The activities might make you pause: "Boot to the head," "Save the Baby," and perhaps most frightening of all, the "Kung Fu Macarena Dance."

But Kung Fu Movie Fighting and Kung Fu Gymnastics classes at the Gleason Family YMCA are anything but scary.  In less than a month, the new session's classes have swelled to 50 students ranging in ages from 4 to 14 and consist of three levels of classes that meet twice a week.  New classes, including a kickboxing class for adults, are being added on both Wednesdays and Sundays to keep the average class size between eight and ten participants.

"The rule is you must have fun," said instructor John Correia as the class began celebrations for their Picture Day on Wednesday, March 13.  He then began acting out a skit with students that ended with a conga line accented by various martial-arts chops and kicks.

The classes combine Kung Fu, Karate, Jujitsu and gymnastics with a lot of dancing and role-playing mixed in.  It is important to have the correct form for your kick - and to make sure that it is in rhythm with the beat of such martial-arts soundtrack classics as "Eye of the Tiger" and "Kung-Fu Fighter."  And parents are not excepted from the requirements. In addition to the aforementioned Martial-arts Macarena, parents assist by swinging sticks and styrofoam noodles for students to avoid during drills and in the "Save the Baby" obstacle course...(the baby is really a teddy bear).

Through it all, Correia, a Carver native who has taught and studied martial arts internationally for 40 years before returning home in 2002, keeps the energy level high.  He chases some students and guides others through the obstacles, judges tournaments, and has the loudest "Hi-ya" of anybody in the room.