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Kick-starting self-confidence
Johnston's Academy of Kuntao Jiu-Jitsu and its chief instructor, Marc Bochner, offer a lot more than survival techniques.

01:00 AM EDT on Thursday, June 23, 2005
By SETH McLAUGHLIN
Journal Staff Writer

JOHNSTON —Marc Bochner has a simple and realistic tip on how to stay out of trouble.

If someone is aggravated because he thinks you knocked his beer over in a bar, try to diffuse the situation by “offering to buy them another beer.”

“You're always trying to verbally diffuse the situation,” he said. “You want to catch it before it starts.”

In a real fight someone isn't going to jump into the air and kick someone in the chops.

“You want to strike where it counts, the throat, neck and eyes,” he said.

In a street fight there aren't any winners.

“If you get into a fight you've already lost—you get beat up or they get beat up,” he said.

Bochner's mentality has grown out of his love of sharing martial arts with people 7 and older as head instructor at the Academy of Kuntao Jiu-Jitsu, which recently moved from Greenville Avenue into a larger space at 2 Morgan Mill just off Atwood Avenue.

More than half of his life, Bochner has been involved with martial arts.

It started when he was 8 and began studying karate—learning basic kicks, stances and punches.

At 13, he earned a black belt in Jiu Jitsu and started teaching children's classes, and by the time he was 16, he was one of the head teachers for the adult curriculum.

In late 1999, when Bochner's mentor, Richard Petronelli, earned the title of Sokeship, or creator of a system, the art of Kuntao Jiu Jitsu was born.

The system is a combination of techniques including kicks, effective body movement, joint manipulations, eye gouges, wrist grabs, strikes, hair pulls and psychology.

“You already have that survival mechanism in you, and this helps you learn how to control that,” he said.

The system, which is adapted for children, helps people gain confidence and break down an attacker no matter what his size, Bochner said.

“This is a unique style and we are the only one here to teach it,” Bochner said.

Bochner is down to earth and easy to speak with. His openness shows in the alternative methods of teaching he has developed to adapt the Kuntao Jiu Jitsu system to the needs of people with physical and learning disabilities.

One former student, Brian Baccaire, rolled into Bochner's classes about five years ago. A spina bifida sufferer, he uses a wheelchair but was eager to learn martial arts.

Baccaire, now 34, helps Bochner with several classes.

“This is the only mixed martial art that has adapted itself to my needs,” Baccaire said.

“You have to be able to address the needs of everyone,” Bochner said.

Bochner, now studying kinesiology at URI, said its all part of a broader attempt to modernize mixed martial arts.

“You're not out in front of a temple with nunchucks,” he said.

Martial arts can include child-abduction-prevention and rape-prevention seminars.

Bochner can draw people who might think martial arts isn't for them because they aren't in good shape.

“You don't have to be in great shape to do it,” he said. “Everyone should be able to do it.”

URI students Jason Carvalho, 19, of Warwick, and Ryan Southerland, 20, of New Jersey, started learning from Bochner during classes he taught at the university. They liked the sessions so much that they made weekly treks to the academy in Johnston.

“He's really friendly to everyone,” Carvalho said. “I've always been interested in marital arts stuff, and it's just a great atmosphere here. It's a nice way to learn a heavy topic.”

Bochner said, “you just have to have the desire to learn. On top of everything you're here to have fun.”