By Dan Sheridan ©

Listen to black-belt Brian Plunkett teach a class at the New England Small Circle Jujitsu Academy. He's intense. He's focused. He might remind you of a freckle-faced drill sergeant.

Brian Plunkett

But Plunkett is more than a tough taskmaster. With more than 22 years in martial arts and more than 12 years as a black belt, the Boston lawyer and father of two has begun to see beyond tough.

He says the most important thing he has learned as a black belt is humility.

"The more I learn, the more vulnerable I feel and the more motivated I am to train. While knowledge gives me a certain confidence, it also leads to humility. You know you can be taken by surprise at any time," he said.

Plunkett shattered his nose in a 1993 grappling accident. He's had surgery, called rhinoplasty, but jokes that his therapist wife, Laura, says it still isn't right.

The 1980 graduate of Newton North High School wrestled in high school, was captain of the Brown University judo team and a judo brown belt when he graduated in 1984. He came home before law school and went to judo and jujitsu school at the Newton YMCA under Professor Dave Castoldi.

I train really hard when I'm in class. I'm not there to kill time. -- Brian Plunkett

"That changed my life forever. I realized I didn't want to be just a sport judo guy. I wanted to know how to defend myself."

Now a partner at the Boston firm of Bartlett, Hackett, Feinberg, the 5-foot 11-inch Plunkett received his law degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1988. Today he helps people buy and sell companies. The majority of his work is bank representation in commercial loan transactions ranging anywhere from $100,000 to $20 million.

Plunkett trained with Castoldi untill 1993. But he had been splitting his time between Newton and Stoneham, where Melaugh opened the New England Small Circle Jujitsu Academy in May of 1990. When the N.E.S.C.J.A. moved to nearby Woburn, Plunkett came along.

During a training session at Prof. Wally Jay's dojo in California, in 2000, Plunkett was awarded his second-degree black belt.

"Don't give up. Keep working at it. It only gets better as you get older," said the 40-year-old attorney.

"Look at Wally Jay, he's been doing it his whole life. You're never too old to do jujitsu. They say that one out of ten students will get their yellow belt. Then one out of those ten gets their black belt. Most people give up or take on other interests.

Plunkett aiding teen students.

Plunkett shakes his head when someone talks about young students who drop out after a few years of study.

"Those kids feel like they've done it. I'd rather you go once a week and keep at it and just make jujitsu a regular part of their life. That's kind of how I've done it.

"I used to do jujitsu three or four times a week... But I've had children and moved to the north shore. With six job changes and three moves and several operations, there are a lot of things that can crop up to prevent you from training. But I've been pretty consistently a once- or twice-a-week guy.

"You might not be able to reach your level starting out with once or twice a week, but once you've reached a certain level, don't give it up. I train really hard when I'm in class. I'm not there to kill time. I'm there to train."

Brian Plunkett says his favorite martial arts book is Zen and the Marital Arts.

"It’s a wonderful, short book. I like it so much because it talks about the mental aspects of training.

"It doesn't matter what art you're training; the same issues come up -- fear, trying too hard, lack of focus. The book addresses how to deal with those issues in a simple and anecdotal method."

Plunkett said he first read the book, by author Joe Hyam, some 15 years ago. Hyam was a student of Bruce Lee.

"I had to deal most with fear," Plunkett said. "What to do with fear. Where to put it. How to turn fear into an asset. I take the nervous energy that is the result of fear and try to turn it into energy in the explosiveness of my attack. I also try to calm the nervous energy by acknowledging my fear, recognizing my fear and then saying that fear is OK. And [by] trying to appreciate the fear and what it will do for me."