What was my very start in Karate, and why did I take the first step?
Helen and I moved to Ft. St. John, BC, in the summer of 1980 when she landed a teaching job at Charlie Lake School. I landed a salesman job and we settled into a minute apartment into our new lives.
Ft. St. John is pretty far north, and winters there get darn cold. 45 below cold. There is a real danger of cabin fever. Lots of bars. One movie theatre, with the worst sound system ever. Yup, real danger of cabin fever. The first winter, I signed up at the college for an introductory computer course, and I became a life-long geek. Helen joined a bowling team, and helped out at the charity bingo. This kept us busy and entertained, but we were on separate paths.
The next year we looked through all the evening course options together. Our short list became ballroom dancing, or Karate. Karate won, although we did do a short dancing class a few months later.
Showed up at the gym for Karate, and it was packed. White suits all over the place. Killer workout and then lessons in basics. Don't really remember all that much about it, but we were both hooked. Found out later that the style was Kyoskushinkai, which is a particularly brutal form. We did get bruised a fair bit. December was the first exam, and we both got yellow belts. Came back after Christmas break keen to go on....and the instructor vanished.
Various rumours floated around as to reasons, but he was gone in any case. Nobody was higher than green, so we were all pretty screwed. The course was a Northern Lights College offering, so the College staff shifted into overtime trying to dig us up an instructor.
Helen and I tried to train a bit, but we were really know-nuttin beginners. We tried visiting a Chitu Ryu club in the town of Dawson Creek 50 miles away. They were super nice, and most welcoming. Watching them I noticed light years of difference between our club and theirs. The Black Belt instructor moved a million times better than our former instructor. Heck, so did the brown belts. I began to wonder if our missing guy had been a fake.
A bit later the College contacted us that they'd found us an instructor starting in September. We decided to jump at that. Said grateful farewells to the Dawson Creek Karate Club.
September 1982, we became students of Shotokan Karate in Ft. St. John. Our new Sensei, Perry Foster, was enthusiastic, friendly, and definately for real.
I was home. Helen hung retired after getting her yellow belt. But I just kept going....
...and we later got back into Ballroom dancing again, too.
I am a 68 year old retired teacher living on the west coast of Canada. I spent over 30 years as a student of Karate until my knees stopped liking it. My current passionate activity is Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, which I've been at for about 13 years.
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Wednesday, 30 March 2011
Bees
Helen says that my 'Injuries' blog entry left out bees. She's right, but let's startwith mosquitos.
Part of Karate is concentration. When training, one is in combat. If a door slams, you don't look away. You maintain focus. It is kind of like being in the army marching around. You do it right, but for different reasons. In the army, they yell if you don't do drill to the ideal. In a fight, if you let youself respond to distractions you'll lose.
Up north, during a summer seminar, training outdoors. Mosquitos. We were swarmed. We ignored them as much as humanly possible. One in particular I remember. The instructor stops us in a punching pose, and spends a minute or two helping somebody down the line. A big, fat, northern BC mosquito slowly lands on the back of my frozen, punching fist. She took her time, sucking my blood. Could barely fly when done. Then we got to move. Wanted to laugh, but couldn't do that either. Not until later.
The bees were different.
Summer Camp training outdoors by the sea a decade later. Sunny day, nice breeze, grassy field with just a hint of clover. In the middle of the session, ZAP. Burning in the sole of my foot. Ignored it until we were done, but I knew right away what it was. A bee sting in the middle of my right foot. Just went on and finished the class.
The next year I was back at Summer Camp training. Same kind of sun and breeze on the same grassy field. Halfway through, and I was stung again on the bottom of my foot. Finished the class. We later laughed like goons that it happened to me again. Nobody else got stung either year. I was the lucky one, twice.
Third year. Did it happen again? Yup.
Part of Karate is concentration. When training, one is in combat. If a door slams, you don't look away. You maintain focus. It is kind of like being in the army marching around. You do it right, but for different reasons. In the army, they yell if you don't do drill to the ideal. In a fight, if you let youself respond to distractions you'll lose.
Up north, during a summer seminar, training outdoors. Mosquitos. We were swarmed. We ignored them as much as humanly possible. One in particular I remember. The instructor stops us in a punching pose, and spends a minute or two helping somebody down the line. A big, fat, northern BC mosquito slowly lands on the back of my frozen, punching fist. She took her time, sucking my blood. Could barely fly when done. Then we got to move. Wanted to laugh, but couldn't do that either. Not until later.
The bees were different.
Summer Camp training outdoors by the sea a decade later. Sunny day, nice breeze, grassy field with just a hint of clover. In the middle of the session, ZAP. Burning in the sole of my foot. Ignored it until we were done, but I knew right away what it was. A bee sting in the middle of my right foot. Just went on and finished the class.
