Mathiam Mbow with Charlotte and they are working on her side kick technique.
When he was a teenager growing up in Senegal, West Africa, Mathiam Mbow and his mother were mugged while shopping. At that moment, he realized he must learn to protect himself and those he loved, so he took lessons in karate and kung fu — both popular disciplines in Senegal. But it wasn’t until he tried the Korean martial art of taekwondo, characterized by high and fast kicks (versus the punching or spinning of other disciplines) that he found his calling.
“I just wanted to do something that if you came at me, I could knock you out,” Mbow says. “But taekwondo is about more than that. It’s about discovering who you are and focusing on what matters in your life, improving as a person and helping those around you improve. I took that message to heart.”
When Mbow arrived in Madison from Senegal at age 25 with a scholarship to study English at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he realized he could share his passion for taekwondo by teaching it to others.
Now, almost a quarter-century later, 47-year-old Mbow owns and operates two Silver Lining Taekwon-do schools in the Madison area. Both offer classes for youths and adults in traditional taekwondo (as endorsed by the International Taekwon-do Federation) and a more Americanized version of the discipline. Everybody’s first class is free.
He opened a 7,000-square-foot studio in Middleton at 3170 Deming Way in 2010, and late last year opened a second location in a 5,140-square-foot space formerly occupied by Family Christian Stores at 1746 Eagan Road near East Towne.
“I expanded because over the years people have told me how our taekwondo programs have helped with academic performance, anxiety and stress relief — especially in kids with ADHD,” says Mbow, a fifth-degree black belt. “Our programs are not necessarily all about physical elements but more about mental focus. We are finding out that the need for something like this is great on the east side.”
As part of Mbow’s outreach in Madison and surrounding communities, he takes his programs into public schools to teach taekwondo in physical education classes and “break the stereotype that martial arts is violent.”
Yet Mbow also recognizes that taekwondo and other forms of martial arts can be used for self-defense just as much as self-improvement. That’s why Silver Lining offers free women’s self-defense classes at least twice a year and is involved with charity events for Madison’s Rape Crisis Center and Domestic Abuse Intervention Services.
“To me, it’s doesn’t matter how big or how small or how old or how young you are,” Mbow says. “Taekwondo is a way of life, not just an activity you do.”
Silver Lining Taekwon-do
170 Deming Way1746 Eagan Road, 608-836-5660
