How I Got This Body: In fighting trim

Kyndell Harkness, Star Tribune

Paula Maccabee started taking Tae Kwon Do with her son Aaron when he was 5 years old. Now he's 13.

After eight years of tae kwon do, this 51-year-old St. Paul mom takes joy in the strength and health of her body.

By Sarah Moran

Last update: May 5, 2008 - 5:24 PM

Paula Maccabbee, 51, St. Paul

Like son, like mom

I started training at Lee's World Tae Kwon Do Academy in St. Paul because my 5-year-old son was training there. I ended up driving with him to lessons and practicing with him to help him learn, so I thought I should do it myself as long as I'm spending all this time. I fell in love with the martial arts.

Eight years later
I'm a second-degree black belt and am planning to test for my third degree by the end of this year. I also study aikido at Twin Cities Aikido in St. Paul. Aikido is a relatively newly invented martial art that's a gentler form of judo. It's a great balance with tae kwon do because tae kwon do is very explosive and exciting and the whole purpose [of aikido] is to get in tune with someone else's energy and take a conflict situation and calm it down.

Taking it outside the studio
One of the very important things one learns quickly in sparring training is not to take conflict personally but to be able to keep a sense of emotional distance. There's a lot of literature about how modern humans are stressed because we're always in flight or fight mode even when we don't have to be. One thing martial arts teaches you is ways to respond other than fight or flight, other than panic and stress. You hope you learn it in your body so next time you're giving a speech in front of 100 people or your boss yells at you or your kids aren't listening you can be less primitive and more thoughtful in your response. There's a lot of fighting in my professional life [as an attorney].

Focusing within
What I'm trying to do is be the strongest, most resilient person my body can be. I'm not necessarily competing with a 20-year-old and thinking 'Gee, he can jump higher than I can.' It's an art form where you try to attain a level of excellence which is going to be different for every human.

Joyful conditioning
What gives me the greatest amount of joy is being able to train with my son. That is a fantastic experience. And there's something about being part of the martial arts community and working together to be stronger and braver and helping each other and learning from each other.

Perks
My son had his birthday party at the tae kwon do studio, and at the end of the party I broke a brick. It was fun for me to be able to do that now that I'm 51, to take joy in the strength and health of my body.

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