Like Riding a Bike

After some starts and stops, I’ve finally been back to karate consistently for the past 4 weeks. I am studying under my Sensei, Rick Cable, at the facilities of Scott Desarro’s Dragon Tae Kwon Do Club. There are five blackbelts, so it’s not as much a instructional class as a cooperative class. We all work out together and defer to Rick when we have a question about a move or technique. We start each class by stretching out individually, then we go through all of our katas. For any that any of us are shaky on, we do two or three times. Going through all the katas this way takes almost an hour. After that we do weapons katas.

It is really good to be back at class and I am finding the katas are coming back to me pretty easily, even though I am so out of practice. It’s like riding a bike, they are in my muscle memory, and the more I go through them, the more familiar they become. There have been two or three ones I hadn’t learned that I am having to learn now, but the ones I already knew well are coming back. I am looking forward to karate camp this coming weekend and working out with and seeing people from our system I haven’t seen in a while.

Martial Arts and Achievment

sarah with two students

When I was six years old I was very uncoordinated. I remember getting marked down on my kindergarten report card for not being able to catch a ball. At a doctor’s suggestion, my parents decided to get my involved in some kind of athletic activity. I attended a ballet class and a karate class and then had to decide which I would attend regularly. There were too many other girls named Sarah in the ballet class, and I had recently watched the Karate Kid movie. It was an easy choice. Fourteen years later, I finally received my black belt.

When I started in the martial arts, I was the only girl in a class full of boys. I worked hard to be at the top of the class. I competed in tournaments and performed in exhibitions. After my family moved, I was in martial arts only off and on for a while. I had started in Shotokan karate, but then spent time in Tae Kwon Do, Ishin Ryu, and Kwan Mu Kan.  I also had the opportunity to learn from kung fu and tai chi masters at summer camps I have attended. I have been able to draw on what works for me from all of these styles. Everyone learns differently, so it helps to be exposed to many methods of teaching. I learned that from martial arts, but it applies to all learning. In graduate school I read about people who are primarily tactile learners or auditory learners, etc. Not everyone will learn the same way so information needs to be presented in more than one way.

Martial arts taught me respect, discipline, goal-setting, persistence, and endurance. For my black belt test, I had to fight four students of the same skill level as me at once. Following that, I had to fight all of the black belts in attendance (about thirty) one at a time, over and over again. Eventually it became the goal to just keep fighting, rather than any expectation to “win.” Sometimes in learning, the ultimate goal seems distant and it can be easy to get discouraged. As a Sensei, I’ll need to set multiple goals that students can accomplish as they progress further and further. I had to work my way up the colored belt levels, but each time I got closer to my ultimate goal. Conveying the practices of respect, discipline, goal-setting, persistence, and endurance, and showing students how these behaviors can apply to achieving their goals will lead to high achievement in and out of the classroom.

Attributes of a Martial Artist

In today’s world, Martial Arts is both a self-defense art and is also practiced as a sport. In both of these contexts, the Martial Artist is pushed to develop the following attributes:

• HEALTH- Physical Development
• CHARACTER-Mental Development
• SKILL- Proficiency in Contest
• RESPECT-Courtesy to Others
• HUMILITY- Never Lose Sight of Your Shortcomings

Health- While one should obtain a clean bill of health, or at least consult with a doctor, before beginning any physical activity, once practicing the Martial Arts, it serves as both a preventative measure and a proactive measure in terms of physical health. As the Martial Artist develops muscle, flexibility, breathing, etc., they also reduce the risk of injury in general. This is just within the sport aspect, upon delving deeper into the arts, the martial Martial Artist may learn more about pressure points, reiki, etc. Overall, the Martial Arts is also a confidence booster, and this has effects on both physical and mental health. Not to mention the benefits of meditation on high blood pressure, etc.

Character- The Martial Artist is not a bully. The Martial Artist can fight, but does not brag about it. They are there when it comes to defense of self and others when life and liberty are in jeopardy. The Martial Artist builds their character by listening and asking questions. Observing elders and those of higher rank, but also using initiative and innovation. Respect and Humility are really two subsets of character. When character is developed, the Martial Artist will have an equal increase in both respect and humility.

Skill- The Martial Artist should always seek to be better with technique. Not better than anybody else, but constantly bettering oneself. As the Martial Artist increases their physical capacity, they can also notice an increase in skill as they are able to do things they simply couldn’t before developing their body. Skill is the implementation of technique into the physical realm. It is learning strategy and tactics, but it is also repeating the motions so often that they become second nature, embodied in muscle memory.

