Whats your story?

[robbo78]

Hi All, just a quick question to all. How did you get into your chosen art what was the story behind it all? The reason I ask this is cos I am nosy and I think it would be interesting to hear everyone's stories as they will all be different, so who will be first to share the start of their personal and life long journey? ;D

[fleur]

I started training when a teenage staff member at my work said she was thinking of starting training at the local karate club. She said her mum was training there and the Sensei was encouraging her to ask her female friends as he wanted more women to get involved. Knowing this made it so much easier to go along. I had always thought karate would be a cool thing to do, but I would never have had the courage to go along to a club, not knowing what was involved.

However my teenage friend said 'if you go, I'll go. The Sensei is very nice and really wants the opportunity to show women that they can give it a go in a friendly, non threatening environment.'

So we went

My hubby wasn't home, so I took my 6year old daughter with me. She didn't want to watch, so she joined in too. It's been nearly four years now and we are both still training.

We made a club change a year and a half ago in the effort to find more experienced instructors and better quality karate. And so far, so good.

[dek1]

Like so many others I got into Karate because of my daughter, she was the lowest graded student for around a year and kept moaning that I was just sitting in the car and could join. I did and nearly two years I later I wish had stuck with it in my teens. My daughter got into it after being bullied at school we chose the club because I worked with the Sensei and it was a fair distance from our home to give her a chance to train without local pressure. Since then we do a round trip of 50miles a class and her confidence is great and her dedication and love for Karate keeps growing.

[andyupton]

I got into Karate in 1980 because I originally wanted to do Kung Fu !
Being a huge Bruce Lee fan, I wanted to emulate my hero, but there were no Kung Fu clubs in Birkenhead.
One day, my dad saw a poster for something called "Shotokan Karate" outside the local YMCA.
The next night I called in and immediatley joined (along with a friend).
My friend lasted about about 4 months, and I have been training ever since.

[jimlukelkc]

I got into Judo in the 70s after being bullied for a period in school. Then the Bruce Lee boom came and I joined a Lau gar club in Sunderland. a couple of friends at Kung fu were also training in Shotokan ( There are a lot of similarities ) and I started that club, which turned out to be in the boys club in my village! There were sixty people crammed into the hall lined up three-deep on the first night of the influx of beginners. After three weeks there were twenty beginners left. As far as I know, I am the only one still training.
The training in Shotokan was no more arduous than in Lau gar. We were presented with a pair of black kung fu trousers upon joining and as these were free, everyone trained bare chested ( apart from the ladies of course! ) the sifu would often jog us through Sunderland town centre of a Sunday afternoon, bare foot and stripped to the waist! finished off with knuckle press-ups on the pavement outside before back in to finish the class.
Since then I have trained spasmodically in Ju-jitsu, Aikido and Kobudo but only to supplement Shotokan training.

[malk103]

I've always wanted to try it so when I worked away from home I joined a local Wado Ryu club, after moving home I then looked out for a closer club which turned out to be Shotokan.
I mostly started because i'm not that sporty so needed something for fitness, now i've reached Black Belt I intend to train others whilst continuing my training, luckily the wife has gotten into swimming so can't complain when I go out to Karate 4/5 times a week!
My kids followed me into Karate (with slight pressure) and are now both 1st Kyu.

[Allan Shepherd]

Like so many people of my age I found Karate in the 1960's, specifically March 1966 after practicing Judo/Jujitsu as a teenager in the early 1960's in Liverpool. Started at the then Liverpool Red Triangle (Andy Sherry, Alan Smith, Frank Vernon) which encouraged me to later train with other groups such as Mushindo, Wado Ryu, Uechi Ryu, Goju Ryu, Sanchin Ryu, Taekwondo + Kyokushinkai. Stayed with Shotokan via Sensei Billy Higgins KUGB, Sensei John Errington KUGB/TSKK/UKTKF, Sensei Asai JKS, Sensei Charlie Gidley BSK/TBSKA/BSKI.

Had the pleasure to train with some superb British instructors over the years from all of the above Ryu/Associations and have taken the opportunity to take my Gi with me when abroad for holidays, birthdays and even wedding anniversaries to places like Portugal, Spain, France, Greece and Goa, again with superb instructors who have made me so welcome.

Best Regards
Allan

[tomobrien]

Wow! Allan you are a year older than me. Same story. Started judo in 60's. In 71 my friend was doing shotokan. I loved it but there was no shotokan school near me. So I started doing Vee-Jitsu & my friend came & taught kumite classes there. We did all martial arts there. It's been great! The best part is that I am still doing it hard.

