionic man.’

Mr Taylorsaid he wanted all men over 45 to get themselves checked for prostate cancer.

‘It’s a simple blood test and all men should do it,’ he said. ‘I had no symptoms and only found out by accident.

‘An early diagnosis can save your life.’

CHESHIRE — Jamie Arute was first motivated to start his own martial arts training center in 2006, after his daughter happened upon several trophies from his competitive days as a fighter.

His daughter, just 3 at the time, was inspired by his expansive collection of medals — Arute’s training dates back to 1981 — and wanted to try martial arts herself. Arute took her to about 15 different studios in the area, all different styles and backgrounds, but couldn’t find the right fit. Either the classes were too big, or the instructors didn’t provide the right kind of training.

“I thought to myself, ‘This town needs a school that will give the kids personalized attention, help them grow and achieve goals, teach them proper techniques, but still allow them to have a fun and exciting environment,’ ” Arute said.

Arute now owns and operates Alpha Krav Maga, at 1070 S. Main St. The business, which opened under a different name, has gone through many changes over the past five years. Arute said they have all been positive, especially since last year, when he changed the martial arts organization he was affiliated with.

Now, “people seek me out,” Arute said. He receives private business from the entire state and Massachusetts, he said, along with several law enforcement organizations.

“I’m just a different breed,” he said.

In March 2008, Arute opened his own self-defense school offering several types of martial arts, but emphasizing Krav Maga (the Hebrew term means “contact combat”), which was developed for the Israeli Defense Forces in 1948. At the time, he used curriculum from Krav Maga Worldwide, an organization that recruited former IDF soldier and Krav Maga expert Sam Sade to teach. Last year, Sade left the organization to begin Alpha Krav Maga, which concentrates entirely on the teachings of the Israeli martial art.

Arute saw an opportunity in the change, and decided to partner with Sade. The change made Arute a member of the organization’s board of directors and designated his Cheshire branch the Northeast Regional Training Center for Alpha Krav Maga. Arute said this means that any instructor who wants to be certified in Krav Maga or wants to open his own branch through Alpha Krav Maga on the East Coast must visit his school and undergo training.

Arute said Krav Maga is “a more aggressive martial art.”

“If a child is put in front of a situation, they’re going to try to verbalize their way out of it or deescalate it, but if something does happen, they are going to defend themselves,” he said.

A majority of children won’t defend themselves because they’re scared of getting in trouble with their parents, Arute said. Arute invites parents to be a part of the class, allowing them to understand the teachings, so children understand that “mom and dad have your back if you need to defend yourself.”

“You might have consequences to deal with at school, but if you are truly defending yourself, you’re going to get a big hug from mom and dad, and a high five from your instructor that you successfully stood up for yourself,” Arute said.

It’s not all about children protecting themselves, though. Arute holds age-appropriate classes, with only children 13 and above who pass a maturity test allowed to enter the adult program, which is much more physical and includes sparring. He also holds classes for children as young as 6. Adults with under a year of experience enter at level 1 and learn the basic philosophies of Krav Maga before moving to level 2, which includes sparring and more intense training. Law enforcement and military professionals automatically progress to level 2 because of their prior training and experience.

“It’s about defending yourself,” Arute said of his interpretation of Krav Maga. “It’s developed to be straight to the point, using normal reactions of the body. Say someone is getting choked. We take normal reactions and create explosiveness and movements to release hands off your neck.”

The use of Krav Maga isn’t over when one finds a way to escape the choke hold, though, Arute said.

“We don’t train hit once and run, we train hit until they’re not coming back for us anymore,” he said. “Everyone has a different line in the sand. We don’t start fights, we finish them.”

Jennifer Bernstein, 43, has been training with Arute for several years, “mainly because of the horrendous crime in 2007,” referring to the Cheshire home invasion.

“It scared me,” she said. “It really resonated because it could happen to anyone.”

The training she has received at Alpha Krav Maga has been life changing, Bernstein said.

“At the time of the home invasion, I felt like I wasn’t fit, and I had a big target on my back,” she said.

Krav Maga has become a big part of her life; she is now an instructor at Arute’s facility. Bernstein said Krav Maga is not all about physical fitness and punching power.

“We can teach people how to hit and strike and duck all day, but there’s a mental perseverance that is key,” she said. Arute also teaches mental approaches to presenting yourself as less vulnerable, therefore less of a target.

Dave Barger, 57, has also felt the benefits of Krav Maga. He’s trained with Arute for more than a year. He spent 24 years as a state police officer and already had years of martial arts background, but found that “Krav Maga is more real life.”

Barger, now the chief of public safety at Quinnipiac University, often hires Arute to teach his officers self-defense and disarming techniques.