FEATURED: Kalispell's king of kicks is 14-year-old taekwondo champion

Close your eyes.

Actually, on second thought, keep reading.

But imagine.

Imagine a taekwondo fighter. And not just any taekwondo fighter, either — imagine the best one in the country. Imagine him training, diligently, on his craft. He’s with a man he calls grand master, sculpting his body and mind. He’s punching, kicking, ducking, blocking, twisting and spinning. The performance is a ferocious ballet.

He was a black belt at a young age, not long after he first discovered the sport. He’s traveling around the country now, deftly vanquishing opponents taller, stronger, faster and more athletic than he is, though he’s no slouch himself.

He’s got to be violent, right? He has to be angry. He’s undoubtedly dangerous. After all, this is hand-to-hand combat. He’s fearless, too.

In the abstract he becomes almost mythic. He’s strong, tough and disciplined. He may seem stoic, but it’s a veneer masking a brutal desire to do battle. In the mind’s eye, he’s a warrior.

Now open your eyes.

The boy who stands in front of you is unquestionably that — a boy. He’s friendly and polite. Pale-skinned with a close-cropped head of red hair, he’s in the uncomfortable throes of puberty. He smiles and speaks calmly, if a bit timidly, but his voice never wavers.

He does not look intimidating. Not in the least. He does not look dangerous. He looks like a 14-year-old high school freshman because, well, that’s precisely what he is. He’s not striking fear, at least on first sight, this boy who looks more Ron Howard than Steven Seagal.

He, sitting calmly in a chair, is Adam Bartlett. And he’s the latest National Champion to come out of Big Sky Martial Arts, the 20-year-old gym in downtown Kalispell that’s quietly cranking out some of the best taekwondo fighters in America.

­­­­­­———

Bartlett was born in Seattle and moved with his parents, Richard and Rita, to Kalispell when he was four. Rita’s sister, Diana Frampton, lived in Whitefish and was the one who first brought her nephew to the sport.

“She thought that it would be good for Adam and her daughter to start (taekwondo) and I was like ‘I don’t want to do that, I work full time’,” Rita said, laughing.

Adam, of course, did start at Big Sky, being introduced to the sport as a four-year-old in the Kinder Kicks Program. He’s been there ever since.

“You never know where those kids are going to go because they’re just little kids,” John Paul Noyes, Grand Master at Big Sky Martial Arts and one of Bartlett’s two coaches, said.

“This is my 40th year doing taekwondo, and after 40 years I can’t predict when they come to Kinder Kicks. Sometimes the kids that are just bouncing off the walls, they turn out to be amazing. The ones who are very astute and academic, they turn out to be amazing. And sometimes, they don’t last a year and then they’re gone,” he continued.

Bartlett was never the one bouncing off the walls.

“(He was) quiet. Quiet and studious,” Noyes said of Bartlett as a youngster. “He’s an observer, he just watches everything, but unlike some kids he also logs it. He watches it, puts it in some sort of binary code where he can get yes/no’s out of it and does something with it.”

What he’s done with it is rather remarkable.

Bartlett romped undefeated through the field at the United States AAU National Championships in the cadet division (age 12-14) last July, then earned a spot on the U.S. National Team in his weight class (125.8-134.5 pounds) with another near-flawless performance at the U.S. Team Trials in Florida in September.

“Some of the players didn’t even come to team trials that were eligible because they just knew,” Noyes said. “They knew Adam was going to be there so why waste the money and trip.

“When it got to team trials, Adam was top of the food chain for his division.”

Bartlett is just the third Big Sky Martial Arts student to qualify for the national team, although he’s the second in as many years following Taylor Reed in 2014.

So what was Bartlett’s reaction to his historic wins?

“You might get a smile out of him,” Noyes quipped.

“I think Adam’s always focused on the next goal,” he continued. “He won at team trials, what’s next? You’re on the U.S. National Team now. OK, what’s next? The German Open is next. OK, let’s focus on that.

“I think that’s where he’s at. If it qualifies him for the next thing, good.”

Bartlett will travel to Hamburg, Germany in April to compete in the aforementioned German Open, an event that could earn him points towards becoming an Olympian, a goal shared by both Noyes and Bartlett although they acknowledge the uphill climb he still faces.

“The top six guys in any weight division can qualify to go to the Olympics,” Noyes said. “That’s in the entire world, and a lot of countries are very good at taekwondo.

“Not that the Olympics are undoable, because they are doable, it’s just very, very difficult.”

———

Bartlett’s success still doesn’t answer the obvious question. What is a soft-spoken Montana teenager doing fighting internationally in an ancient discipline that’s literally thousands of years old?

