More Than a Black Belt: Inside Lone Star Martial Arts in Greenville, Texas
How one Hunt County family is helping people of every age discover confidence, character, and self-worth.
As parents, we spend years trying to teach our children kindness, respect, responsibility, and confidence, knowing that we won’t always be the only people influencing who they become. As they grow, teachers, coaches, employers, youth leaders, and even the parents of their friends begin leaving their own impressions. You hope the people who step into those roles reinforce the same values you’ve been working to teach at home.
That was in the back of my mind when I arrived at Lone Star Martial Arts a little early that afternoon. Being early is a habit of mine, but I never want to walk in before someone is ready for me, so I sat in my car for a few minutes and watched as a teenage girl carried a trash bag toward the dumpster.
For a moment, it took me back nearly fifteen years. When my daughter was in high school, her boyfriend, who would later become my son-in-law, trained at a martial arts school. Part of his job was helping clean the dojo before classes, and many evenings my daughter was right there beside him. She’s thirty now and lives in another state, so seeing that familiar scene brought back a little nostalgia for a season of life that feels much farther away than it probably is.
When I walked inside, that same sense of everyone pitching in continued. A young boy was wiping down the mirrors while others restocked supplies and checked the bathrooms. Brian occasionally asked one of the kids to check something or lend a hand, and each time the response was immediate.
Then Brian smiled as he watched me taking it all in.
“Welcome to our dojo,” he said. “It’s a family affair.”
He wasn’t exaggerating. The people I’d been watching prepare the building were his children.
Brian and Chasity are raising a blended family of nine, his, hers, and theirs, with ages spanning nearly every stage of life from toddlers to adults who now have children of their own. Several of the kids were there helping prepare the dojo that afternoon, and whenever Brian asked someone to take care of something, the response was immediate. “Yes, sir,” they’d answer before heading off to do whatever was needed.
It wasn’t rehearsed or for my benefit. It was a family getting ready to welcome the students and families who would soon be walking through the door.
That first impression told me something no website or brochure ever could.
Brian and Chasity Moser are the owners of Lone Star Martial Arts, but the word owners doesn’t really capture what they’ve built. Together, they’ve created a place where martial arts is simply the vehicle. The heart of Lone Star Martial Arts isn’t found in the kicks, punches, or belts. It’s found in the relationships they build, the confidence they help uncover, and the values they hope students carry with them long after they leave the mat.
How Martial Arts Changed Brian Moser’s Life
As Brian shared more of his story, I asked how martial arts first became part of his life.
He laughed as he admitted his dad signed him up when he was twelve years old because, in his words, he needed a little direction. What started as something he had to do gradually became something he wanted to do, and eventually something he couldn’t imagine life without.
“It became therapy,” he told me. “You can come in after a bad day, get out on the mat, and leave feeling better than when you came.”
Over the next three decades, Brian dedicated himself to training and competition, earning countless championships and eventually being inducted into the Martial Arts Hall of Fame. Those accomplishments speak to his skill, but they aren’t what seemed to matter most to him.
In fact, every time I asked about tournaments or awards, Brian found a way to bring the focus back to people.
That became especially clear when he pointed toward a framed letter hanging on the wall. Before I could even ask about it, one of his younger sons proudly offered to take it down so I could read it.
It wasn’t a championship certificate or a tournament trophy. It was a letter from a former student thanking Brian for believing in him and for taking the time to speak with him during a difficult season of his life. Brian smiled as he admitted he had no idea that a simple moment had made such a lasting impact until the letter arrived.
Standing in a dojo filled with trophies, medals, and black belts, I couldn’t help but notice what seemed to matter most to the Moser family.
A Martial Arts School Built for the Whole Family
Martial arts didn’t just shape Brian’s life. It’s also how he met Chasity.
The two met on the tournament circuit in late 2020 after competitions across Texas began returning. Weekend tournaments led to hours of getting to know one another, and before long those weekends had grown into a marriage, a shared calling, and the dream of opening a school of their own.
They started Lone Star Martial Arts with just ten students. Today, more than one hundred people train there, and as Brian described the different programs they offer, I realized the school isn’t designed for one stage of life. It’s designed to grow with you.
Chasity works with some of their youngest students through the Little Dragons program, welcoming children as young as eighteen months old. As students grow, Brian takes over many of the youth and teen classes, with some of those teenagers eventually becoming assistant instructors themselves.
Parents don’t just sit in the lobby waiting for class to end. Many choose to train alongside their children, while other adults come after work looking for fitness, confidence, stress relief, or simply a place to belong.