The next year I was back at Summer Camp training. Same kind of sun and breeze on the same grassy field. Halfway through, and I was stung again on the bottom of my foot. Finished the class. We later laughed like goons that it happened to me again. Nobody else got stung either year. I was the lucky one, twice.
Third year. Did it happen again? Yup.
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
I love one hour classes
Over the years, I've attended regular classes that lasted 2 hours, and some that lasted 1.5, and some of a single hour. Always liked the longer ones best.
Now I'm an old fart, and I find a single hour just dandy. I really like to push myself, and if the time were longer, I'd find myself holding back.
During warmup, doing standing exercises, I'm in horse stance. Nobody else is. During basics, I try and move fast. When punching, I punch full speed.
By class end, I'm tired, but it's a good tired. Can't do this in a longer class. Did I mention that I'm an old fart? If I was younger, I'd prefer longer classes.
I learned about the joys of pushing myself from a student of mine. His name is Raymond Kim. He told me that he noticed that he sometimes held back. He'd end a class having put in a reasonable effort, but that he could have done more. He decided never to settle for this, and switched to 100% all the time. He said that he knew he could complete anything we threw at him during a class, and could do so more fulfilled and better trained. I agreed. Why save anything? Did I need it for the trip home? Hardly.
Now I like classes of a length I know I can easily finish, even at a hard pace. I like to make it harder on myself than the instructor is asking.
Now if I could just remember Soichin.....
Now I'm an old fart, and I find a single hour just dandy. I really like to push myself, and if the time were longer, I'd find myself holding back.
During warmup, doing standing exercises, I'm in horse stance. Nobody else is. During basics, I try and move fast. When punching, I punch full speed.
By class end, I'm tired, but it's a good tired. Can't do this in a longer class. Did I mention that I'm an old fart? If I was younger, I'd prefer longer classes.
I learned about the joys of pushing myself from a student of mine. His name is Raymond Kim. He told me that he noticed that he sometimes held back. He'd end a class having put in a reasonable effort, but that he could have done more. He decided never to settle for this, and switched to 100% all the time. He said that he knew he could complete anything we threw at him during a class, and could do so more fulfilled and better trained. I agreed. Why save anything? Did I need it for the trip home? Hardly.
Now I like classes of a length I know I can easily finish, even at a hard pace. I like to make it harder on myself than the instructor is asking.
Now if I could just remember Soichin.....
Monday, 28 March 2011
Karate Injuries
Is Karate a dangerous activity? A fine question.
Don't have any hard statistics, which would be the right way to decide this issue. Nothing easy to find. The National Youth Sports Safety Foundation down in the States records 23,018 martial arts injuries requiring a hospital visit. Less than dancing at 38,427 but more than boxing at 9,183. Not really useful raw data without knowing how many participants this represents or how much they do their sport. I'm pretty sure Karate is more dangerous than dancing, and safer than boxing which is not what these numbers indicate.
Have to go on my own experience. I've seen very few people have needed a hospital or doctor after training, or who had serious injuries they get attended to. Knees do get hit hard every so often in a nasty way. Toes sometimes hit something hard, like a bone. Had a partner once land a full speed punch on my own full speed punch. My hand was fine, his swole up to about pumpkin size, but it went down in a few days. Took a few shots in the face, the best being a hit on one side of my head that caused bruising on the other. Don't know how that worked. Taken many, many body shots, but never a broken bone or anything like that from it. Best body bruise I ever got left a foot-shaped bruise in the middle of my chest.
Seen cut lips, and black eyes. Jammed fingers really suck. Had a friend with an old knee injury, received while training in Japan, collapse in pain when his knee locked up without apparent cause. Another friend, Bernardo, once got several ribs broken.
For the thousands and thousands of hours I've done Karate, I'd actually call the injury rate pretty small. Item by item it does sound a tad brutal. How does this compare with something more mainstream?
My sister went skiing once in her life, and shattered a knee. That's a worse injury than anything I've ever seen in Karate. I've been skiing once. After the bunny hill, did the big hill once. At the bottom I hung around a while and watched ski patrol guys bring several injured people away in stretchers. One of these was a ski partrol guy who crashed almost at my feet and got hauled away by his chums. Skiing definately has higher risk.
I'd call soccer safer, rugby riskier. Never seen or even heard of a death. Read somewhere that golf is the most dangerous activity because so many people doing it, including all ages and health levels. It has the highest death rate in sport, due to heart attacks.
My theory is do what you love, as long as the risk isn't out of line.
Maybe that's why I stick to safe activities like kicking and punching.
