Ethan Wachsman is nine years old, and there’s a pretty good chance he can beat you up.
The Harbor Hills Elementary School student began practicing karate when he was four years old and won a silver medal at the first national tournament he ever participated in, at age six.
“I started him off that young because I felt he needed some discipline in his life and some focus in his life, and with that in mind we started him up in karate and it all escalated from there,” Ethan’s mother Jacqueline said.
Over time, Ethan earned many more medals, enough to fill a wall in his bedroom, Jacqueline said.
“He likes to build on his collection,” Wachsman said. “He likes looking up at all his accomplishments before he goes to sleep at night and getting to see all of the positive things he’s done in karate.”
After winning two gold medals in kumite sparring during last summer’s United States of America National Karate Federation national tournament in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Wachsman took home two gold medals for individual and team kumite at the 2013 USA Open in late March and a silver at the Junior International Cup that same weekend, in Las Vegas, Nev.
“We really travel just a few times a year,” Jacqueline Wachsman said. “From a financial standpoint you certainly have to be smart about the choices you make, so we carefully consider the tournaments we bring him to. We want them to be safe events, sanctioned events, and certainly the national tournaments are.”
Wachsman trains four to six times per week at Tokey Hill Martial Arts in Port Washington, under the tutelage of sensai Christina Muccini.
In addition to kumite, known as the combative sparring aspect of karate, Wachsman also practices kata, which tests one’s fighting technique.
“When we signed him up for karate, we weren’t necessarily concerned with the combat aspect of it, but of the discipline and focus he’d learn, in addition to developing his athletic skill set in case he wanted to try other sports,” Jacqueline Wachsman said. “We thought karate would help foster his physical development as well as his mental development.”
Once the school year ends, Wachsman will train nearly six times each week in preparation for this year’s USA Karate Nationals, in Greenville, S.C.
Following the national tournament, Jacqueline Wachsman said her son will take nearly four weeks off from training, to “be a kid again.”
“One of the best things about karate is it allows him to make friends all over the world,” Wachsman said. “He has friends from places like Botswana and Hawaii and Alaska. Not only does karate help in his physical development, but it also helps foster relationships he wouldn’t possibly have otherwise.”
