The sport of karate has been around since the 20th century, but most people still know very little about it.

Emma Earles, ‘18, first began taking karate at Springer’s Martial Arts when she was just six years old. It seems peculiar that such a young girl would be interested in a sport like karate, but she says that she, “just wanted to follow in her older sister Alex’s footsteps,” who had been doing karate for awhile herself.

Today, Earles is a first degree black belt signifying that she is beginning “professional training” in karate. Earles’ favorite part of karate is the self-defense classes because they are a lot of fun. One advantage of taking karate is that it requires you to become very flexible. One must be very flexible in order to perfect all of the skills. Earles says that she has also grown really close to the members of her karate class over the years. “I love how it’s like I have a second family. We all work together and it’s a lot of fun,” said Earles.