Dix Hills girl goes for gold in martial arts
BY JULIE JANOVSKY | Special to Newsday
8:35 PM EST, February 2, 2008
She's only 10, but Samantha Smith of Dix Hills is already an accomplished martial artist.
Her kinetic back flips and explosive kicks, strikes and spins have been dominating the North American Sport Karate Association junior circuit since she started competing nationally four years ago.
She's a six-time NASKA world champion, competing in 12 tournaments last year (in seven divisions at each tournament) and landing 43 first-place finishes. Now, the precocious junior black belt, who goes by the nickname Sammy, will be heading to St. Petersburg, Russia, in April, representing the U.S. junior team in the Martial Arts Olympics.
"I have forms \[a series of self-defense moves\] with karate and flips. I really like the flips," Sammy said of her self-defense moves on a recent Friday night between bites of pasta in Plainview, where she was having dinner with her father, Steven, and her mother, Sheryl. The fifth-grader -- who has a tutor and travels once a month to compete -- said she favors "extreme martial arts," a freestyle martial arts form that mixes elements of gymnastics and dance with traditional karate. One of her favorite moves is a flip inversion, where she twists and flips backward.
Inspirational performer "She's a crowd pleaser," her mother said. "Adults come up to her at competitions, telling her how much she inspires them." Sheryl Smith enrolled her daughter in traditional Kenpo-style karate lessons at Busto's Karate and Fitness in Plainview when she was 4 years old.
Sammy says her fascination with martial arts began when she saw a television commercial featuring a young martial artist doing flips and karate. She told her parents she wanted to do that, too. "At the time, she [had] just started soccer and was riding ponies," Sammy's father said. "I figured she would try it [karate], and it will last a couple of months." But karate wasn't a passing fad for Sammy, who is an only child. "She never wanted a Barbie doll," her father said. "She was more into sports."
So much so that when she was 5, Sammy -- a petite, blue- eyed blonde who wears her hair in a ponytail -- pleaded with her parents and instructor Shihan John Busto for her first martial arts weapon, a foam-covered pair of nunchakus (two wooden sticks attached to a metal chain).
"She kept asking to learn more," said Busto, who is a sixth-degree black belt. "She would be mesmerized watching the \[higher-ranked\] kids. She wanted to copy them. She would always come to class early and stay late asking questions." When she was 7, Sammy expanded her traditional training and began studying extreme martial arts with instructors Matt Emig on Long Island and Daniel Sterling in North Attleboro, Mass.
Busto said it's been fascinating watching Sammy's transformation as a martial artist over the years. "A minute before she goes in the ring or onstage, she's just a 10-year-old girl. But once she's in the ring, there's this intensity about her," Busto said. (See her competition videos on samanthasmith.org.)
A big break When she was 6, Sammy made her national competition debut as a junior orange belt. A year later, her confidence and skill caught the attention of martial artist/promoter Charlie Lee of Herndon, Va., who gave Sammy her first break by thrusting her into the spotlight in a solo demonstration at the World Series of Martial Arts in Reston, Va. "I was surprised by her energy and the potential she had to be a top competitor," Lee said.
Sammy's intense training regimen -- she practices karate five days a week and gymnastics twice a week -- appears to have paid off. Her domination of NASKA's junior black-belt circuit, whose competitors are generally younger than 16, in recent years drew the attention of Martial Arts Olympics scouts. "We were looking around the country for the top U.S. martial artists. She won every major martial arts competition in juniors on the East Coast," said Tony Abel, U.S. director for the Martial Arts Olympics.
Organizers of the three-day event, which starts April 18, expect to have 6,200 martial artists from more than 35 countries compete. Abel said Sammy will be the youngest member of the U.S. team.
Sammy's supporters say her chances to win an international medal this spring are good. "I know when a martial artist is special, even at such a young age," Lee said. "Samantha Smith is destined to be great."
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