My Journey Through Karate

My journey through Karate began as a child, when at a summer camp, the older guys were all talking about a Japanese Karate master that was doing unbelievable things. Breaking boards, and bricks, fighting all comers, and winning by knockouts in under a minute.

Nothing here is new to anyone who has trained and been through it all. This is my journey.

That got my interest started, yet living in a remote area, there was nothing like that around us. I asked my father about it, and he said he had taken Judo in the Army (WW2 Ranger Training) but would say no more. I took Wrestling in HS and that was as close as I could come.

When I went away to the Navy, some guys came up and said to me, come with us. I asked, who are you? Seals they said, Not interested. I said. I am here to go into the Navy. We are part of the Navy they said.
No, Thank You I said. I thought they were fishermen, and I wanted to be in the Navy not a fishing boat.

Then later as my Navy schooling began, I found a Judo class on base. After a week I was told I can no longer attend. My "Job Description" did not allow me to train in any martial arts. They were told by the head of the school that I was not to be permitted to take Judo.

Later at my next duty station, my department head said, that I could not take any Martial Arts training off base, should I become injured, and my job was there on base. OK.

My next duty station was aboard a Super Carrier where I found after a few weeks, had a Karate school.
So I went to the Instructor and asked if I could do it. Yes, he said.
It may not be part of my job description I explained, and was told that as we went to "SEA" my job description had changed, and now I could be reassigned with the Marines at any time. Unarmed, so it was now permitted.

The instructor had 3 rules;

1. Buy my own Gi's I needed at least 3, One for training. One for Laundry, One to be kept in reserve for special events.
2. I could not get in any fights outside of class. Or I would be out.
3. I could not miss any more than 3 classes, or I would be dismissed, and no longer able to train.

What about Duty? I asked. There was at least once or twice a week I would have "Duty" and be required to watch the department all night for emergencies. OK, he would exempt me from that because of Military duty comes first. I gave him the money for the Gi's and would not be permitted to train until they arrived.

A week later my 3 Gi's arrived, 2 White and 1 black.

We were required to report to class a minimum of 30 minutes before it began to a. suit up, and b. stretch out.

These classes were at 6 PM 7 days a week, they were 2 hours long with (1) 5 minute break, and no water was allowed.


I thought I was in pretty good condition before I began, having  run 3-10 miles a day on shore daily, hundreds of pushups and Sit-ups, Boy was I wrong! After the first class I could not walk. I was so impressed by my sensei, he lead every exercise by doing them himself, everything was 2 minutes.
2 min. pushups on knuckles. 2 min. deep knee bends etc. Then after 2 hours was an hour of weight training. I trained with the Marines, and a handful of sailors.

I wanted to learn. His (Sensei's') attitude was if you do not hurt so much you can hardly move the next morning you did not work out. After class I would go to an empty area or one of the mess decks and work out another 4-5 hours practicing what we just did in class. When I took breaks I would do Push ups.

When was all this, you may ask? The late '60's, Karate was still pretty much secret until Goldfinger and Bruce Lee hit the scene. Later I learned Sean Connery studied the same style.

We trained without any protection, blocking left arms black and blue. My friends would come up and watch the workouts. They never joined. Too difficult.

The first 3 months were considered the "Conditioning period" Then the training started. 1 hour exercise, 1 hour Kata. The next 3 months started the sparring period. I was the only one without any history so I had nothing to fall back on. They beat me up every night.

One time I asked, What Style is this? his answer, Why do you want to know? If it is no good and you get killed in combat, the name of the style will not save you. So we struggled on learning and practicing. Basics, basics, basics. Every night basic moves, no fancy stuff. As Bruce would later say, Fancy moves are for the movies, they don't work on the street.

Then one Sunday, The Sensei took me aside and said to me, "Let me see you do this..." and that.
Then he said, try it this way, and made subtle changes. My world changed instantly.
Now instead of getting beat up, I was the one beating everyone. We sparred winner kept fighting till he lost.

One of my very last matches on the ship, my sensei said, You Fight Me. He had never fought any of us, so I considered it an honor. As I am fighting him, I realized, I can beat him. I am better than he is.

Later he said to me as I was leaving the service, "Don't show anyone what I taught you, it is for you, it is secret."

The oriental way is to teach 90%, just hold a little back until you find a worthy student.