Karate gives children alternatives

     By Ray Parker
     View staff writer
      Stephanie McNeal looks like a tightly wound spring ready to strike at a second's notice, wearing her slightly flared black karate outfit as if it was a second skin.
      On a recent balmy Tuesday night at the North Las Vegas Recreation Center, 1638 Bruce St., McNeal led 12 karate students through a series of punches and kicks. Some of the 8-year-olds were small enough to be mistaken for kindergartners. Some of the teen-agers looked like adults.
      "OK, line up," McNeal barks in her best drill instructor voice at the boys and two girls form three attentive lines.
      The class meets here twice a week to go through the intense routine. McNeal, a 5-foot-6-inch, 125-pounds Kifaru black-belt, seemed to be having a terrific time.
      She shouted and swung her head around like a Bob Fosse dancer. The students looked serious as they jabbed and panted and counted out loud.
      It required concentrated effort -- quick body turns, leg kicks and hand chops -- as Kifaru karate incorporates differing styles: judo, saikido, kenpu and jujitsu. A punch is a wonderful gesture to make, especially to the ballet-like routine that is karate.
      Afterward, the children gathered into little groups, tiny knots of feel-good testimonials to McNeal's class and the overall satisfaction of the new way of working out.
      The new way is called Kifaru karate and is the baby of McNeal's father who has studied the ancient art for 50 years and who taught his daughter the same skill from the age of 6. It requires concentrated effort -- quick body turns, leg kicks and hand chops -- and incorporates differing styles: judo, saikido, kenpu and jujitsu.
      McNeal brought the program to the center with the aim of giving youngsters an alternative to hanging out and getting into trouble.
      "I like the discipline, doing the (routines)," said Bryan Foster, 12. "Karate helps me work harder on my schoolwork. And the Kifaru teaches me about not fighting (in school) and stuff."
      McNeal said her martial arts classes that began with about 15 students three years ago has increased to 50.
      The center also offers counseling, tutoring and dance classes. But for many youngsters, karate is the carrot.
      "My kids compete and win against some kids who pay up to $80 a month for karate class," McNeal said. "We want our kids to have a chance to show off."
      McNeal's classes cost $16 a month and meet twice a week.
      Parents have embraced the program as a way of keeping their children out of trouble.
      Audra Cotton said she signed up her 12-year-old son, Alex, so he would keep busy.
      "At this day and time, there's so much violence," she said. "I wanted him to be able to protect himself. Not to brag and show off but when the time came, he can show what he knows.
      "I've got him in church, karate and basketball -- keep him out of trouble."
      McNeal said she and the other karate instructors rediscover a basic truth about youngsters at every class.
      "A kid knows when you really care and when you're fake," she said. And when adults care, she said, little miracles begin to occur.
      Brash, young boys drop their macho facades when they find out some girls in the class can outfight them. Youngsters show up with the reputation as a neighborhood bully, only to be exposed in the karate ring as someone who can't fight, McNeal said.
      The swaggerer and the bully learn self-control, self-respect and respect for others. And the payoff from the lessons, while sometimes hard to measure, continues over a lifetime, she said.
      Earlier this year, Alex Cotton took first place in a karate tournament in Carson City, Calif.
      "Karate has made a difference," said Alex Cotton, a seventh-grader at Hyde Park Middle School. "It helps me get fit and confident in myself."
      McNeal, 33, remembers growing up in North Las Vegas and wrestling with the same choices as her students.
      "Some of these kids are right on the borderline," she said. "They will either idolize the big, tough gang banger or a big, cool martial artist. I want them to make the right choice."