Martial Artists Dennis and Karen Tracy
Still Going Strong After 34 Years of Teaching

By Hugh Bowden

ELLSWORTH — For 34 years, Dennis and Karen Tracy have taught thousands of students — young and not so young — the skills of karate, judo and ju-jitsu.

Many of those students have come and gone, but others have seen their children, grandchildren and even great-grandchildren continue at one of the eight schools now operated by Tracy’s Institute of Self-Defense in Downeast Maine.

Dennis and Karen Tracy of Ellsworth look over the citizens’ award proclamation issued by the 122nd Maine Legislature in recognition of their four decades of training and teaching martial arts. The Tracys have provided training in ketsugo — a combination of karate, ju-jitsu and judo — to thousands of students since opening their first studio in 1971.   Dennis Tracy and daughter Kristy in 1977.  Karen Tracy presents a skills demonstration in Blue Hill in 1986. For Dennis and Karen Tracy and their children, Eric and Kristy, martial arts competition has been a lifelong family affair. Kristy’s trophy, won in 1981, is nearly as big as she is. staff photo by hugh bowden

For Dennis and Karen, who both hold 10th degree black belts after almost four decades in the martial arts, the teaching pace has slowed a little from the five or six nights a week they put in for years.

“But we still work at it,” said Dennis.

For 20 years, they’ve taught a Wednesday night class in Bar Harbor, and there’s a weekly Thursday night session at their own dojo, located downstairs in their comfortable home on the Bangor Road.

And one Sunday a month, as many as 75 students turn out for a black belt class.

Dennis is currently the executive director and Karen is the secretary-treasurer of the Maine Ketsugo and Karate Association, which includes more than 20 dojos (schools) in Maine and Canada.

Tracy’s Institute has schools in Ellsworth, Bar Harbor, Belfast, Blue Hill, Deer Isle, Bucksport, Southwest Harbor and Bangor.

The couple was honored recently with a citizenship award proclamation from the 122nd Maine Legislature, presented by Senator Dennis Damon (D-Hancock County).

The Tracys both grew up in Maine, Dennis in Franklin and Karen in Gardiner, and both earned their teaching degrees from Gorham State College.

Dennis got his exposure to martial arts by watching a group of practitioners during breaks while playing college basketball at Gorham.

“It was kind of interesting to me,” he said. “So when the season was over, I joined them. Then I decided I didn’t want to play basketball anymore. That was more fun.”

Karen and Dennis dated while in college and she also had observed the martial arts at Gorham, but wasn’t impressed.

“It was kind of a guy thing. It was all macho — kicking and punching,” she said. “That didn’t interest me at all.”

After graduation, Dennis moved to Connecticut and began training five nights a week, while Karen went off to New Hampshire and her first teaching job.

But a year later, the couple were married and Karen joined her husband in Connecticut.

“He was gone five nights a week to karate and there I was, a newlywed, sitting in the apartment thinking, ‘What am I going to do.?’” she said.

So she decided to go to classes with Dennis.

“It was an all-male school but I went down and they let me join,” she said. “I was the first woman in the school. I figured that was the only way I was going to spend the evening with him.”

Three years later, they moved back to Ellsworth and opened their first martial arts studio at the old YMCA on Bridge Hill.

They soon moved to space in what is now Rooster Brothers, remaining there until 1976 when they relocated to their present dojo.

Both combined teaching school and karate instruction for years until their business developed to the point where they could retire from teaching.

For Dennis, the contrast between teaching high school history and martial arts is striking.

“People who come here want to come,” he said. “They’re paying to come, they’re taking time to come, and a lot of them are driving 30 to 50 miles to come. They’re there because they want to be.”

The Tracys teach a style of martial arts called ketsugo, which combines karate, ju jitsu and judo.

“It’s a street-oriented self-defense,” said Dennis.

For many years, Dennis and Karen competed in tournaments all over New England and New York, both rising to top levels.

Karen was ranked as the number three blackbelt woman fighter in New England in 1984-85 by Karate Kung-Fu Illustrated magazine.

In later years, son Eric and daughter Kristy both earned their black belts. In 1994-95, Eric was ranked number two and Kristy number three in New England.

The Tracys started their first children’s classes in 1976.

“We were the first ones in this area to have dojo schools,” said Dennis. “But back then, it was all males, 18-30. I didn’t want any kids around and I didn’t particularly care if women came, to tell you the truth.

“But then we realized that there are a lot of other people here and we’re not even giving them an opportunity. It just kind of evolved. Now today sometimes the schools are 70 percent kids — anywhere from three years old and up — and about 80 percent of the Tracys’ students are families.

“The kids will start, then the mother will start and before you know it, a lot of times the whole family is involved,” said Dennis.

They continue to be selective about their students, and those that are deemed unsuitable or pose problems don’t stay around long.

“We don’t take everybody who comes in here,” said Dennis. “We tell people we’ll take them by the month. Some of them have been here 34 years but others have been here one month.”

To Dennis and Karen, teaching martial arts is about more than self-defense or competition.

“Our philosophy is that we’re not training followers,” said Dennis. “If you’re a follower, you’re in the wrong place.”

There’s special fulfillment in seeing a child or an adult develop confidence and self-esteem as they progress in the martial arts, said Karen.

“We have kids who have been pushed around in school,” she said. “Then we get reports back from the parents and teachers that there’s been a tremendous change in the child since they started working out. They are more confident, they carry themselves differently, their grades come up. It develops the whole child.

“It’s a good feeling to have reports like that come back,” she said.

Over the years, approximately 400 of the Tracys’ students have attained black belts, which require a minimum of five years of training and testing.

In terms of age, their oldest student is

79-year-old Lawrence Matthews of Brooklin, who has been with them for 22 years.

In terms of longevity, the award goes to 75-year-old Charlie Bishop of Bucksport, who has been with the Tracys from the start.

But there are many others who are still training with them after 10, 20 and even 30 years.

What generates such longevity when 90 percent of martial arts schools fail in their first year?

“I think a lot of it is personality,” said Dennis, “how people view you. We’re friends with many of our students, but we treat them all the same.”

Whatever their secret of success may be, the Tracys aren’t about to call it a day anytime soon.