When 13-year-old Stephanie Hoff roughhouses with her dad, punches are thrown and feet fly.
Both yellow belts in karate, the Hoffs spend plenty of time practicing outside of class at CSRA Defensive Arts.
"I let her go more full-contact on me," said Stephanie's father, Jason. He is more careful with her, he said.
Stephanie found the Web site for the karate school and thought the sport looked like fun.
Hoff, who had taken karate as a teenager, joined her.
"I figured it would give her more incentive to stick with it," Hoff said.
Though she and her father recently earned their yellow belts, her fancy footwork isn't limited to just martial arts. Stephanie takes dance classes once a week.
Stephanie has volunteered for Molly's Militia as part of a community service project for the gifted and talented program.
She liked it so much that she began working with the pet-rescue group on Saturdays on her own time, Hoff said.
Schoolwork, karate and dance class leave her little time to continue her volunteer work, but she is preparing herself to reach the career goals she's laid out.
"She's adamant she's going to Harvard or Yale," Hoff said.
"I want to be an OB/GYN," Stephanie said.
She is in honors classes in English and algebra and plans to take International Baccalaureate classes at North Augusta High School when she enrolls there in two years.
Stephanie pushes herself to excel academically.
"I was almost in tears because I got a problem wrong on my social studies test," she said.
Her drive pleases her father and her karate instructor, Johnny Hughes.
"She missed (the Dec. 11) class because she was studying for midterms," said Hughes, who urges his students to put schoolwork first.
"I'm very obsessed with my grades," Stephanie said.
Reach Lisa Kaylor at lisa.kaylor@northaugustatoday.com.
This is one fantastic Karate Girl. She looks like she knows what she's doing. I am very proud of her.