25 in '25: Lorenzo Gibson’s life in motion is a lesson in discipline and patience

This is a love letter to Lorenzo Gibson. Or you could say it’s a fan letter from the people who know him as Master Gibson, the name his martial arts students call him.

“I've known about him for over five years, but I've known him for about two years,” said David Bey, whose two young sons have been taking Gibson’s martial arts class at Living Water Community Center for a few years. “It's one of the things that I break my neck to make sure that they're here. They don't miss class.”

Gibson is a pillar in the community, Bey said, because of how he leads his classes.

“I feel he's a blessing because, having boys and wanting them to get trained and having good character and integrity in arts is an art,” Bey said. “But also it's about having respect for yourself. The point of education at a young age is to build good character.”

Bey, who is an educator in Richmond Public Schools, said he also admires Gibson’s style of teaching. 

“When he's teaching he has a youthfulness," he said. "His teaching style is so organic. He's not over-the-top or anything. He's just like a father or a grandfather.”

Twelve-year-old Griffin Westlake, who’s been taking Master Gibson’s class for almost a year, said besides learning how to kick well, he’s also learned other things. 

“Discipline, some stretching techniques and meditation were all big things that we learned,” said Westlake, adding that he likes meditation because “it really helps calm my mind and I enjoy that.”

Fiona Schwall, 17, knows firsthand the style of Gibson’s teaching. She’s been a student of his for 12 years.

“He is a wonderful teacher. Not only is he good with kids, he's masterful about what he does and he's very good at instructing the adults as well,” she said. “He really knows what he's talking about. He's been doing this for his whole life. There's a certain heart and soul to it and also just a comprehensive knowledge behind everything.”

A man in motion

That heart and soul and comprehensive knowledge around martial arts started at a very young age, ever since he was a kid growing up in Church Hill’s Creighton Court. It was there that you’d find Gibson in constant motion. But you wouldn’t find him on the basketball courts or on the football fields.

“No, that's the thing. I was a nature boy. I loved the woods when I was a kid,” he said. “In those days, parents were like, ‘get out of the house as long as you're back home for dinner.’ I'm in the woods, catching crayfish, tad poles and all of that stuff. I was very physical.”

That physicality had him wrestling with friends, and jumping – really high. And though he wasn’t interested in those traditional sports, he did find a spark when he first learned about gymnastics and how a teacher’s support can go a long way to building self confidence. 

“In elementary school, there was this guy who started a gymnastic program. It was after school,” he said. “The teachers saw that, ‘whoa, this dude is talented.’ I was learning stuff really quick, front handspring, back handsprings. The teachers were giving me attention and it made me feel good about myself.”

However, because of a prank some kids pulled, Gibson hurt his back and his parents pulled him from the program. He wouldn’t rediscover gymnastics until years later when he attended Virginia Commonwealth University. 

But while in elementary school, Gibson also found another passion that he’d keep doing for the rest of his life, and it started because of a teacher’s comments. 

“Actually painting is my first love, because attention was given to me,” he said. “I remember doing a finger painting of a tree with apples in it. I'm in first grade and the teacher was amazed. She thought it was beyond my age, beyond my years. And so all the way through elementary school, junior high school, high school, my art teachers always gave me a lot of attention because they thought I was very talented.”

And throughout those years, the art teachers he encountered taught him discipline.

“I remember in middle school, our teacher Ms. Whiting made me draw the head of a horse over and over and over again,” Gibson said. “And then just the leg of a horse over and over and over again, different parts of the anatomy until I had the contour, the image of a horse in my mind. And now I can draw horses very realistically, just out of my mind.”

Before attending VCU, however, he discovered another form of movement — martial arts. This was right after attending both Armstrong and John Marshall high schools. Soon after graduation, Gibson got a job as a machinist at AMF.

“But all my other friends didn't have jobs waiting for them. We were all young teenagers just hanging out and stuff like that,” he said. “And I was getting tired of the hanging out scene.”

A random thought hooks him for life

That’s when he had an idea, one that would guide the rest of his life. 

“It just popped in my head. It was weird. I'm driving down Broad Street, out of the blue, I pull over, went into a phone booth. Found through the Yellow Pages something on karate. The very first thing I came across [was] Kim's School of Taekwondo on Broad Street,” Gibson said. “So I called them and they said, ‘Can you come in?’ So I went on in and talked to them.”

And that was it. 

“I took the first class. I was hooked.” he said. “To me, the physical training in martial arts and the philosophy was very much a part of it. I got my first degree in black belt in 1976.”

It was around this time, at the age of 19, Gibson also became a vegetarian – a practice that also guided his life in martial arts and one that he continues today as he approaches turning 71.

“Yeah, still a vegetarian,” he said. “Because I'm training physically, of course you want to eat right. And to me, vegetarianism was the diet. No sugar, no meat. I was fasting a lot. And fasting for mental reasons. Because when you're fasting and not eating, your thoughts turn inward. And you become more spiritually inclined. Because your thoughts turn inward and it's more of an inner exploration.”

That exploration also led him to read books on philosophy, which he said helped him with his martial arts training and with eventually becoming an instructor.

“Basically I'm a philosophical person," he said. "I've read hundreds of books on philosophy and stuff that's related to Zen Taoism. Once I read about an author I like, I have to know that author. I have to read everything they wrote. To have an understanding of that artist and what they're really talking about.”

Gibson’s journey of movement through martial arts eventually led him to apply to VCU, where he took painting courses and rediscovered gymnastics through an exhibition team. 

“Going to VCU opened me up to the world. Because I got a chance to see people of different nationalities and the culture of college,” Gibson said. 

It was on that gymnastics team that he also began working with the dance instructor Frances Wessels, who led a modern dance company and was part of the faculty at the University of Richmond and VCU. 

“I went over to one of the workshops they had and did some modern dance, and they noticed me,” he said, adding that he also attended another workshop put on by the Richmond Ballet “and they noticed my talent and offered me a scholarship.”

Gibson became part of the company and performed in all their major productions, with The Nutcracker being his favorite because it was so much fun.

He remembers one show, in which Russian ballet choreographer and dancer Mansur Kamaletdinov created a special scene for him.

“The Richmond Ballet hired him to create some scenes and I remember he choreographed the Arabian scene, the snake charmer, especially for me,” Gibson said, adding that pictures of him also appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch many times. 

His life in martial arts has seen him teach with long stints at Kim’s, as well as various locations for Dong’s Karate and even Midlothian Athletic Club, until landing at Living Water.

“I felt like I taught everybody in Richmond,” he said. “When I'm teaching, I'm teaching with my heart and soul. I put 100 percent into what I'm doing. I can't help it.”

Gibson said those early passions of movement and of painting are still going strong in him. It’s something he passed along to his two children and now grandchildren. 

“My daughter and my son are second-degree black belts. My ex-wife's a second-degree black belt,” he said. “It was mandatory that they did it. They didn't have a choice.”

Even though he’s been teaching for decades, Gibson has no desire to stop or slow down. 

“My attention right now is focused on just teaching martial arts and painting,” he said, adding that he shows his art regularly at the Crossroads Art Gallery. You can see his artwork here. “I'm devoted to teaching martial arts because I'm still very physical. I keep myself in shape. I still have my childlike enthusiasm for martial arts.”

And Gibson said he’s even more disciplined now than he was years ago. 

“In my later years, I'm disciplining myself even more now. I'm 71 and I'm not even close to finishing,” he said. “I still have all these ideals so I haven't slowed down physically yet, but I'm realistic. I think I'm eventually going to slow down, but that's still a long time coming.”