Woman's passion turns into championship

Terry Wojcik didn't set out to win a gold medal swinging a sword. Then again, she didn't set out to be a couch potato either.

Like a lot of things in life, her slide into inactivity happened as slowly as her journey to a U.S. Haidong Gumdo Championship in October.

"It was one of those gradual things," she said of becoming sedentary. "We'd always been backpackers, hikers. I walked everywhere when we lived downtown. We moved out here and you can't really walk places … Instead of hiking every weekend, we went every other. Then it was one or two trips. Then one summer I discovered we hadn't done any major back pack trips."

She missed being active, and she learned that without consistent movement her body began to betray her.

Soreness crept into her back and she started to feel her age. She looked around and everyone her age seemed to be sliding into the same sedentary trap.

"They talked about their surgeries and medications," she said. "I didn't want that."

So she joined Gold's Gym and agreed to pay a trainer to work out with her three times a week.

"Without somebody to report to, I know I don't do so well," she said.

One night on her way into the Murray gym, she noticed the Lotus Blossom school of Martial Arts.

"I walked in here and saw them working with swords," she said. "I said, 'I want to do that.' "

She jokes about Master Marshall Parnell's response, but he said he has learned to view aging differently as he's studied Haidong Gumdo.

"In Korean culture, age is appreciated," he said.

A former Marine, Parnell said there was a time when he wouldn't have jumped at the chance to train a 65-year-old woman.

"After 10 years of studying this I see people differently," he said. "I have a tremendous belief in the capabilities of the human soul. Probably what changed it for me was training in Korea. There was an 80-year-old couple that every morning, came down and did their forms. Before that, I probably would have been unreceptive to it."

He said training in Korea changed his view of marshall arts, as well as what people are capable of doing at a certain age.

"Marshall Arts is not about dominating other people," Parnell said. "It's about cultivating oneself. And I was thrilled to be a part of Terry's journey."

Wojcik's journey took her to some unexpected places.

The U.S. Open Haidong Gumdo Championships in Phoenix being one of them. Just 18 months after starting classes with Parnell, she not only tested for — and earned — her black belt, she earned a gold medal in the 40-and-over division.

To earn that medal she defeated both men and women, most of whom were 20 years her junior.

"The judges went crazy when she did her rolls," he said. "They loved her."