Don't have any hard statistics, which would be the right way to decide this issue. Nothing easy to find. The National Youth Sports Safety Foundation down in the States records 23,018 martial arts injuries requiring a hospital visit. Less than dancing at 38,427 but more than boxing at 9,183. Not really useful raw data without knowing how many participants this represents or how much they do their sport. I'm pretty sure Karate is more dangerous than dancing, and safer than boxing which is not what these numbers indicate.
Have to go on my own experience. I've seen very few people have needed a hospital or doctor after training, or who had serious injuries they get attended to. Knees do get hit hard every so often in a nasty way. Toes sometimes hit something hard, like a bone. Had a partner once land a full speed punch on my own full speed punch. My hand was fine, his swole up to about pumpkin size, but it went down in a few days. Took a few shots in the face, the best being a hit on one side of my head that caused bruising on the other. Don't know how that worked. Taken many, many body shots, but never a broken bone or anything like that from it. Best body bruise I ever got left a foot-shaped bruise in the middle of my chest.
Seen cut lips, and black eyes. Jammed fingers really suck. Had a friend with an old knee injury, received while training in Japan, collapse in pain when his knee locked up without apparent cause. Another friend, Bernardo, once got several ribs broken.
For the thousands and thousands of hours I've done Karate, I'd actually call the injury rate pretty small. Item by item it does sound a tad brutal. How does this compare with something more mainstream?
My sister went skiing once in her life, and shattered a knee. That's a worse injury than anything I've ever seen in Karate. I've been skiing once. After the bunny hill, did the big hill once. At the bottom I hung around a while and watched ski patrol guys bring several injured people away in stretchers. One of these was a ski partrol guy who crashed almost at my feet and got hauled away by his chums. Skiing definately has higher risk.
I'd call soccer safer, rugby riskier. Never seen or even heard of a death. Read somewhere that golf is the most dangerous activity because so many people doing it, including all ages and health levels. It has the highest death rate in sport, due to heart attacks.
My theory is do what you love, as long as the risk isn't out of line.
Maybe that's why I stick to safe activities like kicking and punching.
Sunday, 27 March 2011
Running Sucks
I have set myself a goal of running 5km every non-workday this year. If a day gets missed it gets made up later. I run pretty much in every weather. Lots of people run, and rave about how much they enjoy it. My wife often wishes me a jaunty, "have fun" as I head out the door.
Running is not normally a joyous activity for me. It is exercise. It is discipline. It is rewarding. It is not fun....usually.
Beautiful skies sometimes. Sometimes knockout ocean or mountain views. Sometimes I see deer, or elk, or coyotes, or even bears. Sometimes listen to beautiful music, or interesting aubiobooks. Once in a while I reach a state of no-mind. I like that.
Fun? Not as much fun as my TV, or tech, or xbox, or wii, or even my comfy chair.
But I run,
as I have run,
for two decades.
Running is not normally a joyous activity for me. It is exercise. It is discipline. It is rewarding. It is not fun....usually.
Beautiful skies sometimes. Sometimes knockout ocean or mountain views. Sometimes I see deer, or elk, or coyotes, or even bears. Sometimes listen to beautiful music, or interesting aubiobooks. Once in a while I reach a state of no-mind. I like that.
Fun? Not as much fun as my TV, or tech, or xbox, or wii, or even my comfy chair.
But I run,
as I have run,
for two decades.
Saturday, 26 March 2011
Seminar toes
When we used to have seminars up north, they were always a really big deal. The entire expense was paid by....us...not shared by any other clubs. This usually meant almost 100% attendence (without making a rule) and we were a pretty darn big club. The gym would be packed. We always tried to squeeze in every second of training we could.
Usually had 3 hour evening class on Friday, 3 more hours Saturday morning, and 4 more Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning, same kinda timing with exams squeezed in and the guest running for the plane at the end.
Usually in seminars, to make it interesting, the big guys would NOT have us doing the same old stuff. There would be angles and twists and shifts and....TOE BLISTERS....
By the end of the very first class, almost every foot in the joint would have blisters all over them. Not really a big deal, injury wise, unless one is doing twice as much training again the next day.
To pop, or drain, or leave au naturale. These are the big questions. To bandage with tape, or rough it out bare-toe. I was of the bare-toe camp. Bandages never survived the first 15 minutes of the next class, and either got ripped off by the floor, or pulled off by the wearer.
The being drenched with sweat never bothered me much. The almost collapsing from exertion, child's play. It was the fricking toes.
Typically, the monday class after a seminar weekend would be somewhat poorly attended, but I always had to be there, walking as if the floor was made of porcupine pelts.
And then we'd start planning the next seminar.....
Usually had 3 hour evening class on Friday, 3 more hours Saturday morning, and 4 more Saturday afternoon. Sunday morning, same kinda timing with exams squeezed in and the guest running for the plane at the end.
