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Cote’s journey to martial arts began when he was in his mid-teens. He was initially interested in boxing –confessing that he wanted to grow up to be like Cassius Clay – but became fascinated by a martial arts demonstration he saw at an Army base. He didn’t even understand what he was watching at the time, but was impressed by the agility and focus evident in the Korean man’s demonstration.

‘‘I saw this guy doing full splits,” he said. ‘‘I saw these beautiful [movements], and I didn’t know what they were.”

His interest remained dormant until college. As a student at Penn State University, Cote took up Isshin Ryu Karate while pursuing his master’s degree. After a brief hiatus, he began to study xingyiquan and baguazhang with Robert Smith in Bethesda in 1987.

Cote moved in New Market in 1994, and he has publically taught martial arts there for about six years, he said. His classes are different, he says, because he is able to draw upon his knowledge of physiology to enhance his teaching methods. Cote received his master’s degree in physiology in 1977, and his doctoral degree in the biological and biomedical sciences in 1986, according to his Web site.

Cote said his approach to teaching the martial arts is classical – it combines an emphasis on traditional training methods, philosophy and an emphasis on health benefits.

He sees the self defense aspects of the martial arts as a means to control violence in others, and not a way to seek combat. For instance, he said if a skilled martial artist were to be attacked, he should react quickly and dispassionately to end the attack and not to ‘‘win” the fight.

‘‘You don’t want to be a part of the violence,” Cote said. ‘‘You want to be apart from the violence.”

He said that aspects of what he teaches are used by some of his students in institutions or police work to control people who are getting out of hand, without harming them.

Cote’s student Bill Toole of Howard County works in a psychiatric institution and frequently draws on the skills he has honed with Cote to manage aggression in that setting. Not only has he been able to use martial arts to protect himself, but he said he can control patients without hurting them as well.

‘‘I frequently wind up tangling with people in my work,” Toole said. ‘‘No one has landed a serious blow on me in years.”

He and Cote are developing an instruction program in basic techniques for law enforcement personnel and employees of psychiatric institutions.

Cote said one of the main technical differences between ‘‘internal styles” – Xing-Yi, Bagua, and Tai Chi – and ‘‘external” styles such as karate is the way in which muscles are engaged. In karate, bigger muscles and muscular contraction equal more force; in internal styles, the idea is to extend muscles to direct force. This can be a difficult concept to master, taking years, even for someone who has had a good deal of experience in other martial arts. The benefits are worth the effort, Cote said.