That sense of belonging extends beyond the dojo floor. Chasity has developed her own women’s self-defense curriculum and is helping launch a women-only program through their church in Sulphur Springs, giving women an opportunity to learn practical self-defense in an environment designed specifically for them.
Brian laughed when he described his role in those classes.
“I’m just the guy they throw around.”
His smile made it clear he was perfectly happy with that arrangement.
By the time we finished talking, it was obvious that Lone Star Martial Arts isn’t a place people enroll for a season of life.
It’s a place many continue returning to as life changes around them.
Why Self-Worth Matters More Than a Black Belt
It’s easy to look for activities that will keep our children busy, help them stay active, or teach them discipline. Those things certainly happen at Lone Star Martial Arts, but after talking with Brian, it occurred to me they’re not the end goal.
When I asked what he hoped students would carry with them after years of training, I expected him to talk about confidence or discipline. Instead, he talked about self-worth.
“Everybody wants the best,” he said, “but they’re not willing to give the best to themselves.”
After a brief pause, he added, “If you don’t feel like you’re worth anything, you’re never going to believe in yourself.”
As I listened, everything else we had talked about throughout the afternoon began to fit together. The respect I had seen in his children, the letter hanging on the wall, the way he spoke about his students, and even the sense of community inside the dojo all pointed back to the same belief. Before someone can develop confidence, discipline, or perseverance, they have to believe they’re worth the effort.
A few minutes later, Brian pointed over to the belts hanging on the wall.
“The difference between your white belt and my black belt is this,” he said. “This one’s got dye in the threads. It’s the same belt.”
Then he pointed to his head before placing his hand over his heart.
“The black belt is already inside here. My job is to help you find it.”
Maybe that’s why the letter hanging on the wall meant more to him than the trophies surrounding it. One celebrated what he had accomplished. The other reminded him why he started teaching in the first place.
Serving the Community Beyond the Dojo
Long before Brian mentioned community service, I noticed stacks of dog food lined up along one wall of the dojo. I assumed there was a story behind them, and sure enough, there was.
The students had collected the donations for the local animal shelter as this summer’s community service project. Last year, the dojo filled with cases of bottled water for local first responders. As we talked, Brian shared that they’re already thinking about what project they’ll take on this winter.
No one is required to participate.
Instead, Brian encourages his students to look for opportunities to serve.
“If you feel it in your heart,” he told me, “do it.”
The Legacy Brian and Chasity Hope to Leave
Before I left, I asked Brian what kind of legacy he wanted to leave.
His answer had nothing to do with championships or building the biggest martial arts school in the area. More than anything, he hoped the people who walked through the doors of Lone Star Martial Arts would leave knowing someone believed in them.
For all the confidence he helps build in others, Brian still wonders whether he’s doing enough. He talked about the weight of raising nine children, leading more than a hundred students, and wondering whether the lessons he teaches today will still matter years from now.
It’s a question I imagine many parents ask themselves from time to time: Am I making the difference I hope I’m making?
Listening to Brian, I understood that question doesn’t disappear just because your children grow up or because you become the one standing at the front of the room. It stays with you because the people who care the most are often the ones who continue wondering if they’ve done enough.
When it was time for me to go, the dojo looked very different than it had when I first arrived.
The Moser children had finished preparing for the evening, and the time before class had given way to the excitement of families arriving. Parents walked in with their children as young students hurried through the doors, eager to get to class. The same space where I’d watched the Moser family getting everything ready less than an hour earlier was now filling with the families they’d been preparing to welcome.
Driving home, I found myself thinking about the question that had been on my mind since I first pulled into the parking lot. As parents, we spend years trying to teach our children kindness, respect, responsibility, and confidence. Eventually, we trust other adults to help reinforce those same values.
After spending the afternoon with Brian and learning more about the partnership he and Chasity have built, I left believing that’s exactly what’s happening at Lone Star Martial Arts. The martial arts are certainly important, but they’re only part of the story. Day after day, Brian and Chasity are helping children and adults alike discover confidence, character, service, and perhaps most importantly, the belief that someone sees something in them worth discovering.
Back to Business • August Series
August is all about getting Back to Business across Hunt County. Throughout the month, The Local Letter is sharing the stories of local people and businesses helping our community get back to school, back to work, and back into the routines of a new season.
Also in the Back to Business series: Spirit 66
About Lone Star Martial Arts
Lone Star Martial Arts
297 FM 1903, Suite 700
Greenville, TX 75402
Phone: (903) 458-2319
Website: lsmactx.com
Facebook: Follow Lone Star Martial Arts on Facebook