Teaching at every station of his life

VENICE — Gia Ferruggio has been a student at Limitless Martial Arts practically since it opened. Ryan Biagioli started his academy in October 2021.

“I definitely like what’s going on here,” Gia’s father, Anthony, said during a recent training session.

He was one of a handful of parents on hand on a recent Thursday to watch their young children in a Tiny Tiger class. Gia, who is 9½ (Don’t forget the half, she says.), was helping Biagioli and assistant instructor Michael Lewis with the class.

“She’s getting discipline,” Ferruggio said. “She’s taking initiative for being a leader. She’s doing quite a lot of activity with skills, learning to defend herself, learning how to walk away from a situation, if need be, or to stand up to (someone) if you have to.”

At the time Gia started, Biagioli was training children and adults in a small, residents-only taekwondo club in a fitness center in the East Venice community of Grand Palm.

Interest grew and in January, he moved to his current location, 500 U.S. 41 Bypass S., in Venice, just north of Brick Yard Plaza, because they needed more space. They celebrated their grand opening May 4.

Biagioli, 38, grew up in Port Charlotte. A 2004 graduate of Port Charlotte High School, he began participating in martial arts at age 7 in the Port Charlotte/Venice Area and has been training ever since.

He tested for his Black Belt in 1999 at Venice Isles Plaza.

Biagioli joined the United Sates Navy in 2004 and served as a helicopter search and rescue crewman/aviation warfare specialist. Also known as an anti-submarine warfare systems operator, he tracked submarines and performed door gunner operations in addition to search and rescue.

The Afghanistan War and the Iraq War were raging during his nine years of service. He did three long deployments overseas, including in the Persian Gulf, focusing on anti-piracy operations and diplomacy.

“We had a lot of stuff going on,” he said. “They train you up for it. It starts on Day 1, every single training class that they put you through. You’ve got to have that mindset to react in the moment versus dwell on the big picture.”

Biagioli, who maintained his martial arts training during his military service, said there is a connection between the mindset of one who learns and teaches how to succeed in the Navy and that of one who successfully does both in taekwondo.

“That mindset started when I was a child,” he said.

He started martial arts in Port Charlotte under Master Al Shuman.

“It trains you to have that discipline, that respect and that confidence and self-esteem to not be afraid and to go out into the forefront and do whatever you have got to do, to handle whatever situation,” he said.

Biagioli would do his Navy stint “all over again” if asked.

“It builds character, and it makes you realize what’s going on in the world, and how you can make a difference for both our country and other countries,” he said.

While stationed in Jacksonville, he taught new recruits on submarine tracking and hunting and other skills — and re-qualified crew members — for about three years.

With two young daughters, Biagioli and his wife, Tracy, decided that he should separate from the military. He got out as an E5 (petty officer second class).

They moved back to Southwest Florida in 2013. His father is a retired Charlotte County firefighter. His father-in-law is a retired Sarasota County firefighter, and his brother is a Sarasota County firefighter paramedic.

Biagioli joined the Sarasota County Fire Department. They moved from North Port to Venice in 2021, and he served as a firefighter/paramedic for eight years.

“I like operational stuff,” Biagioli said. I like hands-on. I like risky jobs, obviously, so I got in the fire service.”

During that time, he taught martial arts on the side.

After a vehicle crash in 2022, Biagioli was forced to leave the fire department and pursue a new career that matches his passion for teaching, as a math teacher at Venice Middle School.

Meanwhile, success at Grand Palm enabled him to open the 3,000-square-foot Limitless facility on the Bypass.

Limitless is licensed through the American Taekwondo Association. Biagioli is a 4th degree Black Belt in taekwondo and holds several Florida and district competition titles. Limitless’ primary discipline is taekwondo.

“Martial arts has many great benefits, to include increasing discipline and focus for all children, especially those with ADHD and other diagnoses,” Biagioli said.

Tracy and their two daughters (ages 11 and 12) are ranked as 2nd degree blackbelts and — like Gia — also assist at the academy.

Ferruggio calls Limitless “one big, happy family.” He says he thinks Gia wants to continue to help “Mr. B.” and pursue taekwondo through earning a black belt, and that she’ll stay involved in the sport in future years.

“She’s in the leadership group where she’s able to show some of the students with (a lower) belt some of the moves,” he said.

Gia, who has a brown belt, said she likes taekwondo because she enjoys helping the other children “and I like to learn.”

Perhaps one day Gia will look back at her martial arts training and realize what Biagioli says about his own life.

“I would put where I am in my life, and in all of my accomplishments, I would really say that martial arts had a huge impact on all of that,” he said. “Absolutely.”

To learn more about Limitless Martial Arts, visit LimitlessATA.com.