Lone Star Martial Arts: A place for everyone

Andre Hodge, owner and chief instructor at Lone Star Martial Arts, first started taking karate classes when he was 6 years old in 1980.

“My mom and dad said I had too much energy, so they wanted me to do something constructive, so they put me in karate,” he said.

In 1987, he earned his first-grade black belt, which is a “big goal for everybody that does martial arts,” he said.

“I’d say that’s when I knew, but I actually knew before that, but that’s when I knew that this was my passion and what I wanted to do,” Hodge said.

During junior high and high school, he managed karate schools and taught classes. After graduating college, he took a break from karate, got married and had children. In 2010, he bought Lone Star Martial Arts, which had initially opened in downtown Waxahachie around 2006.

When Hodge purchased the school, his main goals were to increase enrollment and expand its after-school program. Within the first six months, the school grew from about 20 students to more than 100 students. The after-school program, where students are picked up from school and brought to the dojo for their martial arts training, a snack and homework time while they wait on their parents to pick them up, grew from about 15 students to around 50.

Along with their classes for students ages 5 and older, they have a mighty mites class for 3- to 4-year-olds, classes for adults and a traveling competitive team.

Lone Star Martial Arts teaches the art of American taekwondo, which is the meaning of the hand and the feet.

“Some of the parents that bring them here are worried about them hitting people and stuff like that, but that’s the opposite,” Hodge said. “I want to teach them not to fight, not to use their karate, but to be able to defend themselves if the time came.”

Gibson Chandler, head instructor at Lone Star Martial Arts, started taking classes at the dojo in 2008. He earned his black belt June 29, 2013, then started instructing and teaching classes at Lone Star.

“When I first started, it was just once a week, every now and then, just something to do, but when he bought the school in 2010, I think it definitely clicked much better than previous,” Chandler said. “I had taken a break from purple belt to green belt. The day that I said I wanted to be done, that I wanted to quit, is when he took over the school like the next class. From that day, I came to every class right after school all throughout junior high, all throughout high school.”

Earning one’s black belt is the culmination of years of training.

“It’s intense,” Hodge said. “I think they say one out of 1,000 people that walk through my door get their black belt, so that’s a big deal. We don’t give them away. They’re earned.”

“It’s one of the most fulfilling of experiences, but you got to work for it,” Chandler said.

It typically takes three to five years of training to earn a black belt. One must learn between 12 to 15 different self-defenses. For each belt, from white to black, one must learn between 24 to 50 different movements or forms, along with different types of partner exercises.

“After all that, you got to know how to spar,” Chandler said. “You got to be able to fight. That’s roughly what a belt test is. It’s long, minimum two hours. My black belt test was three and a half hours.”

After earning one’s black belt, they can begin teaching classes.

“Up to the black belt, up to that point, it’s definitely more about you … but once you get your black belt is when the fun actually starts because that’s when you can start making a difference in kids’ lives when you start teaching,” Chandler said. “Making them better always made me feel like I was making myself better. It gave me a lot of patience, and it’s made me a better person, for sure.”

Hodge said one of his favorite parts of owning the dojo is the impact he can make in a kid’s life, watching them start out timid and quiet and ending the class as the most talkative.

“A lot of kids come in here because they don’t have confidence,” Hodge said. “That’s one thing I can instill in every kid that comes through this door is confidence and how to stand up against a bully.”

Lone Star Martial Arts also opens its arms to kids with special needs.

“It’s a good place to bring your kids,” Hodge said. “We’re a big family here. Kids with special needs, kids high functioning, kids that don’t listen, we’ve got them all. I’ve been doing it 40-plus years, and I’ve seen it all. It’s a place where any kid should be able to come here and be able to do our program and come out a better person.”

“I’ve seen it help them,” Chandler said. “A lot of the parents come and tell us how their behavior is doing better at school, better at home, because even if they give us a lot of lip during class, other aspects of their life slowly start to improve as well.”

Lone Star Martial Arts is located at 300 W. Main St., Waxahachie. For more information, visit https://lonestarmaw.com/.

Originally published online July 10, 2023 - https://www.waxahachiesun.com/business/lone-star-martial-arts-a-place-for-everyone/article_3afdb642-1f51-11ee-b227-8fffc4fff23c.html