<p>Jon Belcher instructs Kenpo Karate on the Long Beach (Wash.) Peninsula, and in Astoria.</p>

Not many years ago, there was only a single martial arts instructor in the Columbia-Pacific region. Today, there are dojos from Long Beach to Seaside. The family can learn kickboxing together, or you can train for a cage fighting career.

Each instructor, regardless of style, explains the increased interest in martial arts in much the same way: Martial arts relieve stress, burn calories, improve health and teach self-discipline.

As Tai Chi instructor David Rauch puts it, “You learn to move more freely physically and mentally. You get to know yourself better.”

Jon Belcher has been teaching in the area longer than anyone. His classes, for adults and children as young as 5, are held at the Long Beach Grange, where he teaches Kenpo Karate, which combines hard and soft movements.

Belcher was drawn to Kenpo because it seemed to him to be the most complete of the martial arts.

There are four aspects to what Belcher teaches. The basic drill includes punches, kicks, blocks and stance movements, and is good cardio exercise. Second, the self-defense techniques are “scientifically thought-out pre-planned responses” to any attack. The third, Kata, is the “art” element of Kenpo Karate, a sort of choreography, and the fourth, “freestyle” another word for sparring is the sport aspect.

Sensei Padme Grace opened Pacific Integrated Martial Arts, which she calls a “family fitness center,” four months ago in Ilwaco, Wash., and is moving to larger quarters in Long Beach, Wash. Grace has black belts in Shudokan Karate-do and Chon-Tu Kwan Hapkido, and is a certified personal trainer and life coach. Her dojo offers adult classes in Karate, Combat Hapkido, weapons, kickboxing, yoga and classes for children 4 and older.

Children, Grace says, especially benefit from learning self-control and confidence. The classes for little kids end with them shouting out their student creed:

“I am special. I am smart. I am strong. I am on a quest to be my best.”

“Martial arts is about family and community,” Grace says.

Mathew Crim agrees. He teaches the Wing Chun Kyun system of Kung Fu at the Astoria Arts and Movement Center. “It’s not the tough guy approach any more,” he says. “I stress theory and principles founded on economies of motion and linear, logical movements.”

Rauch, the Tai Chi instructor at the AAMC, goes so far as to end his classes with tea and an opportunity to talk about more than martial arts. “People think of Tai Chi as primarily for balance and health, to improve the immune system and to deal with stress, but it’s also about mindfulness,” he says. “Once you understand that, you realize that without it you were driving with your brakes on.” Next summer, Rauch plans to offer a children’s Tai Chi form, designed for shorter attention spans. “I want to bring Tai Chi to younger people,” Rauch says. “It has values for every age.”

Jiu-Jitsu evolved among the samurai as a method for defeating an armed opponent with no weapon, or only a short weapon. Founded in 2008, the Seaside Jiu-Jitsu Academy, owned by brothers Nate and Zach Adamson, offers lessons in Jiu-Jitsu at all levels, including classes for youth ages 3 to 15. They seek to provide an “environment that promotes traditional martial arts and their accompanying values, based on positive attitude, discipline, family, honor, loyalty, respect and samurai spirit,” says Zach Adamson. The academy’s competition team competes in grappling tournaments, submission wrestling and mixed martial arts (MMA).

Relatively new, professional MMA is one of the reasons for the increased popularity of martial arts. One gym that has followed the trend is Nick Scharin’s OBJJ Full Fitness Center in Astoria. Far and away the largest martial arts facility, OBJJ includes weight training, fitness classes, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA classes for youth ages 6 to 10.

Two other gyms offer MMA. In Warrenton, Mike Mather at Pro Fitness teaches martial arts in a style all his own. Mather has studied martial arts for more than three decades. “I got my first Black Belts by the age of 16 in both Tae Kwon Do and Shotokan Karate,” he says. “I’ve trained in a variety of martial arts since then.”

Mather says he doesn’t teach one style, then another; he doesn’t blend all the styles. He teaches every move and trick he knows. This means that he is in demand by those who want to learn cage-fighting. “I make a short version for them. They’re fighting in a cage, with rules. They get about 5 percent of what I know; my other students get 100 percent.”

In July 2011, Ira Evansen opened Valhalla Cross Fitness School of Combat in Seaside, a gym dedicated to MMA. There’s equipment for a workout, and yoga and cardio smash classes, but the heart of Valhalla is MMA, combining boxing, kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu.

“I love to teach,” says Evansen, who is Cross-Fit certified. “What I teach is science-based, and includes Olympic lifting, gymnastics and cardio.” There are classes for kids and “a team atmosphere with individual training. It’s the most fun you can have in a fitness workout.”