Why I began teaching karate

 

It was January of 1970 when I was promoted to my Black Belt in Isshinryu.

 

In April my instructor Charles Murray returned to the USAF and suddenly I was on my own. Charles had force fed me the remaining Isshinryu kata and kobudo prior to his departure.

 

As he was no longer the Minister in the Church he had led, the Church requested that I take the Karate program Charles had established elsewhere.

 

There was no one in the area teaching anything remotely like Isshinryu.

 

I was left with the three Blackwell brothers and took to instructing them outside in McDade Park over that summer.

 

I did not have the money to establish my own dojo nor was I from Scranton, just living and working at a Bank there. I was not sure what I was going to do.

 

I began competing at Pennsylvania karate tournaments and gradually started visiting the dojo of instructors I competed with at those tournaments. All I was hoping for was someone to spar with, knowing I needed partners.

 

I practiced my kata and my kobudo on my own, early mornings and the evenings at the Scranton YMCA as my wife ran the swim team there, and taught in other programs.

 

My karate became very much my own,.

 

At my position in personnel at the Bank I had a lunch hour every day. I used to take most of it to walk around downtown Scranton Pa. While walking I was struck at how many dance studios were about the town. It got me thinking that there must be much interest in those programs to find students.

 

Following up on that line of logic I eventually felt I could offer a karate program to the Scranton Boys Club (in those days there was a separate club for girls). I approached them if they were interested in such a program, and I imagine because I was an employee of the Bank, I was considered a good risk. They agreed to let me start after Labor Day.

 

So as September began I started my program at the Boy’s Club. We could not use the gym because of their basketball programs and ½ of the club  was  a daycare program. We were allowed to use the nursery, and we moved the bassinetts to the edge of the room for class.

 

I originally had the 3 Blackwell brothers, who were green belts, and the rest of the class were beginning club members. I did not charge for instruction and the students paid a $1.00 class fee which went to the Boy’s Club.

 

While I had assisted Charles Murray with his church program. I relied on the vigorous way he had trained me.  I did not have students have uniforms their first month, to prove to their parents they had an interest in training.

 

By Christmas I only had the Blackwell brothers still training in the program. I talked to the Club director and we decided to advertise a new class after the new year.

 

I spent some serious introspection on how I taught and realized I was teaching at the pace I had trained as a brown belt.

 

My wife, a phys ed instructor, specializing in swimming and diving, spent some time talking to me. She explained what the problem likely was I needed to ‘listen to what my students needed’.   Correct instructions involved more than just showing and pushing students in class.

 

She then showed me what she had studied in College, to give me an idea of what was needed. As I went through her books, I realized her texts on coaching jr. high girls swim teams was much more advanced than any text I ever saw on karate.

 

All in all that started me thinking and when the new group began I slowed the pace of instruction to what the kids needed. After doing that the program took off.

 

Now I was teaching 2 evenings a week (hour and a half classes). Along with that I continued my travels to other schools, had begun t’ai chi instruction, training evenings in the YMCA gym and competing 2 or 3 times a month across the State. Sundays I took off and felt somewhat lost because I had no place to go.

 

When I talked about what I was doing with others at tournaments, the universal answer was that I was crazy, for if I wanted to do real karate I would be teaching adults.

At that time almost no schools had separate youth classes. When they taught the young they were doing so within the adult program.

 

I tried to explain that as they were a commercial program they were not taking advantage of the potential cash flow.

 

My basic premise became while youth students could be mixed in adult programs, the best possibility was teaching youth separate from adults.

 

So I just continued and classes grew, I kept the class size about 25 (for the reality of youth, is they were not going to show up for every class. But I proved that what was most important was not training every class, rather keeping at it and improvement would occur at the pace they used.

 

After a time, parents approached me and asked if their daughters could join the program. I checked with the Boys Club and they allowed I could do so. Within a short time ½ of my program was young women. And the average girl was a stronger fighter than the boys (up to the teen years, then things changed.

 

At tournaments I noted that there were often huge youth divisions, but the kids were lost on the floor amidst the adult divisions taking place at the same time. I rarely took my students to others tournaments.

 

So I decided to put on a youth tournament. Inviting all the dojo I knew to have their kids come and compete. I did that for 3 years, it grew larger each year. The fee was a flat $5.00 no matter how many divisions they competed in. Every participant received a certificate of participation. Trophies were made by a parent who worked at the Tobyhanna Depot.

 

The program I taught was 100% exactly the Isshinryu I was taught.

 

But as I was studying so many different places, and saw so many other approaches to instruction, I began to think about ways I might made my Isshinryu program even stronger. I did not want to confuse those good students with curricula changes.

 

But the wheel of time turns and for work I had to relocate to New Hampshire.

It was sad leaving my students.

 

Almost immediately living in New Hampshire I was given permission to begin my program at the Derry Boy’s and Girls Club. I am sure a letter of recommendation from the club in Scranton helped.

 

Now I could gradually make changes I believed would help students learn Isshinryu.  Among which I added supplemental kata to the program. Each of which I had a least 5years of work on myself before making the addition to the program.

My first two black belts who were Scranton Boys Club students.

Michael Toomey and Roy Blackwell