Like Bruce Hayden of Lakewood, who describes a sparring session, above, many people are learning martial arts to exercise their muscles, to calm their tensions, to feel more secure on the streets, and to explore their spiritual natures.

Based on various Eastern beliefs from China, Japan, Korea, Thailand and other countries, the martial arts encompass a myriad of systems such as karate, tae kwon do, aikido, jujitsu and tai chi ch-uan.

Melanie Murphy, owner and director of Way of the Crane dojo in Boulder, likens the martial arts to a big basket of fruits. "If you crave a banana, an orange won't do," she says. "One style may be better for someone’s build, mental attitude and schedule." Murphy, who holds a fourth-degree black belt from the national Karate Association, also teaches a self-defense program called StreetWize. Karate, her specialty, is just one system of martial arts. She emphasizes the blending of power and speed and focuses on two distinct karate styles: shudokan, which is designed to generate power from smaller movements, and shito-ryu, which enhances speed. Typical karate moves include kicks, punches and sweeps.

Murphy has strong opinions about the martial arts and is a passionate believer that karate "becomes part of who you are, not just something that you do. To really embody an art form takes a long increment of time. This is part of who you become." She objects to the rapid attainment of black belts and says that her black belt doesn't make her better than anyone else, it just means that she has accumulated more information.

Because she believes that there is a "real difference between a sparring match in a tournament and a street fight," she shows her students how to combine the "technical beauty and perfection of the classroom" and how to "cross the line over into what really works on the street." She finds that there’s a "mindset gained from practicing" that serves us well in a life that is often too focused on instant gratification.

"We live in an anti-mastery society. In America, we have such a quick-fix mentality that doing something in the slowness of time to develop a skill is almost frowned upon. Let’s slow down education and practice diligently just for the sake of the practice itself, instead of having to be rewarded with a trinket or trophy every time we do something."

She is particularly concerned about rushing kids through martial arts programs.

"I consider instructors who are promoting people in a matter of weeks a real malignancy in our industry. They are diluting and polluting the information, insinuating that 7- and 8-year-olds can become black belts. She considers it critical that parents become better educated about the martial arts so that they can better guide their children.

"I don't sell belts," says Murphy. "They earn them." It took her nine years to become a black belt and she says it takes her students between eight and 10 years to achieve a black belt. She has been teaching karate for 16 years.

Murphy has noticed an increase in people interested in the martial arts, particularly women and those 30 years and older. "The women are truly desiring a multi-purposed fitness regimen. They are so tired of aerobics, find weight lifting very dull and kickboxing too difficult for their bodies. They want more than to look good in a bathing suit."

She has also learned that people who come to her dojo do so because they want to make a connection, as opposed to the anonymity of a health club, in which you can come in, do your workout routine alone and leave.

"We need more experiences of community and soulful interaction," she claims. "Even an island needs the water." Martial arts provides community, as well as fitness and spirituality.

Bruce Hayden, who runs the Hsin Tao Tai Chi Center in Lakewood, has switched from the hard martial art of tae kwondo to tai chi. He finds universal commonalities that run through all martial arts, what he terms "the Confucian ideal of the whole path of self-cultivation." Through the martial arts, people are able to cultivate their spirit and their virtue, according to Hayden.

While martial arts emphasize self-defense, Hayden says, "It's not a survival thing any more. The best martial artists aren't bullet-proof." He tells of kung fu masters who believed they could withstand the gun-firing English during wartime. The kung fu masters were, of course, mowed down.

Also trained in tae kwondo, karate and other martial arts, Hayden gravitated toward tai chi because of its internal focus and meditative aspect.

"There is no jumping, spinning and throwing head-high kicks," in tai chi, he explains. "I’m just not wanting to get thrown to the mat when I’m 60, although I’d like to be supple and agile enough to do that some. As we hit about 40, people begin to embrace tai chi," he contends. "As we lose the illusion of eternal youth, things aren't quite as smooth as they were and tai chi is such a beneficial practice. It's a gentle, low-impact-to-no-impact workout. Everything gets twisted and turned and opened up. Even if you haven't maintained physical prowess, tai chi is a way of preserving physical vitality into old age."

Hayden says tai chi is "the antithesis of getting on a Stairmaster and reading a book or watching TV during which your mind is not on what you’re doing." In tai chi, you "engage and connect body and mind." While self-defense may not be the primary goal of tai chi training, Hayden claims that tai chi "is like steel wrapped in silk in terms of the power in the self-defense form."

How the power is generated is one way of distinguishing between martial arts, explains Hayden. "In karate, for instance, the movements are long and more athletic. You generate your power with muscles. Tai chi and aikido are more refined, to the extent that you don't meet force with force. You capture the momentum that’s coming at you and deflect it via a better position. You want to catch it and turn it, rather than overcome it. You don't try to neutralize it so much as redirect it."

Jane Faigao, who with her partner Bataan Faigao, runs the Rocky Mountain Tai Chi Ch-uan school in Boulder, has been a student of tai chi for 30 years. The two also co-chair the Traditional Eastern Arts Department at Naropa Institute and have been teaching there for 23 years. Naropa students in this department may pick a major with an emphasis in aikido, tai chi or yoga.

