MIKE BAKER, 14, throws his brother Dave, 11. Dave started the encounter chest to chest with Mike, then was twisted over Mike’s hip and ended up on the floor.

Absolute silence reigns in the hot, still wrestling room.

No grunts or gasps escape; just hard breaths as 26 karate students start limbering up after a short kneeling meditation.

A BOW to the instructor in followed by a set of stretching and twistings for arms, legs, hands, feet and head. The barefooted students wear traditional sashed jackets or sweat suits as they pad across the springy mat-covered floor, practicing kicks, strikes and blocks.

Across the hall in the high school gym a basketball game sends cheers and whistles echoing along the walls. Passersby stand at the door gawking in, chomping on candy, chattering to each other about the strange exercise they see.

The men and boys and tow or three young women expel their breaths in a rush, giving strangled shouts, as they try to present hardened muscular mid-sections to imaginary opponents.

Teacher Amir Eskandary stalks from row to row, striking swiftly with the side of his hand against the stomach of first one student then another, probing for weaknesses.

Eskandary is married to the former Laura Witte, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. G. Witte of New Ulm.

The site for these Tuesday night lessons in the ancient Oriental system of unarmed combats is the New Ulm High School basement wrestling room. The night school classes started last October, then again in January.

WHAT MADE these students come out for this sport which uses practiced-toughened surfaces of the hand, foot, heel, forearms, knee and elbow in combat?

Darla Augustine, 18, and Julie Guhlke, 19, both work at a Sleepy Eye bank. They saw the class advertised in the paper and decided to sign up together.

“It’s different,” Ms. Guhlke said.

“We can use it if anybody tries to rob the bank,” Ms. Augustine laughed.

JOHN GRIEBEL, 27, of Searles, signed up “because I’ve always believed been interested in karate and always wanted to take it.”

A staff accountant in Mankato, Griebel has been pursing the course since October.

Paul Schuster, 28, of New Ulm, a photographer at Meyer Studio, said “It was for physical fitness mostly” that he signed up.

“It’s a sport that requires more of the mind than of muscle,” Schuster said.

STEVE WITTE 15, of New Ulm, started the class last October.

“I’m not that strong,” the 5′ 8″ youngster said. “I get pushed around in school. Now I feel I’m more physical strong. I never had muscle before like this. I feel I could really do something.”

The lesson includes a long talk by Eskandary explaining the Japanese words for different moves, then demonstrating them. Many of the budding experts carefully write down the details in notebooks for further study.

Eskandary, 25, a native of Iran, is a junior in business administration at Mankato State College. He teaches karate in night school in New Ulm and Rochester and also has a class in St. James for law enforcement personnel.

Karate was first systematized in 17th century Okinawa, probably people forbidden to carry weapons, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica. Eskandary learned it in Iran.

New Ulm Daily Journal

Feb. 27, 1975