Five-year-old Ashlyn Tuton is off to a great start in Karate.
Seven months after beginning her training under the direction of Sensei Bill Powers, Ashlyn has received her Orange Belt. She received her Yellow Belt at the three-month mark in her training.
“Ashlyn fulfilled all of the adult requirements by herself and is moving on to her Purple Belt,” said Powers, who owns Nick Cerio’s Kenpo Karate on Broadway in Everett. “She picks up new material very quickly.”
Ashlyn takes two private classes a week from Powers. “She also practices often and works with her father [Ryan], who was one of my students when he was a child,” said Powers. “He took lessons for four years and advanced to the sixth level [Green Belt].”
Powers has been impressed by Ashlyn’s ability to learn new self-defense techniques and memorize new information.
“Ashlyn has an awesome memory and she has a lot of support from her family,” said Powers.
To advance from the Yellow to Orange Belt level, Powers said that Ashlyn had to learn self-defensive technique, karta (forms), and karta combinations (which is a series of moves).
Ryan Tuton, a 2004 graduate of Everett High School, is proud of his daughter Ashlyn’s accomplishments. “I was good at Karate but not as good as Ashlyn is,” said Tuton. “I’m proud of her. She practices a lot. Sensei Bill Powers is a wonderful teacher and a great person. That’s why I wanted my daughter to take Karate lessons at his school. Kids learn discipline and how to listen through Karate. The actual fighting is one of the last things at her age that I’m concerned with. Learning to practice and learning to absorb the information – those are the important things. ”
Ashlyn, who stands 4 feet tall and weighs approximately 45 pounds, is entering first grade in the Everett school system. She also enjoys baseball and plays T-Ball.
“I like Karate because you get to learn new stuff,” said Ashlyn. “I like my Karate teacher because he teaches very good and he’s very nice to me. At first I didn’t want to do Karate because I thought it was fighting and I don’t like to fight. But it’s been a lot of fun and my parents and my little sister Averey support me.”