TAE KWON DO

Lucas Holzhueter, owner and instructor at the Detroit Lakes School of Tae Kwon Do, does does a turning-jump-kick with assistance from Patrick Volesky.. (Desiree Bauer / Health Beat)

The family that kicks together,

sticks together

The Volesky family of Detroit Lakes grows stronger through Tae Kwon Do

BY DESIREE BAUER | DBAUER@DLNEWSPAPERS.COM S ome people take fitness classes, some do yoga, and others, such as the Voles ky family of Detroit Lakes, like to kick it up a notch with Tae Kwon Do.

The Voleskys — Patrick, Emily, and their two daughters, Lauren, 14, and Madeleine, 12 — have been developing their martial arts skills together at the Detroit Lakes Sch ool of Tae Kwon Do and Kumdo for the past six years. It’s a family activity they all enjoy, and it’s one that provides individual health benefits like better balance, lost weight and stress relief.

“I was working an office job and gaining a lot of weight,” says Patrick of why he got into Tae Kwon Do. “Going into the winter months and looking at myself … thinking, ‘What am I going to do about this?’”

Tae Kwon Do is a Korean form of martial arts that combines feet and hand movements for self-defense. It’s a combative sport with an emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, and fast-kicking tech niques.

Patrick did Tae Kwon Do for awhile as a teenager, but dropped out — a decision he says he later regretted. He decided to take the leap and try it again, this time with his two daughters in tow, to get into better shape and teach the girls how to protect themsel ves. Once they started, they all loved it. “There’s some accountability — you have other people there,” Patrick says. “People are behind you in line to do these exercises; it was a good motivator.”

“The first few months of Tae Kwon Do, my goal was to just not be the last person to finish the workout,” he adds with a laugh. “It seemed like a lofty goal … but as I pro gressed, I got better.”

Master Lucas Holzhueter, the owner and instructor of the Detroit Lakes School of Tae Kwon Do and Kumdo, adjusts workouts and moves to fit students who are at a va riety of different fitness and ability levels, something Patrick says was helpful to him and his daughters.

Holzhueter has taught students from age 5 to beyond retirement, he says. One of his “You don’t have to be young, you don’t have to be fit. You just need to have a good attitude.” -Patrick Volesky PAGE 6 | HEALTH BEAT

Emily Volesky started grad school while taking Tae Kwon Do classes and also working at Essentia Health-St. Mary’s, and she found it to be a great stress reliever for her. “I think I just would have gone crazy without it,” she says. (Desiree Bauer / Health Beat)

students was over 60 years old, and earned black belts in three of the four martial arts categories he offers at his gym.

“(Tae Kwon Do) is something you can do as long as you’re there and you put your heart into it and you’re committed to it,” Pa trick says. “You don’t have to be young, you don’t have to be fit. You just need to have a good attitude.”

Bitten by the Tae Kwon Do bug In time, Patrick found that he could get through a line without becoming comple tely winded. His posture improved, he had better balance, and he lost about 30 pounds. About then is when, after months of encou ragement from her husband and their girls, Emily decided to test out Tae Kwon Do, too. “I didn’t really want anything to do with it,” she says of her initial reaction to the sport. “I’ve never been a natural athlete ... And then I was pretty glad I did.”

Today, Emily is probably the biggest fan of Tae Kwon Do in the Volesky family. She says her body “can do better things than it could before,” and Tae Kwon Do has be come her outlet for stress as she studies her way through grad school.

For Patrick, it’s become a way of “helping

FAMILY KICKS continued on page 8 let that day just wash away,” he says.

And for their daughters, it’s an educatio nal and social experience. It allows them to learn different Korean words, commands and numbers; along with respect, discipline, how to behave in group settings and be com fortable in public. They also get to meet new people.

“There’s people that go to the gym that go to the same school as us (Detroit Lakes Middle School), but we would never have talked to them if it wasn’t for Tae Kwon Do,” Madeleine says.

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All the Voleskys have their different niches in the sport: Emily knows the tech niques the best, Patrick easily remembers the patterns, Madeleine is competitive — winning gold at nationals last year and hoping to get to the Olympics — and Lauren has a natural talent with weapons.

They all earned their black belts within months of each other, about 1 to 1-1/2 years ago.

“It’s really turned into a family affair for them,” Holzhueter says of the Volesky’s in volvement.

The Voleskys say doing Tae Kwon Do to gether helps them keep up their motivation and attendance in class.

“I think if we weren’t all in it, maybe one or two would have dropped off by now,” Pa trick says.

Emily agreed, adding, “It’s so engaging. It’s not only physical but you learn new things, so it keeps you mentally sharp.”

“It’s a lot more than (kicking and punching),” Holzhueter says. “It’s about the personal development of your whole self … You’re here to develop your own personal skills.”

R-E-S-P-E-C-T Holzhueter started learning Tae Kwon Do when he was eight years old — not because he wanted to protect himself, lose weight or exhaust some of that young kid energy, but rather because, “my parents wanted me to learn some more respect,” he says.

Growing up in Bemidji, Minn., Holzhue ter didn’t listen well to his female teachers, and his parents thought Tae Kwon Do, es pecially a program with a female instructor, might help with that.

Once he joined, Holzhueter never left. He’s been actively involved in Tae Kwon Do for almost 28 years now. He taught classes as a junior black belt when he was only 12 years old, took over a Tae Kwon Do group in college for four years, and mastered his black belt in every degree. Over the years, he’s also led sessions with multiple police officers, sheriff’s deputies and the Minneso ta National Guard.

“I have a lot of experience dealing with people from different martial arts back grounds,” he says.

Those experiences have benefited him as the owner of the Detroit Lakes School of Tae Kwon Do and Kumdo, which he ope ned 12 years ago. The school has grown in PAGE 8 | HEALTH BEAT Patrick Volesky and his daughter, Madeleine, practice their Tae Kwon Do skills during a family class. (Marie Johnson / Health Beat)

gym size and students over the years, with as many as 150 students at the gym today, most of them youth.

The school switched locations a few times in its early years, before eventually landing at its current spot on Fortune Ave. Holzhue ter credits his success to his early Tae Kwon Do roots — his original gym and master in Bemidji. Today, he owns that Bemidji gym, in addition to the one here in Detroit Lakes. Pushing that comfort zone Holzhueter and the Voleskys acknowledge that Tae Kwon Do has some intimidating aspects. The idea of having to test in front of an audience to get a new belt, for example, can hold some prospective stu dents back.

“But it’s really not that bad,” Patrick says. “Martial arts helps push some of those com fort zones, and doing things in public in one of those comfort zones … We’ve all been there before. Everyone watching is not jud ging.”

He suggested that anyone interested in Tae Kwon Do just, “Come in through the door. Come in and check it out.”

Those who don’t want to test up for a belt don’t have to.

“A lot of people just join it and they don’t really care about moving up in ranks,” Ma deleine says, explaining that the ranking system is just a formality so they can learn new moves.

Those who do test usually achieve their black belts in three to five years.

“People have to have real accomplish ments here to move on,” Holzheuter says. “You don’t get a black belt just because you showed up every day. We are not a belt fac tory.”

Since owning his own gym, Holzheuter has tested out about 450 orange belts (the second belt on the Tae Kwon Do ranking system), 100 red belts (the second to last belt on the system), and under 100 black belts (the final belt).

His students practice a “very traditio nal style” of martial arts, he says, always addressing others as sir and ma’am. All of his classes focus on self-defense.