As a kid growing up in the ”˜80s, Chuck Giangreco found his life”™s work while glued to the television. He was there, transfixed, when the martial arts craze swept America on a wave of exotic kung fu movies in which actions spoke louder and did even more damage than badly dubbed words.
There were plenty of acrobatic pretenders and high-minded warriors with lethally multitasking feet and hands, but nobody did it like Bruce Lee.
“I loved the whole idea of it,” the 36-year-old Giangreco said on a recent weeknight at the Westchester Martial Arts Academy, the Eastchester business he owns with his 37- year-old wife, Kara. “Seeing Bruce Lee was the coolest thing ever.”
“In 1984, when ”˜The Karate Kid”™ hit, that was the big thing.” Nearly three decades later, “The children”™s programs are very, very big in the industry as a whole,” Giangreco said. “Since ”˜The Karate Kid,”™ that”™s been the trend.”
Attentive to marketing and branding, Chuck and Kara Giangreco have refined that trend at their academy, giving it “a private-school feel” where kids get an education and small yet valued awards for their individual achievements. In recent years the entrepreneurs have added fitness kickboxing ”“ “the final piece of our fitness puzzle,” Chuck Giangreco said – and executive classes in mixed martial arts.
The executive classes offer training in a both cerebral and physically demanding mix of Bruce Lee”™s Jeet Kune Do, weapons-wielding Filipino combat and Thai-style boxing. The night students have included a hedge fund CFO, senior oil company executive, cardiologist, attorney, investment banker, university IT teacher, stock analyst, graphics designer and James Beard award-winning chef. They are joined by a cadre of Filipino high school students “who want to come in and get some of their own culture,” Giangreco said. Get it,and be prepared to dish it out.
While practicing and observing a medley of killing and maiming moves, students strategize, guided and quizzed by Giangreco. Having subdued and immobilized an obliging pupil in slow-motion sequence, he then employs the gentler Socratic Method in his lessons on the mat.
Back at work after a night with Giangreco, “You”™ll actually be sharper,” he said in a cramped office off the training floor. “This kind of problem-solving process, you”™ll be able to bring to work with you. They”™re bringing intellectual skill sets from their training into their jobs.”