Thanks,
Tom

[kensei]

I grew up doing Sambo and Judo with my Grandfather and family. He came to Canada from Russia and we just kind of wrestled and threw leg logs on cousins and siblings. then he passed away and I was about six or seven and I joined a Karate club a few months after that.

I wanted to do Karate and not Judo because I wanted to be like Bruce Lee and Judo did not have a big name in it that I knew of.

After a year with a local instructor I did not like Karate much anymore, he smoked alot and drank before teaching and the club had a bad vibe to it.

I left and joined a YMCA Judo club but after just three years of training I thought that it was way to sports minded and their whole ranking was based on sports. So Back to Karate I went. I found a better instructor and fell in love with Karate.

The whole thing taught me however that you can gain bits and peices to the puzzle by looking around, so I went ot Kendo, Aikido, Judo again, Kick boxing and several other arts to look at them and bring it back to what I was already doing ni Karate. So, my journey has been one of venturing out and then tasting bits to make sure that my style of Karate never grew to "settled".

I have even tried a bit of BJJ as of late and found that they have strengths that we dont, but we have strengths that they dont.

My journey will continue to the day I die and I wont stop looking about while trying to figure this thing out that I am loving doing now.

[Paul Bedard]

Moved lots when I was young. New kid in town/school too many times. Victim of bullying, ( had nothing to do with my big mouth ). Getting beat up, was hurting. Wanted to learn karate since I was 10, saw adds in comic books, where a guy in a gi would hit a piece of log & break it. Wanted to break this one particular bullies arm. Moved twice again after that time, more bullying. When I was 15 took some basic karate for about 6 months with a RCMP ( police ) member Gary Dyk. Learned enough to win a few fights & the bullying stopped. Gary Dyk moved away so ended my training for few years. When I was 17, sent away for karate training material. Kind of like when Mr. Myagi looked at Daniel san & asked about learning karate from book. At 19 was in Vancouver for a few months, took some Kung Fu, back to my home town. Made friends with a Japanese fellow who knew some judo, worked with him a bit, then he moved. Back to book. Took a kicking seminar at age 25. Met a first kyu shotokan man who trained us for 2 yrs.
Self trained as best as I could. A friend asked if I would help her son, I worked with him a while & his friend started too. Then another one & another one, then my brother & few of his friends. It didn`t take long for me to be running out of things to show them, as my experience was limited. At the time I was taking instructor courses in other fiels, so the ability to tranfer knowledge was coming around. Got into the yellow pages, found Vancouver Karate Center ( Patrick McCarthy, yes the same one ). He gave me the number of the JKA/ISKF chief instructor Gary Johnson. I phoned him & was invited right away, so of to Vancouver every saturday for a year & a half ( 3hrs one way ), many seminars & camps later. This started in feb/86. Six of my students received their yellow belt, when I got my orange belt. Now, I`m Yondan coming up to 26 yrs later. Go figure.
Took a little JKD & found that I preferred the traditional aspect of Shotokan better. Have trained with a few others over the years, but they just convince me to stay with shotokan.
The ISKF is my karate family. We all have our reasons for why we are with the org that we are. Mine is mainly, `be loyal to those that have been loyal to you`. Also of course I`m still learning so much!!!
Osu
Paul B

[Gaz Lee]

Great story's! mines similar, wanted to start karate, (after watching martial art films) there was only one club in my town so asked my dad to take me down, i was 10 and the instructor said they wouldn't take children until they were in high school! (11) so i would have to wait a year!! i wasnt having that so i kept asking (pestering) my dad, who went down to the dojo on his own and had a chat with the sensei, they struck a deal that i was on a 1 month trial and that if i messed about or distracted others i was out! after 3 months i was double graded, passed every kyu and dan grade first time, and became the youngest and quickest black belt they'd had in their 40 year history! I love my dad!

[robbo78]

Hi gaz how long was it from first starting that you graded shodan how quick was quick? Just curious

[marie]

I was being bullied at school - not severe bullying as such, it was verbal the majority of the time, but I always had people pick on me and tell me to meet them after school for a 'fight,' which wasn't pleasant at all. My dad wanted me to take up some form of self defense but I wasn't all that interested at first. I went to see the film 'Karate Kid 2010' at the cinema a while after and it partly inspired me to take up my dad's offer. I can honestly say it's the best thing I've ever done. I began Karate when I was 14-years-old and I started off in the juniors classes - however the black belts thought I was far too strong to be in that class so I was moved up into the adults and now I'm 5th Kyu - hopefully going on 4th Kyu as I've just had a grading last Thursday. I've learnt so much - not just how to defend myself, but how to respect and be disciplined.