Tai chi is considered one of the soft martial arts (as opposed to karate, tae kwondo and other systems that are called hard martial arts). The soft martial arts, such as tai chi and aikido, are so named because of the belief that "the softest thing in the world can overcome the hardest." Faigao comments that this is a "paradox to what we usually think because strength is what is typically associated with martial arts. Tai chi is based on relaxation, yielding and non-aggression. Tai chi is building an internal reserve of strength by relaxing, then opening the joints of your body through which you accumulate a lifelong energy called chi. When you get tension and stress out of the body and mind and when you throw open your joints, your natural chi can flow through your body more optimally."

Faigao says that tai chi is "first and foremost a path toward a healthier life and the martial arts aspect is almost like a byproduct." She says it is "a healing art before it's a martial art." The first year of tai chi at the Faigaos’ school is spent doing a solo form consisting of 37 movements. They are slow, continuous and beautiful, she notes, and a new one is learned each week. Then the student begins to string them together into a slow, continuous form. Next, the student begins to work with another person on the movements and they "push hands." The Faigaos also teach a sword form of tai chi which demonstrates "how you relate with all objects in the world."

She views tai chi as "a philosophy of relaxing, opening to my world and others in a non-aggressor, non-competitive approach. In a society where there’s a lot of speed and competition right now, it lets you move through that speed at a slower rate so that you are less likely to get aggressive no matter what’s going on around you."

In Littleton, Bing Chang is the head instructor for Champion Martial Arts Academy that offers a variety of martial art forms, including Brazilian jujitsu and Thai kickboxing. Brazilian jujitsu emphasizes fighting ground work techniques and submission techniques, he says, and is absolutely the "undefeated style in terms of street fighting and tournaments."

The various techniques "make your opponents give up, but you don't have to hurt them. In hand-to-hand combat, you can maneuver the opponents into a situation in which they know they’re going to have to give up. But it doesn't have to be bloody."

Thai kickboxing is a form of self-defense concentrating on hand and leg techniques, Chang says. "You use all parts of the body for self-defense including punching, kicking, elbowing, kneeing, kick low and kick high."

The objective, however, isn't to be a one-person war zone. The kickboxing training spills over into other aspects of life, allowing martial artists to gain "discipline and confidence so they can carry this attitude of courage to school, business or whatever."

At Champion Martial Arts Academy, 12 instructors provide students with a variety of classes. Students who are interested in martial arts competitions can learn from champions.

Boulder Aikikai is an aikido dojo co-managed by Ginger Ikeda and Hiroshi Ikeda, who is the chief instructor. Aikido is based on a variety of older forms such as jujitsu, kendo and judo, although it remains a relatively new martial art, explains Ginger Ikeda. Aikido "uses a method of receiving, grounding and then blending with an opposing force and redirects that energy either back into itself or sends if off into another trajectory," says Ikeda. Aikido students practice in pairs in a cooperative arrangement in which the more advanced pupil teaches and aids the person with lesser abilities. If the students’ abilities are equally matched, "they will come straight on and give full-force attacks and push themselves to explore other levels of it."

Aikido techniques use punches, kicks, weapons (such as a jo, which is a long, wooden stick, a bokken, which is a wood sword, and a bamboo-type sword) as well as hands. Practice is done on mats. While aikido experts prefer conflict resolution that is non-violent, "It’s not a completely non-violent art because you have a choice where you can inflict damage, but we try to use a peaceful resolution," says Ikeda. "You gain centeredness. As you become experienced with different people, you learn how to deal with whatever their trips are. One is frequently humiliated on the mats. It’s a great equalizer as we have people who are from all walks of life—doctors, lifeguards, potters—and all sizes, and they’re all on the mats together," says Ikeda.

Vu Tran is the chief instructor and owner of Tran’s Martial Arts and Fitness Center in Boulder. He trains students in tae kwon do, which is a martial art originating in Korea known for its powerful kicks. His is truly a family affair. His brothers and sisters also run martial arts schools in Fort Collins, Loveland and Longmont. Trans has a family clientele and begins training children as young as 3.

"I always wanted to work with children so this really gives me that opportunity," says Tran. All of their classes are geared for families so that parents and their kids can work together if they so desire. Tran is impressed with the abilities of even the very young children. "If you treat kids like an adult, they’ll act like an adult. It's amazing what 4-year-olds can remember when you expect them to." He says some of today’s kids lack discipline and respect for others so their parents bring them to Tran for help with those issues.

Tran has noticed a major shift in the martial arts during his years of involvement. According to him, the emphasis used to be "more punch-out, knock-down programs. Now in the ’90s, we’re teaching it in a peaceful way. Also, in the ’80s, adult males were the typical students. Now, it's 60 percent females. And there are tons of kids."

"It's a given that everyone who comes here will learn how to defend themselves. They’ll also have fun, stay fit and learn important family values," says Tran.

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