Reding Martial Arts is a mainstay of the North Texas martial arts scene. As the school approaches its 20th year of operation, we sat down to speak with head coach Mark Reding.
To Mark Reding, the upcoming 20th anniversary of his business is not a finish line. It is not a specific goal he set out to accomplish. Rather, the anniversary is a natural result of nurturing the business of doing what he loves. What Mark Reding loves, going all the way back to his youth, is martial arts.
“I can relate to people that know at an early age that know what they’re going to do, they’re infatuated with it. They get in there, they’re good at something, that’s all they want to do. That was kind of my situation.”
Mark’s father introduced him to martial arts as a teenager. He still remembers his first day of training. “I walked in, I knew at the end of that class, that was what I was going to do for the rest of my life. I have not stopped since that day.”
The ever growing roster of students at Reding Martial Arts can attest to that fact. Mark’s appetite to learn has been ravenous from day one. He and his friends would take road trips just to train at various martial arts schools.
“When I was 18 I got my first black belt, in Shorin Ryu karate,” Mark recalls. “I was venturing out already when I was a brown belt, started doing some Kenpo karate, some Gracie Jiu Jitsu, weapons stuff, Filipino martial arts, I was into it.”
The business is successful because of his unique perspective. The fateful decision to teach martial arts, and share his love of training came early. Reding’s motivation came not from money, but a pure desire to immerse himself in the arts he loved.
“I always wanted to do martial arts and teach it, I remember running flyers one summer.” He continues, “I ran all these flyers man, I put them everywhere, and no one called me, except this one old lady. She called me up and goes ‘my grandkids are flying in for the summer to stay with me, and I’d like to bring them to you to train them over the summer.’ I taught them out of my mom’s garage, and it was so hot in there! It was the middle of the summer, no AC, nothing. Three kids came over…and I remember that was my first official way to [teach] martial arts. I thought ‘I can do what I love to do, and to make money at it? That’s a bonus!’ Because I was going to do it either way, whether I made money or not.”
Mark’s passion for teaching and training is intense, and joyful. However, the journey to building his business was not always easy.
