Breaking Boards and Data Tables: A Loyola Professor’s Double Life

By day, he’s a Loyola statistics professor. By night, he’s a martial arts instructor.

Bret Longman has lectured for Loyola’s Department of Mathematics and Statistics since 2005. Longman has also owned and operated Longman Martial Arts since 2006, located at 4455 N. Milwaukee Ave., approximately 7.8 miles from The Lake Shore Campus. 

Despite seeming incompatible, many parallels run between martial arts and biostatistics, according to Longman.

“I’m really good at teaching processes,” Longman said. “So whether it’s a process of a hypothesis test in statistics or the process of a proper reverse side kick in taekwondo, both of those have a process from beginning to end. And if you get the whole thing right, it really locks into place, and it really works well.”

To accommodate both professions, Longman works as a biostatistics professor in the mornings and as a martial arts instructor in the afternoons and evenings. He said time management is the most difficult part of juggling both jobs.

Prior to both careers, Longman worked a corporate job for the credit bureau TransUnion for 11 years. It was then when he started learning martial arts.

“It just kind of became part of me,” Longman said. “You might call it my religion, in a way. And I said to myself, ‘I want to share this with other people.’ So I started the business.”

At the school, Longman — “Instructor Bret” to students — offers courses in taekwondo, hapkido and Muay Thai boxing. Longman has black belts in both taekwondo and hapkido. Muay Thai doesn’t use the belt system.

Taekwondo is a Korean traditional martial art involving dynamic, active movements of the fists and feet, according to USA Taekwondo. Hapkido is also a Korean martial art, but it’s characterized as unarmed fighting with kicks, joint locks and hand strikes, according to the Korea Hapkido Federation.

Muay Thai is a hand-to-hand combat sport utilizing practitioners’ fists, elbows, shins and knees, according to the International Federation of Muaythai Associations.

Classes at Longman Martial Arts are divided by age groups — Little Tigers, Juniors and Adults. Three- to six-year-olds make up the Little Tigers, six- to 14-year-olds compose the Juniors and the Adults stretch to the years beyond. The Little Tigers’ and Juniors’ classes are further broken down by belts — white to blue and brown to black. 

Vanda Esme, one of Longman’s adult martial arts students and second-degree black belt candidate in taekwondo, said parents think Longman’s a “well-read, intelligent, good teacher.” She said she expects his skills translate well into the academic classroom.

“​​He is stern, he is disciplined, but he’s also respectful,” Esme said. “He expects a lot out of his students, but he gives as much as he expects — that’s apparent.”

When the school first began, acquiring students was slow, according to Longman.

Around six months after opening, Longman said many parents came from a local school, Our Lady of Victory, which has since closed. Longman said he sold every parent on enrolling their child and immediately knew his school’s fate was secure.

“That meeting was a big deal,” Longman said. “But to gain that confidence was not easy. I left my corporate job — I left the safety of the corporate world for this.”

However, despite his initial nerves, Longman said his rising martial arts career has brought higher confidence and self-esteem.

“Martial arts taught me to say, ‘We’ll figure it out,’ because there’s an old saying, ‘There’s always a counter,’” Longmand said. “In other words, no matter what somebody does to you, there’s always something you can do back to them. No matter how terrible it seems, there’s always a counter. It’s true in martial arts, and it’s true in life.”

Abby Fruzyna, a fourth-year forensic science major who’s taken Longman for two biostatistics classes, said she appreciates Longman’s heavily detailed, process-oriented style of teaching.

“He explains everything on the whiteboard and talks you through pretty much every step, tells you exactly how everything should be done and how to execute a question or a problem correctly,” Fruzyna said. “It’s not just word vomit on the board.”

Longman said his love for teaching is what’s kept him running in both professions.

Occasionally, Longman said he has martial arts students who sign up with the goal of combatting a bully. 

Longman said one third-grade student confronted her bully with a front kick to the stomach and a snap kick to the groin. He said she didn’t get into any trouble, and the bully stopped picking on her.

“I’m always proud when the kids defend themselves,” Longman said.

With the martial arts lessons come teachings of morality, though, as Longman said he’s careful to advise students to tell the truth and accept consequences if they’re caught fighting outside of practice.

“We’re always very specific with the kids — you only use this on the bad guy,” Longman said. “You don’t do this to your little brother, you don’t do this to your mom or your dad or your teacher. You do this to the bad guy. And the bad guy can take on many forms, especially bullies at school.”

Yet, self-defense isn’t only for kids with bullies. Longman also offers martial arts seminars to interested Loyola students. 

Last year, the Loyola Womxn’s Ultimate Frisbee Club reached out to Longman to schedule a martial arts team bonding exercise.

On Feb. 25, in an unassuming Mundelein classroom, the team practiced kicks, punches and how to defend themselves against attacks. Longman brought boards and two high school-aged martial arts students to help teach. 

“I think one of my favorite parts was when we got to all kick the boards, and everyone was so surprised that they managed to break it,” Co-Captain Ellie Cloe said. “Board pieces would fly everywhere.”

Longman said the most fulfilling part of instructing martial arts is seeing students begin to understand the material and gain the confidence to continue learning.

“I teach the kids this isn’t about fighting,” Longman said. “It’s about defending yourself, and it’s about becoming a better you.”

Interested martial arts students can call 773-545-2141 to schedule a free trial class. More information is available on Longman Martial Arts’ Instagram and Facebook pages.