Memorable Moments

[MJS]

We have a few Tracy members here, some of which have been doing the Tracy system for many years. I thought it would be cool to hear about some of your most memorable moments that you've had through out your training.

What are some of the highlights of your training?

Mike

 

[Flying Crane]

I think for me it was just the fact that I was training at all. I grew up in a very small town in Wisconsin, that to my knowledge was devoid of any martial arts instruction. I wanted to learn the martial arts since I was about 5 or 6, probably the first time I saw an advertisement on TV for Good Guys Wear Black, or something. But my town had no schools.

Then I got wind of a guy who was teaching in his living room and front yard, he lived just down the street from me actually. It was 1984, I was 13 at the time, and delivered newspapers to pay for my lessons. I was just excited that I had the opportunity to train. My teachers are not famous, nor high-ranking people, but I think they instilled good habits in me and opened the door to the world of martial arts for me. I have never met any of the famous or high ranking kenpo people, Tracy or otherwise (I guess I met John Sepulveda briefly a few years ago when a friend of mine was testing for Brown under him). So I don't have any amazing stories to tell about any of that kind of thing.

I also became aware that most of the other schools in my area of the State were Tae Kwon Do schools. I kind of liked the fact that I was doing something that was a bit less well known, different from everyone else. Pure dumb luck, I guess. I really didn't know the difference between one or the other at that time.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

to boil down training experience to a few snapshot moments....that would take a lot of boiling.

for me, it's the first black belt test i ever ran in my school, with students who started under me.

one was 11 years old, he'd worked out to the point of exhaustion and i got to see the little light turn on in his eyes ... the one that says 'give up? to hell with that." and then he kept going.

 

[HKphooey]

It would have to be the day I got my yellow belt. I know, boring.... but it was the point I realized I loved Kenpo!

 

[KenpoDave]

to boil down training experience to a few snapshot moments....that would take a lot of boiling.

for me, it's the first black belt test i ever ran in my school, with students who started under me.

one was 11 years old, he'd worked out to the point of exhaustion and i got to see the little light turn on in his eyes ... the one that says 'give up? to hell with that." and then he kept going.

Experiencing that myself, and then getting to experience it over and over with my own students, that is the best.

I also fondly remember the first time I ever hit a heavy bag and had the guy holding it collapse. That doesn't happen often, but when it does, you know things are clicking.

Using a kenpo technique in a real fight, and doing it textbook correct was cool. It was Covering Talon, by the way.

Kicking a 6'5" guy in the face with a front leg roundhouse. Then doing it again to show him it was not an accident.

Leaving sparring class with a red left earlobe because my instructor kept kicking it over and over and there was nothing I could do about it. I was more than impressed with his speed. Later, when I realized the extent of the control he had, I was even more impressed.

My first seminar with Al Tracy. We focused on hyper-weighting. I was a blue belt and it changed my kenpo forever.

My first seminar with Roger Greene. We focused on hyper-weighting. I was a 4th degree black belt and it changed my kenpo forever.

The first lesson I took.

The first lesson I taught.

Having a pregnant student, who, tired of the physical abuse of her live-in boyfriend, called 9-1-1 one night when he was being particularly abusive. When the police and paramedics arrived, she was standing over him with the phone in her hand. He was on the floor quivering and moaning.

There is no shortage of memorable moments in kenpo!

 

[Sigung86]

My most recent memorable event ...

In St. Louis there is a surfeit of ex-Tracy folk, who have either run afowl of the Tracy organization, or the local Golby-Tracy organization. Some of them got together several weeks ago and had a small tournament. I was invited to attend. I took several students of mine along.

During the forms competition there was a young fellow, mid-twenties or so, who got up and did his version of Long Two. He went all over the place, kind of an omni-directional or virtual "Long Two".

It didn't dawn on me, at first, that there was something special about this young man. I had simply noticed that he slurred his words when he presented for his mat time. After we graded him, and I got him pretty low ... It finally hit me that this young fellow was "challenged". He didn't place at all in the competition.

Well ... Yours truly felt like a first class toad!

We talked his parents into staying until the forms comp was finished. My students and I got up, called him up by name, and made a "major" presentation of one of our DKC patches and made him part of our Kenpo family for his pride in effort and continuous excelling under his conditions...

Was a big round of applause, thanks from the parents and his instructor. But the best thing of all... The most memorable moment was the gleam in his eye and the fact that he walke a lot taller when he left.

 

[KenpoDave]

I attended the Budweiser Nationals in St. Louis one year and watched a competitor perform Long 2, but she called it "The Great Lion." Has anyone ever heard that name associated with this form before?

 

[Sigung86]

I attended the Budweiser Nationals in St. Louis one year and watched a competitor perform Long 2, but she called it "The Great Lion." Has anyone ever heard that name associated with this form before?

Yeah Dave... That's some of the St. Louis version of Tracy's I've mentioned before. Short 2 is Lion ... Long 2 is Great Lion. Sorry, but I don't remember the other names. They're all different animal names, however. As I recall ... Possibly ... Short one was Horse, Long one was Iron Horse.

If you want the full run down, let me know, and I'll contact some folks that use that naming convention.

In the meantime, Merry Christmas. :ultracool