“I want to hear your ki’ai!  Louder! Turn into your punch!” bellows a dark-haired, 5-foot-5-inch man.

He strolls around the dojo, his eyes observant, his face serious and intimidating. He bursts out another command, his voice crisp and laced with a European accent. The students of Focus Martial Arts punch their imaginary opponents with vigor.

The coach, Ciprian Socaciu, nods with approval. He allows the panting students to take a water break. A little boy with sandy colored hair grins with excitement, eager to continue the lesson.

The coach, seeing this, remembers himself as an ambitious child, surrounded by sports he enjoyed taking part in.

As the coach of the karate team, his first sport was surprisingly not the one he teaches.

Growing up in Romania, he played basketball and soccer with his younger brother.

He did not take up karate until he was 10 years old. The reason he joined was not personal desire either, but simply a suggestion his father made and the hope of learning a crane-kick like Bruce Lee or Jackie Chan, as any 10-year-old boy naively hopes to do.

He did not even enjoy punching across the wooden floors of school gymnasiums at first. His own coach was not a black belt yet and still fairly new to the practice.

He constantly switched dojos and sometimes felt like quitting because he became so bored.

Yet Socaciu remained, and finally warmed up to the sport when he competed in his first tournament.

He was 18-years-old.

When his friend left for college, he left coaching to Socaciu. With his sudden new occupation, he found he enjoyed teaching as well as competing. As passion for the sport spread throughout his being, he was motivated to devote himself to karate.

For years he trained himself and others to be athletes. He traveled to compete constantly, from Germany to Turkey to Sweden. He taught friends and newcomers alike.

It was years before he finally settled in Illinois at Focus Martial Arts. It took him longer still to earn the position as head coach.

“It was a long transition, about eight or nine years. I helped here and there and when I saw results in the team I coached it became a motivation of mine to help,” said Socaciu.

Now, surveying the dojo, he grins and shouts his final directions.