Wednesday, September 3, 2014 11:04 PM EDT From the Bristol Press. Congratulations to Mr. and Mrs. DAmato. *Longtime business in Plymouth *Great friend and supporter of Plymouth Parks and Recreation *Mentor to countless lives... By SUSAN CORICA STAFF WRITER PLYMOUTH — It wasn’t so much a ribbon cutting as a ribbon chopping, as Andrew D’Amato sliced through the ceremonial streamer with a katana sword for the grand reopening of D’Amato Excel Martial Arts recently. The dojang, or studio, has a new home at 526 Main St. (Route 6), Terryville, in the former Jehovah’s Witness Hall. D’Amato said he had a dojang for 10 years at 141 Main St., Terryville. “Our old place was 1,500 square feet and this place is 7,000, so it’s a huge difference,” he said. “This is pretty awesome. It’s been a lot of work to get this place ready, and this is the first time anybody else has seen the inside.” He has about 100 students, who start as young as 4 with no upper age limit. Many of the students and their families turned out for the reopening, and D’Amato held his first demonstration class in the new dojang immediately afterward. D’Amato, who lives in Harwinton, said he started in martial arts at 7. He introduced one of his first teachers, Robert Gelinas, to his students. D’Amato noted that he still studies with Gelinas. One of D’Amato’s most enthusiastic students, Wanda Alvarez, said she has been studying with him for eight years. “I love this place. Martial arts changed my life,” she said. “I had diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol. I was overweight, then I started this. I lost 20 pounds, got my diabetes under control, and I would recommend it to anybody.” Alvarez, a Terryville resident who works in Bristol, said she started at age 36 and is now a black belt in tang soo do. “That’s the same martial arts they use in ‘The Karate Kid,’” she noted. “We’re involved with the New England circuit, where they have about 12 tournaments every year, and this whole team has always ranked number one,” she said. “You’re never too old to start,” she said. “We have lots of older folks in the class. They’re called LILMAs — that’s an acronym for Late In Life Martial Artists.” “My husband and my two sons, we’re all black belts now. It takes years, lots of discipline, lots of dedication, but he [D’Amato] makes it easy and fun,” she said. “We’ve become a big family.” For more information, call (860) 582-1950 or go to D’Amato Excel Martial Arts’ Facebook page. Susan Corica can be reached at (860) 584-0501, ext. 7259, or scorica@bristolpress.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 13:42:51 +0000
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