Awhile back, after what seemed like a very hard workout, I was thinking back to when I first started training.
My first training was in Tae Kwon Do at the local YMCA. A friend was training there and got me interested.
This was either late 1970 or early 1971, I was 14 at the time, involved in Olympic Weightlifting and in pretty good shape. The workouts weren't to tough, but somewhat difficult at first, very different from what I was used to. There were a lot of breaks and while other people were sparring or doing kata, we would set and watch. Latter in life I understood that you have to accommodate your class some, there were children, elderly and people who hadn't really done any real exercise in there life.
One day we stopped at the local boys club because we had heard that they taught Karate there. We went up to the gym area and watched as an Instructor was just finishing teaching a class with four students.
We thought, this guy can't be to good, he only has four students.
The Instructor approached us after the class, he was sweating and his gi was dirty. He was pleasant enough and seem to have a real knowledge and passion for the art. He explained that the art he taught was called SHOTOKAN KARATE and that it was similar to our art, just less emphasis on kicks.
He told us that we could train there for $2.50 a month, we were paying $10 at the Y. (Ahh the good old days)
We signed up, feeling a little sorry for the guy, just four students, maybe we could help him out with our months of experience in Tae Kwon Do.
The workouts were Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, but they were two to two and a half hours long, that seemed kind of long to me.
We arrived with our clean, pressed Gis, I brought my yellow belt, (just earned that week) all of his students were white belts and he might want me to take over and show them some of my stuff.
Only three of his students show up for this workout, Chuck 17, Mike 16 and Vince 16. The other student had joined the marines and wouldn't be back.
The workout begins and the Instructor has us do this little bowing ritual which was kind of cool, very Asian and mystical. Then he said something in Japanese which I think meant: WELCOME TO HELL.
he was throwing out terms like Gedan Barai, Oi-zuki, Uraken-uchi,
Mae-geri, well it was all French to me.
This continued on and on, up the floor, back down the floor. I'm thinking he's trying to kill us, I felt bad for his students, they must really be dieing.
We then moved into this thing he call "Ippon Kumite", he explained that we probably did something similar and that we would just do some basic Oi-zuki and Chudan-Ude-Uke, HuH. "He forgot about our break"
I'm paired up with Chuck, he gets in a front stance, I get in my ready stance and Chuck punches me square in the chest and I land on my ass about five feet back. I immediately look to the Instructor, he's really going to let chuck have it, no, he looks at me and says "GET UP, LETS GO!", Chuck still has 4 right handed Oi-Zukis and
5 left handed Oi-zukis, then I get my turn.
Next were going to do a little Kumite, The Instructor has a Dentist appointment so were going to have to cut the workout short about an hour, forty-five minutes, we'll make it up on Saturday though.
He wants Chuck and Vince to Spar a little, show us what he wants to see when his students spar. I was just punched in the chest THIRTY TIMES by his students so I assume the best crossed leg stance on the floor that I can, only to quickly find out that there is no setting down, we could stand in a deep Kiba-dachi and if our legs got to tired in that stance, we could switch to any of the very comfortable stances offered in Shotokan Karate.
Well, we each sparred for about 20 continuous mins, "light day". Didn't have time for Kata, because of that Damn Dentist appointment, so we ended the workout with a hundred squatting front kick, fifty squatting side kicks, 25 squatting round kicks, and 25 squatting back kicks.
He explained that he was sorry for the light workout that day and promised he would make it up Saturday.
We left there that day, my friend said "he's never going back, he's staying with the Tae Kwon Do, he's not going to pay good money to get beat up". I thought about it all night between the cramps, the gasps for air, the bumping of sore arms and legs from the THOUSAND BRUISE WORKOUT.
I was there the next Saurday and every TUESDAY, THURSDAY and SATURDAY after that, getting beat up, shins all banged up and watched as the "NEW RECENTLY EARNED YELLOW BELT" students from other schools would come and want to try a class and maybe show us a few things.
The Advanced Shotokan Karate Bible: Black Belt and Beyond
OLD SCHOOL TRAINING GOT TO LOVE IT.
