A Family Affair

The Zymali family (from left), Angel, Tom, John and Amy, practices during a class at Young Masters Martial Arts in downtown Woodstock. (Photo by Travis Haughton)

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

Tom Zymali knows when his martial arts students need to put a little more power into their kicks and punches.

“One more time,” he tells them as he spins around to demonstrate the next move. “Look toward me.”

He guides. He encourages. He inspires. Those who know Zymali say he’s a good teacher.

He’s also blind.

“People look at it like, ‘How do you do it?’” he says. “Nobody told me I couldn’t.”

Zymali began learning martial arts nearly a decade ago with his wife and two children. The entire family now teaches at Young Masters Martial Arts in Woodstock.

Along with the self-defense skills it provides, the family has experienced and witnessed the power martial arts has to build confidence, discipline and self-esteem in children and adults.

“We show patience,” Zymali tells his students. “We show control. With that punch comes responsibility.”

The Zymalis sought out martial arts as an activity for their home-schooled children. Zymali thought it would help his son overcome his shyness at a young age. 

Martial arts also served another purpose for the family. Zymali’s mother, Maryanna, was murdered in 2001 after someone broke into her Palatine home.

“That left such a big hole in our lives,” Zymali says. “We wanted something to kind of get our minds off of it.”

Since Maryanna’s death, every member of the family has earned black belts, making sure to move up the ranks together.

When Zymali teaches, his 16-year-old son, John, serves as his eyes.

“Looking good, guys, keep it up,” John says as his father guides the class.

Zymali’s wife, Amy, and the couple’s 9-year-old daughter, Angel, teach classes for “Little Ninjas,” those ages 3 to 6. The entire family still takes classes together and is working toward a second black belt.

“That’s the greatest part. I get to do this with my son and my wife and my daughter,” Zymali says. “To be able to share this . . . at an age when most teenagers are off doing their thing, we’re here.”

Many who first meet Zymali or watch him teach a class don’t know he’s blind.

“He does anything anyone else does,” says Robert Knutt, who co-owns the studio. “He’s a pretty amazing guy.”

Knutt has been doing martial arts for about 40 years. It’s something you can do at your own pace, he says.

The program has helped children with attention deficit disorder, Asperger’s syndrome and others with special needs, he says.

“They’re learning confidence,” he says. “That will help them in their everyday life at home. They’ll have better discipline in school, in doing their homework, in just themselves. We don’t push anybody beyond what they can handle.”

Phil Stout sought out martial arts for his two boys, Troy, 8, and Lance, 11, as a way to keep them active. A break-in about two years ago at the family’s rural home between Harvard and Woodstock also caused some anxiety in the boys, Stout says. The family wasn’t home when the break-in happened, but items such as a gaming system were taken.

“Unlike team sports, there isn’t the pressure if you don’t do well,” Stout says of martial arts. “They don’t have to feel the pressure of letting a team down. They can excel at their own pace.”

Like many, Stout didn’t even notice Zymali was blind when he first started going to the studio. And that’s fine with Zymali, who says teaching is easy to do because he enjoys it so much.

Does he see himself as an inspiration?

“If it helps people, that’s wonderful,” he says. “I don’t walk out there trying to be focused on that. If God can use it that way, great. If somebody’s life is difficult and they see me doing something and that inspires them, that would be wonderful.”