“I don’t know,” Bartlett said. “I’ve just always loved competition. It’s just fun to come and work out, use my energy from the day, just kind of wind down. And I just love the competition part of it.

“I do enjoy the kicking and punching,” he admitted. “I have had a lot of success other places but I like taekwondo because it’s a lot more strategy than just beating the other person up.”

Noyes describes the discipline as “kinetic chess” and said Adam’s preternatural calmness and thoughtfulness have helped him in a sport that is as much about discipline and mental fortitude as it is raw physical ability.

His wife Debbie Noyes, Bartlett’s other coach, agrees.

“Most people that come through are very emotional,” she said. “(Adam) takes it for what it is and at a young age that’s pretty impressive.

“He has focused and taken the emotion out of it and just says ‘how can I and what do I need to do’. That’s where he’s really taken off faster than most people.”

“He realizes it’s a chess game,” John Paul continued. “And he trains that way, too. Adam never complains he just does the work.

“Other kids, they might look for a little water break or they stub a toe and so they use that as a two minute mental reprieve, whereas Adam is always there.”

But where does that diligence come from?

“It’s his parents,” John Paul said. “It’s how he was raised. He’s a very calm person. Very smart and then, obviously, he’s very athletic and he likes to fight.

“Not a school ground fight, he’s just not that type of kid, but he likes, I think, that the strategy changes in the moment. You can’t hand the ball off to someone else. It’s all you. You don’t get to rely on anybody else.”

Bartlett, for his part, praised his coaches.

“Honestly, (it comes) from Grand Master Noyes,” he said. “In the middle of the fight it’s more instinctive. It’s the drills we do in here that prepare us for it. When you go to the fight you don’t need a specific mindset.

“I’ve never been the most athletic guy or the fastest, the strongest, but I’m able to out-think them,” Bartlett continued. “I’m just able to pick apart their game and score points that way.”

———

At their home in Kalispell, Bartlett, his parents, and his younger brother, Louis, are getting ready for a 2016 that will be filled with challenges both in and around taekwondo.

The nature of the travel required in taekwondo, and the relative isolation of Kalispell, carries a massive financial burden that is borne primarily by the competitors and their families. The Bartlett’s, with an assist from Big Sky Martial Arts, have fundraised money in the past to partially finance Adam’s cross-country trips.

In the first half of 2016 alone, Adam will train with the national team in Dallas, compete in events in Portland and Seattle, and then travel overseas for the first time in his life for the German Open. According to Adam’s mom, Rita, the total tab will run about $5,500.

“We’re going to try to pound the ground to get (the money),” Rita said. “It’s going to be an expensive year so we’re going to really need to get some letters out and see if we can get some help.”

“It’s been a bit of a learning process but we’ve been fortunate that we’ve been able to provide for him on that level to a large degree,” Richard, Adam’s father, said. “And we’ve been lucky because there have been some generous (corporate and private) sponsors to support this.”

Admittedly “ignorant” to the sport, even today, Richard and Rita’s support for their son’s endeavor has paid off as they’ve watched their oldest child flourish not only in taekwondo.

“He’s always had that competitive spirit and hates to be behind anybody,” Richard said. “He’s had that intrinsic drive his whole life. It’s hard to be objective as a parent, but when he took his first gold medal at the U.S. Open when he was 10, we thought ‘wow, he’s OK’. It started sinking in our heads that he’s got some potential.”

“I’d say confidence is a good word,” Richard continued. “(Taekwondo has) helped him face challenges and just believe in himself. He’s started wrestling (at Glacier High School) and he’s already becoming competitive in that.

“I’d say it with school, too. He puts in his best effort, he’s a straight-A student and doesn’t put off getting his work done.”

———

As Adam continues to get older and bigger — he’s grown considerably and continues to grow through his pubescence — he’ll move up in competition, graduating to a new age group once he turns 15 and fighting at a higher weight as his own body fills out.

Whatever the future holds —a trip to the 2020 Olympics, other national and international events or something else entirely — the lessons Grand Master Noyes hopes he has imparted from his experience at Big Sky Martial Arts are most important of all.

“Sport is temporary,” John Paul said. “People are temporary, too, but sport is very specific to a short phase in your life.

“If we haven’t built a good person, then we have done that person a total disservice.”

Adam Bartlett, straight-A student, champion martial artist, studious, thoughtful, controlled and devoted young man is a lot of things. But what he is most of all is plain enough to see.

“You have to be a good person,” John Paul said. “That’s first and foremost.”