When you’re a beginner you spend more time watching the group ahead of you than the more senior members. You can imagine yourself becoming a green belt, where as a brown or black belt were beyond any comprehension.
In the Salisbury Dojo when I began there were an incredible group of Green Belts. They were all strong karate-ka and could fight like Demons.
As a White Belt I was target practice for them in kumite. Being larger I think they felt I was their private kicking bag and I’m sure I had cracked ribs for a few months for a time each breath I took contained some pain. In fact most beginners didn’t last more than a few weeks, feeling how far they had to go, that and the pain likely caused them to move on, quickly.
But those that lasted were a driven bunch. Many of the white belts would show up as soon as the dojo doors opened about 45 minutes before class. We’d spend our time working hard on the Charts, Kata or Mr. Lewis’ unique Kotekitai drills, both single and partner training. With that was abdominal kicking with top of the foot round kicks, and body side kicks too..
Starting soft we gradually picked up the pace and impact to those areas of the body which can be conditioned to take a strike. In turn the Green Belts would use that conditioning to work us over harder.
I had been training a few months and the school was going to attend an open tournament in Baltimore. Tournaments then were large affairs with many different systems in attendance. The tournament director announced several rules changes because of Chinese stylists in attendance. Ground techniques and groin techniques both with control would be valid scoring techniques in the tournament.
Watching our green belts competing they were the only competitors anywhere on the floor who were using ground kicking techniques to finish fights. One of the guy’s was so good when the judge would shout ‘hajime’, and by the time he finished speaking our green belt would have his spinning back kick in his opponents mouth, with control. Something I had experienced many times.
My own tournament beginning was more circumspect. I still had little idea what I was doing, and when I faced my opponent and started fighting, he scored his first point against me by kicking me in the groin. I’m sure it was more because of white belt skills than because of practiced groin attacks. Then we continued fighting and the fight concluded the same way a groin kick. I’m sure the judges had a different idea what control was, that last kick left stars in my eyes, tears streaming down my face from the pain. It made for a long drive back to Salisbury.
Training with those green belts was interesting, but they also introduced me to an important fact of training, in time most move one. In their case it was often for work or careers in the Coast Guard. Their developing skill in karate wasn’t enough reason to not do what they had to do to live.
I was still very new in the art, but that was one of the lessons that would not change. No matter how important karate was in someone’s life, it was still only a part of life and never the most important part.
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