By Quintin Harlan, Herald Bulletin Sports Writer
April 05, 2009 11:34 pm
—
PENDLETON — In the front window of Iron Horse Martial Arts is a dry-erase board with a list of upcoming tournaments and competitions that stretch from next week to June.
Road trips to Greenwood, Indianapolis, Highland Heights, Ky.; Columbus, Ohio, and Fort Lauderdale, Fla., for various Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and taekwondo tournaments make up the calendar for the next few weekends.
A lot of mileage is going to be put on Myron Gerber’s Jeep Cherokee in the coming weeks. But when asked just how much could be added, that’s the only issue that Gerber doesn’t want to think about.
“I don’t even want to guess,” said Gerber. “I think there’s maybe one open weekend in the next six months … if we’re lucky.”
Iron Horse is a member of AAU Tae Kwon Do. Gerber had 15 students entered in a state qualifying meet recently in Gas City. The tournament was also a qualifier for the 2009 Nationals and Junior Olympics.
“We had 12 firsts, 13 seconds and two thirds. We kind of cleaned house,” Gerber said humbly. “We’re going to go to another qualifier, the Ohio state championships. We want to go over there and take over there too, so to speak. We’ve got nationals in Fort Lauderdale in July. That’s huge; that’s about 3,000-4,000 competitors there that’s the best in the United States in taekwondo.”
It’s not just taekwondo though; Brazilian Jiu-jitsu is another of the techniques taught at Iron Horse. This past Saturday saw students compete at the Extreme Grappling Open (EGO) in Greenwood.
“It’s a big grappling tournament for Indiana,” Gerber said. “It’s a good place to learn and grapple against someone else. The other one we usually go to is the NAGA (North American Grappling Association) event at the Arnold Classic in Columbus, Ohio.”
That would be the 2009 Arnold World Grappling Championship that takes place every March in Columbus, Ohio, as part of the Arnold Classic. It’s named for Arnold Schwarzenegger and the whole weekend is dedicated to physical fitness. Lately it’s become more known for the martial arts aspect of the weekend as opposed to the bodybuilding expo it once was.
Gerber is a 1993 graduate of Pendleton Heights High School where he was a member of the basketball and track teams. Gerber was a record-setting high jumper for the Arabians.
He’s been studying the martial arts for over 20 years. He holds black belts in taekwondo (fifth degree), judo (second degree) and jiu-jitsu (first degree).
He’s been running Iron Horse Martial Arts for 13 years now.
“I’ve been studying for over 20 years and I love it,” said Gerber. “I love teaching the kids.”
“He’s a great teacher. He’s very patient. He communicates well with the parents,” said Cindy Gould. “It’s a family atmosphere up here. He encourages good grades.”
Gerber had developed a following through his mixed martial arts promotion, Iron Cage Clash.
“I started it six years ago because I went to other shows and I saw that fighters weren’t getting fair fights; they were getting overmatched. There were guys that had never fought before fighting guys that had six or seven fights,” said Gerber. “I started Iron Cage Clash to really protect the fighters.”
Gerber’s next Iron Cage Clash event is set for May 9 at the Elwood National Guard Armory. His reputation for making fair fights and the professionalism of his shows has had his phone ringing off the hook lately.
“I’ve had over 50 fighters call me that want to be on this show,” said Gerber. “The last three shows have been sold out. I’m already getting huge response for (the Elwood show).”
Whether it’s his students in his taekwondo or jiu-jitsu classes or his students in his MMA program, Gerber gets the satisfaction of a teacher passing on what he’s learned to another generation.
“I get the enjoyment of seeing them do something that I learned from my grand masters and passing it on. Just to see what I teach used and it’s working,” said Gerber.
Gerber has done traditional martial arts demonstrations at his MMA shows before. One featured Amber Leigh Clauson, a Pendleton Heights junior, doing a tumbling routine and staff demonstration.
“It was fun,” said Clauson. “That was the first cage fighting show I’d been to. It was cool.”
Gerber prides his shows on being different than the stereotype of what some consider an MMA show to be, just a couple of guys beating each other up.
In addition to the more traditional martial arts demonstrations, he has some of his younger students show off their skills.
“I call it the Iron Warriors. We have the kids put on the full face mask, so they can punch but they can’t get hurt. It’s more of a demonstration. I teach them some boxing and little bit of what to do on the ground; it’s like a junior MMA,” said Gerber. “Some states are trying to do it with the kids doing full-on MMA. The kids are still growing; they shouldn’t be going full out.”
Attendance at the Iron Cage Clash shows has been growing steadily over the past year. A show in Noblesville drew 700 people, while another one in Marion drew 1,200 spectators.
“It just keeps growing. I think people appreciate what I do; I make sure the show is professional. It’s a family atmosphere in the way we make it,” said Gerber. “It’s not this big old barbaric thing anymore, at least the way I do it. It’s more entertaining and it’s something else to do on a Saturday night.”
Copyright © 1999-2008 cnhi, inc.