Potters racking up martial arts trophies

Nora Potter, 9, won the South Atlanta Open martial arts tournament with a broken toe in September. Her brother James, 6, got six first-place trophies and a second-place trophy at the Diamond Nationals in Minneapolis in October.

The Potter children have won several tournaments at both the local and national levels after competing for only a year. James and Nora are the children of two Trussville martial arts teachers: Will and Heather Potter, owners of Birmingham Martial Arts, which recently expanded to Vestavia Hills.

James and Nora have been practicing martial arts, particularly Tang Soo Do — a Korean form of karate — since they were barely toddlers, Heather said.

They’ve continually found success when competing in tournaments. Nora won as a grand champion in her past tournament and won first-place medals at a tournament in June. James has competed in two North American Sport Karate Association tournaments and won five out of 10 ProMac Karate tournaments.

James was adopted from South Korea when he was 2, Heather said. Soon after, Heather and Will realized that James wasn’t like other kids his age. “He could do pushups and stick his foot up in the air and hold it. We were like, ‘That’s not normal,’” Heather said. He started gymnastics when he was 3 and did gymnastics off and on before starting private lessons, she said.

“He could do cartwheels when he was 4, he started doing back handsprings when he was 5, he can do a roundoff back spring now and is working on his roundhouse tuck,” Heather said. They both realized that he was more advanced physically than other kids his age.

James watched YouTube videos of professional athlete Tyler Weaver performing creative/xtreme forms — martial arts presentations performed with music — and was fascinated by him.

“James would watch it and go, ‘I want to be Tyler Weaver,’” Heather said.

Nora’s older sister, Amelia, started martial arts training when she was 3. Will and Heather didn’t plan on letting Nora start until she was 3, but she wanted to participate in classes with her sister. “Nora threw a hissy fit every single class her sister went to because she wanted to do class, too,” Heather said.

Heather said she finally gave in and let Nora start when she was 2 and a half, but couldn’t test for other belts until she was older.

Heather said it was harder for Nora to compete at the regional level. Nora went from winning at local tournaments to placing third and fourth at the national level, she said.

“She came into this super regional level as an advanced belt so a lot of the other kids she was competing with had been competing at that level since they were [James’] age,” Heather said.

Nora started sword training with Jewelliana Ramos Ortiz, a martial artist and stunt actress starring in the upcoming “Power Rangers: Dark Unity” film, so she would be on the same level as the other kids.

Despite Nora and James competing in tournaments, Heather said, they are only two of three students out of 400 at Birmingham Martial Arts who compete.

“We just had a meeting for potential people who want to start competing like them, and we’re looking at a team of maybe just 10, so it’s a very small subset of our population and not a huge part of what our school is focused on,” Heather said.

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