to Friendship
He had been training for 2.5 months. Just a baby. “You gotta crawl before you walk, walk before you run.” He was at that stage where he knew just enought to be dangerous…to himself.
He got a late start in Karate. He hit 20 just a few weeks before he discovered the Karate PE class at the University. He had always wanted to learn karate, so when he saw that class offering, he knew he was going to sign up. He had done everything he could in his little mid west town, He even bought Bruce Tegner’s book, Complete Karate. Now he had the chance to actually learn the real thing.
Some people said you had to start karate training as a child if you hope to be any good. Well, he couldn’t start any younger than he was that day. He may never be the greatest karateka in the world, but he could certainly learn and benefit. How do you determine how good you are. He decided he would work hard, do his best and try to get just a little better each day.
The White Belt got to (or had to) work with the higher ranking students. He knew they had a lot to teach him, but he couldn’t help feeling a bit nervous and intimidated.
At the end of his second class, he went to the Sensei and asked if there was a way to get more work in. The one hour session twice a week just wasn’t enough. Sensei replied, “You could join our Club.”
“You have a CLUB?!!! How cool!! Tell me more.”
Turns out, the Club held formal workouts Monday and Wednesday nights from 7 to 9:30. They also had informal workouts Tuesday and Thursday at noon, Friday afternoon and Saturday and Sunday mornings. Perfect. Every day should be just about right.
He was busy learning the basics, but he got exposed to more advanced techniques when he worked with the upper belts. They needed warm bodies to help when they wanted to practice one step spar with double and triple counters. Minor accidents happened. The White Belt was attacking a green belt in one-step sparring. The White Belt thought he should react as if the green belt was actually hitting him. This lead him to lean into a counter technique, resulting in a strike to his mouth. It was a good lesson for the White Belt. He was doing some weird stuff with his mouth which meant his front teeth crashed into each other. The lower right outer incisor was chipped by the upper incisor. There was a lesson.
This time he was going to spar with the scariest guy in the class. The Senior Brown Belt. He was big and strong and was working hard to become a black belt. The White Belt tried to be brave and let the brown belt know that he was there and trying. Suddenly, the brown belt let out a terrible scream and jumped in the air right at the White Belt. The White Belt could only react instinctively. He covered his head with his arms, closed his eyes and ducked. Nothing happened. The brown belt was standing there with an amused smile and encouraged him to continue sparring. The White Belt, always the learner, asked, “Wait a minute. What did you do to me?”
“Just an overhead backfist,” was the response.
This was start of a good relationship. The brown belt worked while going to school, filling the numerous candy vending machines on campus. The White Belt rewrote the words to the Sammy Davis Jr. song, “The Candyman.” 46 years later they were Facebook friends.
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