By Mike Hazlip—
Kenneth Dowdy, instructor at Extreme Martial Arts Center at 7530 Auburn Blvd., practices a relatively modern form of an ancient martial art, if you can call the year 1836 modern.
Dowdy practices and teaches Choy Li Fut, a martial art form almost 200 years old, that itself is a form of more ancient fighting styles dating back thousands of years. He says redirecting energy is a key component of the discipline.
“Use an ounce of force to redirect a ton of force,” he tells me as we sit in his small office at the back of Extreme Martial Arts.
Movements in this fighting style rely on more circular motions, redirecting the force from an opponent as well as misdirecting their attention in preparation to strike a blow from another angle.
The redirecting of force seems to work for Dowdy, whose stature belies his fighting prowess. In a brief demonstration of his broad sword techniques, Dowdy moves with intense concentration as the blade cuts through the air with a whooshing sound.
The ability to gain an advantage over a larger opponent is something Dowdy says attracted him to the Choy Li Fut fighting style when he was younger.
“Unfortunately my entire life I’ve kind of always been the little person so I’ve always had to try to find ways to overcome all these people who were bigger and stronger than me who wanted to pick a fight with me,” he says.
Dowdy says Extreme Martial Arts Centers was started by Sifu Dillman in 2004, but only recently moved to Citrus Heights about a year ago. Sifu is a title, Dowdy explained, and he says Dillman owns the building and leaves the day to day operations of the school to Dowdy. He said Dillman combined two suites in the building to make enough room for the operation.
The school serves about 100 students, and most students have private individual lessons to enable one-on-one instruction. Group lessons are also available.
The school will accept students as young as two, as long as they are potty trained. Dowdy said his oldest student is in his mid-70s.
Extreme Martial Arts’ previous location was near the Home Depot at Antelope Road and Roseville Road. Dowdy said they had to close that location because of problems with the homeless population in the area.
“We tried really, really, really hard to make an impact over there, to change things and improve the community and environment over there,” he said. “Unfortunately we just kept running into too many issues and it was becoming problematic for our students.”
Staff members would collect 30 to 40 used syringes each day during morning sweeps of the parking lot, Dowdy said. Eventually that number dropped to about 10, but the ongoing issue became too much for the business, and Dillman decided to move to Citrus Heights over concerns with their student’s exposure to the drug paraphernalia.
“It got to a point where it wasn’t safe, it wasn’t good for our students and our family anymore so we had to leave,” he said.
Dowdy said he has not had the same issues at the current location.
Extreme Martial Arts Center offers Tai Chi Mondays and Wednesdays at 11 a.m., or Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6:30 p.m. weekly. Other classes include Kung Fu on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 7 p.m. Youth classes are Mondays and Wednesdays, and adult classes are Tuesdays and Thursdays.