Usually in seminars, to make it interesting, the big guys would NOT have us doing the same old stuff. There would be angles and twists and shifts and....TOE BLISTERS....
By the end of the very first class, almost every foot in the joint would have blisters all over them. Not really a big deal, injury wise, unless one is doing twice as much training again the next day.
To pop, or drain, or leave au naturale. These are the big questions. To bandage with tape, or rough it out bare-toe. I was of the bare-toe camp. Bandages never survived the first 15 minutes of the next class, and either got ripped off by the floor, or pulled off by the wearer.
The being drenched with sweat never bothered me much. The almost collapsing from exertion, child's play. It was the fricking toes.
Typically, the monday class after a seminar weekend would be somewhat poorly attended, but I always had to be there, walking as if the floor was made of porcupine pelts.
And then we'd start planning the next seminar.....
My Third Club II
So I was Sensei of my third club. Made the deal that somebody would take it over eventually. My hope was that I'd be the instructor for a year, give or take. Then I could be a student in the line.
Athena, our Brown Belt organizer, got her Black Belt parents attending.
Everybody wanted to have a kids' class running at the same time as the adults, so people could join with built-in day care. (Evening care?) Athena's mom, Cherry agreed to take that part of the group. So far so good.
Training two nights a week at West Sechelt School. Soon, added a third class Saturday afternoon in a church hall. Managed to get Ogawa Sensei to agree to come to the odd Saturday session. Sweet. He's one of those guys that can show you how something you'd been doing for decades is a bit off. And he's always right.
Needed to join an association so our students would get real rankings. I was leaning to my old one JKABC, but Athena's clan wanted their old one of ISKF. Both are fine, so we joined ISKF.
Ninth Dan Yaguchi came for a seminar in Vancouver before Xmas. Somebody had to go show the flag for our baby club. Guess who that was? Joe Dixon, the BC head agreed to come visit us and would do our testing locally. Better and better.
I surprised myself at how un-rusty I was. Started re-learning Katas with blinding speed. I think so anyway. Cherry and her husband, Armando, started real rusty, but pushed right through that. Their injuries seemed to be OK, so we had three operational Black Belts.
A bunch of us went as a group to watch the Provincial Championship. So many keeners.
Late January, Athena let me know that Cherry felt ready to take over the Sensei role. They all seemed really nervous about hurting my feelings. Karate people are notorious for being touchy. I didn't mind, but was a bit concerned about how ready she really was.
I stopped teaching, and joined the student line. Was pleasantly surprised at how well Cherry did. After a class or two, I had no concerns left at all.
Just had our first set of exams. Of six students grading, six passed. We had done something right.
So now I get to work on my own Karate without thinking all that much about the other people. Haven't been in that position since before I inherited my First Club. People are not shy about asking me for help, and I am happy to do so. This includes Cherry and Armando, who sometimes want help with Kata. I might end up being the Kata reference guy.
I could dig that.
Athena, our Brown Belt organizer, got her Black Belt parents attending.
Everybody wanted to have a kids' class running at the same time as the adults, so people could join with built-in day care. (Evening care?) Athena's mom, Cherry agreed to take that part of the group. So far so good.
Training two nights a week at West Sechelt School. Soon, added a third class Saturday afternoon in a church hall. Managed to get Ogawa Sensei to agree to come to the odd Saturday session. Sweet. He's one of those guys that can show you how something you'd been doing for decades is a bit off. And he's always right.
Needed to join an association so our students would get real rankings. I was leaning to my old one JKABC, but Athena's clan wanted their old one of ISKF. Both are fine, so we joined ISKF.
Ninth Dan Yaguchi came for a seminar in Vancouver before Xmas. Somebody had to go show the flag for our baby club. Guess who that was? Joe Dixon, the BC head agreed to come visit us and would do our testing locally. Better and better.
I surprised myself at how un-rusty I was. Started re-learning Katas with blinding speed. I think so anyway. Cherry and her husband, Armando, started real rusty, but pushed right through that. Their injuries seemed to be OK, so we had three operational Black Belts.
A bunch of us went as a group to watch the Provincial Championship. So many keeners.
Late January, Athena let me know that Cherry felt ready to take over the Sensei role. They all seemed really nervous about hurting my feelings. Karate people are notorious for being touchy. I didn't mind, but was a bit concerned about how ready she really was.
I stopped teaching, and joined the student line. Was pleasantly surprised at how well Cherry did. After a class or two, I had no concerns left at all.
Just had our first set of exams. Of six students grading, six passed. We had done something right.
So now I get to work on my own Karate without thinking all that much about the other people. Haven't been in that position since before I inherited my First Club. People are not shy about asking me for help, and I am happy to do so. This includes Cherry and Armando, who sometimes want help with Kata. I might end up being the Kata reference guy.
I could dig that.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)