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Martial artwork

By JUSTIN HARMON/Staff

With 50 years on his body and a 2- year hiatus from martial arts competition, conventional wisdom says that Dane Harden was playing against a stacked deck by coming back to compete.
But the Abingdon resident took conventional wisdom, locked its wrist in a painful position and effortlessly shoved it to the ground, along with several other people in two recent state competitions in Maryland and Pennsylvania. The physician’s assistant took first place in his division in each of the competitions. Often, Harden was competing against people 30 years younger than himself.
“It was simply an amazing display of raw talent and power,” said one of the state tournament organizers and 8th Degree Black Belt and Karate Master Garry Holman in a press release. “It’s one thing to see a young man in the best shape of his life come out and execute a dynamic performance, but seeing such strength and intensity and perfect form in a man of Dane’s age is nothing short of extraordinary.”
Recently, Harden has also been inducted into the Karate World Hall of Fame and has given thought to opening a commercial martial arts school in Washington County.
But this is only a taste of the success and experience the 40-year practitioner has amassed over his lifetime.
According to Harden, the obsession with martial arts started in a gym in his hometown of Frostburg, Md. After seeing a demonstration of Aikido, a style that emphasizes joint locks and throws as well as redirecting the momentum of an attacker, Harden was hooked.
Although at first, he admits for the wrong reasons.
“In my scenario, I got into it almost specifically for vengeance,” he said.
Harden said that, when he was younger, he was jumped by two brothers and that was a big push to get him into training to fight. However, Harden said he quickly realized there were more important things than learning how to fight.
Harden said that, while vengeance and other negative spurs are not good reasons to want to practice a martial art, he said that the philosophy and exercises teach discipline, self-control and can sometimes even lead to enlightenment.
“It’s not a religion,” he said. “But it does have that type of religious overtones.”
After Harden got over his grudge, he went on to earn black belts in not Aikido, Ishin-Ryu Karate (a Japanese style of the traditional martial arts) and Tae Kwon Do, a more head-to-head style.
For several years, Harden said he competed in a number of competitions, consistently coming out on top or near enough. From, Harden built up a Tae Kwon Do program in Maryland and joined the armed forces bridges. However, after a few years of duty, Harden began to look at things a little differently.
“At that point, college didn’t look bad,” he said with a laugh.
In 1987, he retired from teaching martial arts and went on to graduate from the Johns Hopkins University’s Physician’s Assistant program. He also joined up with the Army National Guard shortly after graduation became a lieutenant colonel as a Senior Flight Surgeon.
Though Harden has been a practicing martial artist for 40 years, he said he’s only had to use his talent twice for true self-defense – once on deployment and once in a Sheetz while being confronted by a belligerent drunk.
“It was absolutely silly… I did a wrist throw and that pretty much solved the problem,” he said.
Even so, Harden said that he has used the tenets he’s learned from his martial arts training in nearly everything he does, from treating patients in an emergency room to dodging sniper fire abroad.
“It really helps with focus and fear,” he said.
While Harden has come back to the karate scene, he also acts as a physician’s assistant and is an active member of the 278th Armored Cavalry Regiment based in Knoxville, Tenn. He lives in Abingdon with his wife, Dr. Sherry Harden, and their son, Joshua. According to Harden, Joshua is quickly learning the martial arts from his father.
Justin Harmon can be reached at 628-7101 or