Piddington, a ninth-degree black belt who founded the American Open Style of Karate, has visited local schools during the past month from his home in Medford, Ore. He leaves Wednesday.

Last week, he taught students in China Grove his style of martial arts with the sets of dance-like movements called “kata.”

Some of Piddington’s lessons have been more demanding. Earlier this month, he and nine other upper-rank students stayed in a cabin in the mountains near Morganton. They stood under a creek’s frigid waterfall several minutes to practice — of all things — breathing. The group built a small sweat lodge from branches of willow trees and sat in it for two hours to test their endurance.

“I’m going back to students now and making the system more uniform, more solidified, to put my house in order before I pass,” said Piddington, who is 58.

Students hold a deep respect for the man they call “shihan,” meaning master of teachers.

“He likes to stick with the traditional roots of karate, rather than all the commercialization it has gotten,” said Richard Smith, who runs Sidekick Karate in China Grove, where Piddington worked with students last week.

In North Carolina, the American Open Style of Karate includes roughly 300 students at Sidekick Karate schools operated by Smith and his twin brother, Randy, in China Grove, Albemarle, Statesville, Lexington and Concord.

Piddington received his ninth-degree black belt — the highest he can attain — earlier this month. The requirements for this lifelong student of martial arts were tough: He had to teach for at least 38 years, have at least 100 students wearing a second-degree black belt, and master the use of five weapons and 17 katas, among other requirements.

Piddington, who grew up in a family of 10 children, began martial arts training in California when he was 12. He learned styles that originated in the Okinawan Islands near Japan, even studying directly under Robert A. Trias, who brought karate to the United States in 1942 from the South Pacific.

Piddington taught in Virginia and Maryland before founding the American Open Style of Karate in 1974. He gained a national reputation as a tournament fighter and actor in the 1970s, too.

For Smith, Piddington’s visit was also a history lesson in the Eastern roots of the martial arts.