Rayvenn Voss, 11, drawn to mixed martial arts by curiosity

By BENJAMIN KIBBEY

The Western News

Raevynn Voss wants to understand how things work. From taking apart and putting back together her toys at the age of four, to learning — and even instructing — martial arts at the age of 11, curiosity is a recurring theme in her life.

Raevynn’s current teacher, ninth degree black belt Da Shifu Ross Purviance, said she is possibly the best student he has ever had, or even encountered since he began in martial arts 68 years ago.

Raevynn started at Purviance’s Black Dragon Combined Martial Arts near Libby about a year ago. She spent about four months attempting to learn martial arts previously, but did not get much direct instruction or opportunities to spar, she said.

Now, at 11 years old, she is already assisting Purvience in teaching younger children, he said.

Working with seven year old Vara Riddle on a drill deflecting an incoming strike, Raevynn tries to keep the younger student concentrating.

Purviance said the hardest part of working with children — instruction can start around six years old — is dealing with their high energy.

Riddle is giggling when Raevynn first starts going over the drill with her. Riddle responds to correction by accentuating her mistakes and falls.

Raevynn repeats the instructions, mostly with a straight face, and they start again. After a few more falls, Riddle begins to show she is picking up on the lesson.

“She likes to play around too, because she’s a kid too, you know,” Purviance said of Raevynn. “But she’s a good kid.”

Raevynn said often the satisfaction from a lesson is just getting the other student to listen, and admitted that there can also be enjoyment in making a difficult student fall.

Having Raevynn to help with the younger children is a help, Purviance said. Not only because she can focus on one child while he works with the others, but because she is closer to them in size and strength, giving them a better partner to spare with when she is showing them something.

But those things wouldn’t matter if it weren’t for her ability to learn so quickly. Purviance said that in a half hour before the rest of the students arrive, he can show Raevynn two new moves, and she will know them well enough to teach them to other students.

Student teaching

Raevynn takes satisfaction out of seeing another student she is working with improve, but what she enjoys most is learning, Raevynn said.

Some of that is just the difficulty of doing things in reverse, she said.

“When I do it, I can see how my hands are, but when I’m doing it to them, I can’t really see what they’re seeing,” she said.

But Raevynn is learning to teach, and Purviance said he is working to instill leadership traits in her as well as skill in martial arts.

Raevynn said she wasn’t sure if she is learning to be a leader, but said she has learned a lot about getting others to pay attention to instruction.

Raevynn’s father, Steve Voss, said he has noticed improved focus and discipline from Raevynn since she started training with Purviance.

Outside of martial arts, Raevynn has noticed the greatest impact in how she performs during physical education at school.

“I learned how to preserve my energy,” she said. “You do the moves fast, but you don’t do them so fast that you lose your breath.”

Raevynn said she likes knowing that she can protect herself. She sometimes observes situations around her, looking for potential threats and thinking how she would respond if someone attacked her.

Yet her father said he hasn’t seen any outward change in how Raevynn interacts with her world or those around her. Any confidence she takes from her skill has never manifested in her attempting to intimidate others

“She pretty much carries herself in a real low key, and I’m glad about that,” Steve Voss said.

Purviance said that he works to instill in the children that having the ability to fight and even hurt someone is not something they should take lightly. If a child is overly aggressive or it seems they will misuse the training, Purviance will try to correct that, and stops the training if he cannot.

“I will not train somebody that’s going to go out and just use it to hurt somebody,” he said.

Taking it apart

At first, Raevynn said her favorite part of martial arts is kicking, because it’s easier than punching. But as she described what she enjoys, it came back to understanding the parts that make a whole.

“The way that you move, pretty much,” she said. “You don’t just move one step at a time, you go in a pattern.”

Raevynn does have natural physical ability, but it’s her ability to take a move and understand it that stands out, Purviance said.

On one occasion, Raevynn thought she could get the upper hand on her 74-year-old instructor, and quickly found herself pinned against a wall, Purviance said. Her immediate response was to ask about the move he had used.

“Everything that I show her, she doesn’t take it negatively,” he said.

“She goes, ‘how can I do this?’”

She watches every move and listens to every word, and immediately applies the instruction with clear understanding, Purviance said.

“She craves this,” he said.

Raevynn said that the details of how things work — the cause that leads to the effect — interests her.

“She’s always been kind of a gearhead,” Steve Voss said.

When she was four, she asked for a tool box for Christmas, he said. When she opened it and saw plastic tools, she told him she wanted real tools.

So, her father gathered up screwdrivers and a few basic tools for her. When he came home from work the next day, she had all her play cars disassembled and spread out on the coffee table, he said.

“She took out every screw that screwdriver would take out,” he said. “Lo and behold, she managed to put them all back together also.”

Her curiosity does make it a challenge to stay ahead of Raevynn, he said. Raevynn laughed in response.

She always wants to see the inside of things, Steve Voss said. “What made it happen? How’s it work and why?”