Pooler Karate offering free classes for teens in July, August

POOLER, Ga. (WTOC) - Keeping your kids busy during the summer months isn’t always easy, and certainly not always cheap.

But that’s something Pooler Karate is aiming to change with a new program that’s completely free.

“You look at a lot of teens and they don’t have much to do in the summertime,” says Pooler Karate Krav Maga Instructor Joseph Bouchard.

Pooler Karate, owner and instructor Carson Fortner wants to change that.

“Let’s just do something no strings attached. Any teens can come in and train for free.”

Free training, three days a week for all of July and August.

“I thought it’d be a good time for them to take out some aggression, some anger maybe,” jokes Fortner.

Not only giving these teens a safe way to release that energy, but hopefully teaching them something along the way.

“An opportunity like this, not only does it keep them occupied, it also teaches them a lifelong skill set you really can’t go wrong with,” Bouchard says.

Those skills, reaching far beyond learning how to defend yourself.

“It really helped me both physically and mentally,” says student Miguel Lopez.

“From last year, I didn’t have much friends last year, to this year, it has just skyrocketed. My whole life has just been ten times better,” said the 16-year-old.

So, yeah, you’ll learn some pretty incredible ways on how to take someone down, but perhaps more importantly you’ll learn how to get back up.

“There’s going to be times when you want to quit you want to give up. Krav Maga, the mindset is we want to push you past that point. So next time you get to a point in your life where you feel like you’re at a stopping point, you got to quit, or give up, we can teach you how to push past that,” Fortner says.

Again, the Krav Maga training is free to all teens from July through August, no experience or equipment is needed.

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