Martial arts studio teaches 'real life' exercises

Eddie Clingo will stick to his day job.

The owner and sensei at Toro No Mon, a martial arts center in Spring Hill, has three other businesses and runs his karate shop on the side.

"This is my hobby and something I love doing," said Clingo, who, with his wife, Kristina, has been operating Toro No Mon for more than eight years. "It's not what I do for living. I have a lot of fun with this."

Toro No Mon translates to "tiger gate" in Japanese, and the martial art is a form of Goju-Ryu. Late in the 19th century, Kanryu Higashionna, the highest authority in Naha-Te, went abroad to the Chinese city of Fuzhou where he studied the art of Chinese boxing. Chojun Miyagi, his successor and the founder of Goju-Ryu, spent 1904 to 1908 there. Go meaning hard, and ju soft, it is said that the concept of combining two extremes originated in a Chinese martial arts doctrine known as Wu Pei Chi.

"(The students) don't do competitions. We focus on real life," Clingo said of his classes that are offered to ages 3 and older. "We have a high focus, but they learn through fun. This is not the military-type class."

Clingo says the classes, even the Tiny Tigers for ages 3-6, give the students' parents to-do sheets on a weekly basis. Things such as chores, homework and respecting parents must be checked off, or the student will receive "punishment," that is, extra work at Toro No Mon. As it is, students must maintain a B average in school to test for the next levels.

Which, in the end, just adds to the school being one big, extended family.

"The one thing we do here is that everyone is friends," said Clingo, who is a sixth-degree black belt and has been training for 28 years. "We help out each other, even in the older classes. Everyone hangs with everyone. No cliques. Kids don't get jealous of each other, and we all encourage each other and train together.

That's important."

For more information on classes at Toro No Mon, call (352) 686-7447.