[Gaz Lee]

well rob, it was 20 yrs ago and i no longer have the record book :-( but thanks to the initial double grading (by steve cattle) it was somewhere between 3 and 3/half yrs, i was very keen, 1/half hour sessions, 3 times a week, and there wernt many kids in our club, a few came and left but not many. god i remember my first time back in the dojo after my shodan grading, apparently it was tradition to take the class on the first time back as a black belt, and there's me this kid taking a class of a bout 20 adults! it was ok though, a great bunch of people! karate is charachter building and not just about self defence as Marie above points out!

[Allan Shepherd]

Hi Gaz

I remember training with Steve Cattle many many years ago in the Community Centre on Stanley Road in Kirkdale Liverpool. Which part of Lancashire are you based, I am in the West.

Best Regards
Allan

[Gaz Lee]

Hi Allen, im from Blackpool, Steve cattle often came to our club for training & grading sessions, he came across as very knowledgable karateka and always got the best out of people.

[deckerdude304]

Hya Robbo, mikky from class here! I worked at a distribution center for computer components as a driver, in Leatherhead, Surrey, 25 years ago this year.
A friend who was in our control room asked me one evening to come across and go to Karate with him, in Surrey. He was already a Yellow Belt and thought that i would like to try my hand at it.
I loved it from the word go! My job though meant that i was often away delivering components as far north, south, east and west as you can get, so some training nights i simply was not there-and so i never graded!
All in all i was there for training for roughly about 3 months total time, (though was a club member for 9 months), when the company 'relocated' to Kent.
I had a ('semi'!) home life then and did not relocate, so i lost the firms van and could not go to the club anymore.
Years past, kids came and went, time flew by. I did my own training out of books-(John Van Weenen, Masatoshi Nakayama)-but so annoyed some neighbours running up and down 10 flights of stairs-(punching/kicking and ki-i ing on every landing)-that they reported me to the council!
More years went by, my books gathered dust, many dole Q's later plus more kids, then i moved 'down here'.
On my feet again and back to my beloved Karate! I love Sensei Adrians Class at Heathfield on Monday Nights, although some of the intermediate and Black Belt stuff is beyond me at present, but i enjoy the workouts and the ''trying'' to learn the kicks, kihon and the drills.
Sensei Ians Class on the Wednesday Night is altogether different and geared towards learning those basics i desparately need in the Art.
I will never stop going to the both classes, i feel ''at home'' again now!
My wife and i took up Tai Chi and it is our 4th week tomorrow, Saturday, and i would never stop doing that either. We both love it and it is ''our'' thing that we do as a couple on a Saturday. Sorry its a tad long winded, but what is YOUR story Robbo!?!

[robbo78]

OK then, I was 11 when I first became interested in karate, this was through my uncle whom I came to visit here in England (born and lived in Australia til I was 15). Any way he was a Black belt (not to sure what rank) in Kyokushinkai and told me about its history and obviously about his experiences this is what got me interested, well I was already attracted to Martial arts through the movies of course i.e the Bruce Lee films and my old time favourites the American Ninja films. So my mum took me along to a Karate club just 5 minutes from my home in Brisbane along with my cousins who were also interested, well for the next 3 years this is where we trained twice a week I loved it. Then it all came crashing down our sensei was arrested for armed robbery needless to say we never saw him again. We had a first dan senior cant remember his name he took on the club but only for a short month and a half as he moved away we had a guest instructor for our last 2 sessions he was brilliant his name I think was Gavrilov Valerie (4th dan) I think he was from norway/sweden?? so anyway moved to England in 93 and continued training in bexhill for nearly another year then left when I was 4th kyu at 16, I went to do the young lad things i.e going on the lash a lot and having a good time, and later met my wife and had 2 daughters, so 16 years later I return to karate which was 2 years ago in August blimey thats gone quick.

[deckerdude304]

Hmm, very interesting to know these details off other peoples lives Robbo, a 'snap-shot' caught in time, from many different angles! It merits a 'brucie bonus' the next time we drill together!! Are you grading this month mate!?!

[th0mas]

Being born with a silver spoon and being sent to boarding school is not strategy I'd recommend for the avoidance of fighting and being picked upon! I went to boarding school at about the age of 11 and got into, what seems to my fading memory, a fairly regular string of fights until I was about 15 when I joined a Seki juku (pseudo Kyokushinkai club) in Twickenham during the summer holidays. Got back to school the next term and a karate club had been set-up, which happend to be shotokan and I joined almost immediately. Training with Evan Poeti and john Ponsillo in Glastonbury/Street in somerset. stayed until I left after A-Levels. Graded to 3rd kyu. Had a stint at Martial Street with Enoeda. Got my 1st Dan at Sussex University with Dave Hazard, Mac Afzali and Zoltan Denes.

20+ odd years later i have had the pleasure and pain of training with the ususal suspects including his nibs Mr Hyland.