I started martial arts in 1985 because my father believed it would give me something I didn't yet know I needed. What followed was four decades of transformation — not just physical, but in every corner of my life.
I started martial arts in 1985 because my father believed it would give me something I didn't yet know I needed. I was a quiet kid — not exactly shy, but reserved. I didn't raise my hand in class. I didn't speak up when I should have. I went through the motions of childhood without a lot of conviction.
My father saw something in martial arts that I couldn't see yet. He signed us both up together, and we trained side by side. That detail matters more to me now than it did then. He wasn't just dropping me off at a class — he was showing me what it looked like to commit to something, to show up even when you didn't feel like it, to bow in and leave everything else at the door.
The first year was humbling. I was not naturally gifted. My kicks were stiff, my timing was off, and I watched other students progress faster than me. There were nights I drove home frustrated, wondering if I was cut out for this. But my father kept showing up, and so I kept showing up.
What changed wasn't my talent. What changed was my relationship with discomfort. I started to understand that the struggle wasn't a sign I was failing — it was the training itself. Every time I couldn't land a technique, I was being given an opportunity to try again. That reframe changed everything.
By the end of my first year, I had earned my Yellow Belt. It wasn't a dramatic moment. But I remember standing in the dojo after the test, looking at that belt in my hands, and feeling something I hadn't felt before: the specific pride that comes from earning something through effort, not talent.
I earned my Black Belt in 1989 — four years after I started. By then, I was a different person. Not just more skilled on the mat, but more present everywhere else. I was speaking up in situations where I used to stay quiet. I was setting goals and following through. I was walking into rooms differently.
People sometimes ask me what the Black Belt test was like. The honest answer is that the test was the least important part. The real test was every class I showed up to when I didn't want to. Every morning I got up early to train. Every time I failed a technique and chose to try again instead of giving up. The formal test was just the ceremony at the end of a long, quiet battle with myself.
I founded Evolution Martial Arts in 1994 in Toms River, New Jersey. I was twenty-something years old with a Black Belt, a dream, and not much else. The early years were lean. There were months where I wasn't sure we'd make it. But I had learned something from martial arts that carried me through: consistency beats intensity every time. I didn't need a breakthrough. I needed to keep showing up.
Over the years, the school grew. My wife Donna joined me on the mat — she went on to become a 2019 Team USA Bronze Medalist and finished 4th in the World at the World Top Ten Championships. We built a team. We built a community. We watched hundreds of children and adults walk through our doors uncertain of themselves and walk out carrying something they didn't have before.
I was inducted into the Black Belt Hall of Fame in 2016. In 2025, I earned my 7th Degree Black Belt through the United States Black Cat Kenpo Karate Federation. I also serve on the USBCKKF Board of Directors, which gives me the opportunity to shape the future of martial arts education at a national level.
Four decades in, here is what I know: martial arts is not about fighting. It never was. It is about building a person — one class at a time, one belt at a time, one hard moment at a time.
The shy kid who walked into a dojo in 1985 because his father believed in something he couldn't yet see for himself — that kid became a 7th Degree Black Belt, a husband, a father, a coach, and the founder of a school that has changed thousands of lives.
If you are reading this and wondering whether martial arts is right for you or your child, I want you to know something: the answer is almost certainly yes. Not because of what you'll learn to do with your hands and feet. But because of who you'll become in the process.
Come train with us. We'll show you what's possible.
— Master Greg Hussey 7th Degree Black Belt · Founder, Evolution Martial Arts