SCOTTSVILLE – Though he’s employed mainly as a physical therapist, Kurtis Carter also teaches the art of self-defense to students of all ages.

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening, Carter teaches Hapkido classes at the Core of Scottsville, showing his students how to break free of holds, avoid an opponent’s attacks and even how to use swords.

Carter has been fascinated with martial arts for most of his life. Growing up in an abusive household, Carter was originally interested in learning martial arts so he could defend himself.

When Carter was 11, a friend who was taking karate introduced him to martial arts by showing him what he’d been taught in his classes, Carter said.

“He started showing me some of the stuff he was learning, and from then on it became my passion at 11 years old,” he said.

At 49, Carter’s enthusiasm for martial arts still drives him, he said, adding that it’s more than a means of self-defense to him.

“I got into it to defend myself and my family, but it just became an expression of who I was,” he said.

On Tuesday, three adults and six children, some as young as 5 years old, gathered in a room where an American flag and a South Korean flag – a tribute to the country Hapkido comes from – were prominently displayed on the wall farthest from the door.

On the blue crashmats that covered the floor, Carter and his students went through a range of stretches before learning the proper techniques for falling and rolling that would allow them to evade an opponent if knocked to the ground.

Hapkido isn’t the first fighting style Carter learned. Before discovering Hapkido in his 20s, he took classes in karate, kung fu, jiujitsu and Philipino stick fighting.

Hapkido caught his eye because it involved a wide variety of techniques including joint locks, striking pressure points and using weapons, Carter said, adding that it’s rare to find a martial art that focuses on such a wide range of self-defense methods.

“It combined everything I thought should be in a martial art and confined them into a specific art,” he said. “The three main weapons of our art are swordsmanship, spear and archery.”

Though he will sometimes meet with older students to practice archery, the only weapon his class trained with Tuesday was the mokkum, a wooden practice sword.

When determining who he allows to use a mokkum in his classes, Carter said he looks more at maturity than age.

James Cary, 7, was the only child using a mokkum Tuesday, taking calculated strikes at a punching bag much as adults twice his size were doing.

His father, Shawn Cary, said his son’s been taking classes with Carter for about a year and said it is a good alternative to competitive sports. “It’s just more disciplined,” he said. “It’s structured, but it’s not competitive.”

Shawn Cary, who briefly took karate classes as a child, thought James would like learning martial arts because of his fondness for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

“He was always kicking around with the Ninja Turtles so we thought he might as well try martial arts,” he said.

James said he loves taking Carter’s classes and enjoys learning more about Hapkido.

“I just want to learn more and be better,” he said.

Michael Moore, an adult student who often acts as Carter’s assistant during classes, said the Hapkido classes have been remarkably restorative for him.

After a surgery several years ago when his left knee was in constant pain, a doctor recommended that he take some kind of exercise class, Moore said.

After receiving this advice, he talked to Carter, who is one of his neighbors, about the possibility of taking his class, Moore said.

Carter’s background as a physical therapist helped because Carter was able to keep Moore from overexerting himself, Moore said.

“He was able to watch and tell me how much to push it,” he said. “At the beginning, he was really getting on me, telling me I was doing too much.”

Moore said the class exercises have mostly restored his full range of motion in his left knee and cut down on the pain in his leg.

“They reduced that pill down from six painkillers down to one,” he said. “Actually they just reduced that to half of one.”

– Follow Daily News reporter Jackson French on Twitter @Jackson_French or visit bgdaily news.com.