ACTIVE LIVING
Making Moves
Birmingham School of Martial Arts classes teach self-defense and much more PHOTOGRAPHS COURTESY OF HEATHER POTTER
Heather Potter owns Birmingham Academy of Martial Arts with her husband, Will (they met in martial arts!). Together they have two locations: a soon-to-be-expanded Trussville studio, as well as a new Liberty Park location. Here, she shares the obvious and surprising benefits to practicing martial arts—for the whole family. Q: Tell us about yourself and when you started martial arts. A: I started training in the martial arts when I was 10 years old. My father had trained some when I was a kid. When I saw some kids in uniforms at the gym, I asked my parents to sign me up. I’ve been doing martial arts ever since. Fast-forward 11 years, and I was teaching at a school in Oak Mountain while attending college at BirminghamSouthern. My future husband, Will, started training at our school with his then-5-year-old daughter Lydia. Will was almost 30 years old then. We became friends and started dating almost three years later. I know—he married his karate teacher!
Q: When did you open the academy? A: When we were married, I was attending law school at the University of Alabama. Afterwards, we moved to Trussville and started our martial arts school. Owning a school was always my dream; however, my parents thought that smart kids (like me) were supposed to be doctors, lawyers, or engineers. I felt a lot of pressure to do one of those things. After a couple of years of running a part-time school while still practicing law, I asked my husband if I could quit law and open the school full-time. He said, “Go for it!” That is how Birmingham Academy of Martial Arts (BMA) was started. My husband was in IT at AT&T. After a year and a half, he quit his job CONTINUED ON PAGE 13
12 Bham Family January 2022
