Spring Grove Flying Dragons Martial arts plays well on gridiron

It’s fourth and one with only seconds to play and the issue in doubt. The resolution of that issue depends on which team wants it more – which 11 players will draw on all their skills and knowledge for one last push to victory. Wouldn’t it help if one of the teams had an edge, something to put them over the top?

Christian Scroggs, a lineman at Marian Central Catholic High School in Woodstock, may have that edge – a little something extra that gives him an advantage over the other guy in the trenches – martial arts.

Scroggs has earned a black belt at Spring Grove Flying Dragons under the tutelage of Master Bonnie Thiel. Master Thiel teaches Kyuki-Do, Hapki-Do, Jujitsu and other programs at her dojang on Route 12 in Spring Grove. She says that martial arts have a lot to offer athletes in other sports.

“It teaches them balance,” she said. “It teaches them to use both sides of their bodies.”

Scroggs agrees that his martial-arts training has helped him on the gridiron. He said that, as a lineman, hand and foot position and control are essential.

“Sometimes, not even consciously, I’ll do middle blocks (a martial arts move) to get the other guy’s hands off of me,” he said.

Scroggs added that many of the moves he’s learned under Head Coach Ed Brucker and the Hurricanes staff are the same moves he’s learned in Master Thiel’s dojang, except that he’s learned them differently.

“The difference is not having to think about it,” Scroggs said.

Brucker said he believes the discipline learned in martial arts serves players well when they transfer those skills to the football field.

“You develop every part of your body,” Brucker said. “I think the flexibility and agility would be good.”

In terms of balance and agility, Brucker said they have a ‘dots drill’ where players move their feet rapidly between five spots on the floor and in different patterns of movement. He said the drill shows where balanced body control makes a difference.

“We have guys who can do it good on their right foot but, when they go to their left foot, they’re falling down like they’re drunk,” he said.

Brucker said martial arts may also help a player come out of his down stance more explosively.

He said that, for a while, football players were training in ballet as a way to improve their balance, flexibility and agility. Martial arts offer the same benefits and more power.

As Master Thiel’s husband, Ron, put it, martial arts helps athletes increase their power and speed. And, Master Thiel said there is a mental component to martial arts that is beneficial from athletics to academics to life.

“Martial arts improves your focus and concentration,” she said. “It teaches you to use both your body and your mind together.”