Challenges

For me, one the most challenging experience I’ve had in the Martial Arts was the testing for the tips on my brown belt  In Ko Sutemi Seiei Kan Karate, after you have your brown belt, you must pass the tests for two tips on it, and then teach for at least six months and continue learning and then receive your black belt in a ceremony. For the test for our first tip, Anthony Pietromonaco and myself travelled with our parents, instructor, and some friends to our main dojo in Chillicothe, OH.  We arrived the night before after a much to long 6 hour drive, and attempted to sleep before our big test.  In the test, we had to go through all of our katas (empty-hand and weapon), know all of our terminology, recite our creed, and spar.

The sparring was the most challenging part.  After already sparring twice, we had to individually fight 5 students at once, all  of higher rank.  After no break, we then fought eight black belts for two minutes each in a row.  It was a very exhausting, but a fun and rewarding experience.
The second tip test was held July 8th, 2001.  It was pretty much the same as the first tip test, only we fought all the brown belts present to test (for both tips) at once, and we fought all the blackbelts that were present at this test in sucession.This time another student from our dojo was present, Bob Barrett, to test for his first tip. Again, it was a mentally and physically exhausting day of testing, but also an enjoyable occasion.

I received my black belt in a ceremony on December of 2001. At the beginning of that days test, I was called on to announce the Karate Creed before the proceedings. Those of us receiving our black belts that day were called to the front where we formed a circle with Grand Master Don Madden. He had us kneel in seiza position and he turned of the microphone. “This is for your ears only,” he said, and proceeded to tell us of our Martial Arts history and lineage and the rights and responsibilities we took on becoming black belts. It was a very gratifying ceremony after so many years of Martial Arts practice, and I would have felt cheated if the tests for it were not difficult.

Chronology of Styles

Shotokan Karate Club

My first instructor was Sensei Mike Shaw of the Shotokan Karate Club.  I went up to a purple belt in Shotokan, and competed in one tournament in 1989, receiving two second place trophies- one for kata, and one for sparring.

Around 1995, I joined Scott DeSarro’s Dragon Tae Kwon Do Club, and once again progressed to a purple belt.  I quit this club for various reasons, mainly being financial.

after my blackbelt test in July 2001

In 1998, after a year or two of no karate, I could not stay away any longer.  I began attending classes at the area YMCA under Sensei Rick Cable in Ko Sutemi Seiei Kan Karate Do and Ju-Jitsu.

From 1998-2003 I also attended several AKJU Team America Summer Camps where we studied Ko Sutemi Seiei Kan Karate and Ju-Jitsu, but also had instruction in our sister style Seiei Kan Kung Fu and Tai Chi with the Black Dragon Association, and dim mak.

Jeff, Rick, myself, and CJ at Camp

In 1999, I moved to Alliance, OH for university. I attended a Kwan Mu Kan class at a local gym. I also took a PE martial arts class, in which the style was Isshin-Ryu. The instructor was Bob Pettitt, and he ended up having me take half of the class a lot of the time.

In 2003-04, I attended a boxing class at Mercyhurst College in Erie, PA.

I broke my foot in 2004, before moving to Maryland. I moved to Pittsburgh in 2006, and have been working out on my own, and with a training partner in boxing and Bando, a Burmese martial art. I have been doing some sparring with partners, but want to find a more formal/structured environment.

Karate Kid Through the Years

The most recent movie in the Karate Kid franchise is yet to be released. The Karate Kid, starring Jaden Smith (son of actor Will Smith) and Jackie Chan is set to be released in June 2010. While this should more accurately be titled The Kung Fu Kid, it looks to have about the same basic storyline: Kid is out of place for some reason, gets bullied, turns to hermit type teacher in unexpected position, learns to defend self, redeems self through the philosophy and character of martial arts, not just the techniques. Here is a list of the Karate Kid movies in chronological order:

The Next Karate Kid (1994)

The Karate Kid (1984), Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita

The Karate Kid, Part II (1986), Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita

The Karate Kid, Part III (1989), Ralph Macchio, Pat Morita

The Next Karate Kid (1994), Hillary Wank, Pat Morita

The Karate Kid (2010), Jaden Smith, Jackie Chan

Origins of the Comeback Karate Kid

Phillip Mallory, Craig, myself

I started karate when I was six years old. I know I was six, because I have a picture of my seventh birthday cake with a karate girl wearing a yellow belt on the icing. Since starting kindergarten early at age four my parents and teachers had been concerned with my lack of coordination. I still have a kindergarten report card with poor marks for throwing and catching a ball. The pediatrician said that this was due to the fact that I had never crawled, but went straight to walking. One suggestion to improve my coordination was to crawl around the house. Another was to take up a structured physical activity.

I first attended a ballet class. My impressions of the place are colored by the high fluorescent lights in the studio, girls in tights (which I did not like to wear) and at least three other sarahs in the class already. Next I attended Mike Shaw’s Shotokan karate class held at the local business college. I had loved the 1984 movie Karate Kid, watching it over and over again when I was sick with the chicken pox, and there was no one else named Sarah at the karate class. I was hooked.