K
kenposcum
Guest
Everyone-
So I started Kenpo at Downers Grove Karate when I was fifteen. What I was really interested in was something that would keep me safe when I finally got to prison. Don't all gasp at once, but I was hanging around some pretty shifty cats and I figured sooner or later, I'd get sent to the pokey. It was time to learn how to fight.
So I started. My first group class I was so out of shape I threw up during the first fifteen minutes. But I wouldn't stop...this stuff was so cool!
So by the time I graduated high school, I was a big bad purple belt. And all I wanted to do was study martial arts, commit crimes (notably theft and drug dealing), and "hang out" with a series of young ladies possessed of a loose moral character.
I kept training. I'd be at the dojo waiting for my instructor to get there, and I'd stay until he left. Unlike him, I never spent any time just sitting around...I was busy practicing. Learning.
I'd get jobs, and then they'd start to encroach on my training, and I'd quit. Ah, fraud was easier anyway, wasn't it? My instructor didn't pay any attention to me beyond bumming me the occaisional cigarette. No asking me what I was up to, no trying to encourage me to get into school, NOTHING. I'd relate tales of street violence, including how I brought the violence upon myself, and did he ever admonish me? Tell me I was going to end up dead? No; he'd gruffly laugh as I told him about how I sent some gangbanger to the hospital and mutter something about his school being able to kick the rice out of all the other schools.
I was getting pretty damn good. In a year or so I became a green belt and began teaching. What a gratifying feeling! I was also getting into a lot of trouble at this point. I got a DUI charge, and a couple months later I got a battery charge when I beat up my girlfriend's brother. My instructor didn't care. After a couple of months, he gave me a key to the school. I treated it like my child.
I kept passing people in rank, getting better and more knowledgeable (sp?) until the two highest ranking brown belts at the school were myself and a guy who got his brown belt the WEEK I STARTED! Between myself, this brown belt, and my instructor, we were teaching pretty much everyone in the school.
In terms of total hours, I was there the most though. And I grew as a person, too. A girlfriend of mine, along with my fellow brown belt, convinced me to get into school. And I did, and I did pretty well for someone who had no aspirations to higher learning. I took an anthropology class that taught me about the theory of violence: violence not as a physical act, but violence as a violation of another being. I came into a greater understanding of humankind.
And I gave up my criminal inclinations, and not a moment too soon. My old "road dog" is now serving six years for armed robbery and aggravated battery. We write sometimes and I try to help him.
So time went on. I kept working hard in the dojo, still spending five-six hours a night. Most days I'd get there before my instructor. The other brown belt and I kept working and working. It became clear to us that our instructor had no intention of promoting anyone to black belt. After he taught you Long 4, you got Long 5 to deal with. Then Long 6. Then Long 7. Finally I expressed that I didn't think a black belt was attainable at our school. This drove my instructor INSANE and he finally gave these requirements for black belt: all 124 techniques off both sides, Short 1, 2, 3, Long 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Setting Sun, Mass Attack, Book-Set, Tiger, Crane, 2-Man Set, Finger Set, Moving Finger Set, Staff 1, 2, 3, 4. Since 1981, when our (well, the school, now) opened, over 10,000 people had joined. Three got their black belts. My fellow (ah, let's call him Jim) and I were rip-snortin' to be the next two. We set a date for October.
Jim had to leave for his federal cop training in Fletsie (sp?) Georgia. The test date got pushed back.
My instructor had hernia surgery. The test date got pushed back again.
Finally, my instructor was ready to push the test date back some more, and I pleaded with him to let us test Nov 3, because Jim's (the other brown belt's) wife was due to give birth to their first child in later.
I was told that this wouldn't be a black belt test, that we were testing for 1st degree brown.
The test was a joke. Jim was breathing like a steam engine after the the first or second kata we did, his form slipped mightily(he's a typical fat cop). Mine didn't; I'm in good shape and I was better able to regulate my breathing and "connect" my breath to my movements. Jim goofed on a technique he was faux-teaching as well. I didn't goof on mine.
After a couple hours, it was over. It was so anti-climatic I was certain there'd be no black belts coming out of that.
I was wrong. Jim, he of the fat *** and the flubbed techniques, recieved his black belt. I was promoted from 3rd degree to 1st degree brown.
Which is why I quit. I have a life to get started on. I have to do well in school so I can transfer into a good university, so I can have a shot at feeding myself. I could use those hours ordinarily spent at the dojo WORKING and maybe actually making some money.
I started because I didn't want to lose fights. Now I'm quitting because I am sick and tired of my instructor's ego and bulls**t, I could make decent money waiting tables, I'm perfectly secure in my ability to take people out, and well...I didn't think I'd cry, but I am. All I really needed was someone to show me how to be a good person, help me because my dad left and my mom was always too stoned to help me with anything, and I got NOTHING! No help...that's all I wanted, really. It's sad that I realize this now, I feel like I'm wasted so much of my life. Six more months of training the way I have, teaching as much as I have? No. I was being walked on and I didn't even realize. Oh, this hurts so bad.
Anybody who wants clarification can go ahead and ask. It's funny, but I don't think I'll actually stop training...I am addicted now. But I also don't think I'll ever go back to an Asian martial arts school...maybe I'll just box. But I'll keep on reading MartialTalk (sobbing and laughing)!
:asian:
So I started Kenpo at Downers Grove Karate when I was fifteen. What I was really interested in was something that would keep me safe when I finally got to prison. Don't all gasp at once, but I was hanging around some pretty shifty cats and I figured sooner or later, I'd get sent to the pokey. It was time to learn how to fight.
So I started. My first group class I was so out of shape I threw up during the first fifteen minutes. But I wouldn't stop...this stuff was so cool!
So by the time I graduated high school, I was a big bad purple belt. And all I wanted to do was study martial arts, commit crimes (notably theft and drug dealing), and "hang out" with a series of young ladies possessed of a loose moral character.
I kept training. I'd be at the dojo waiting for my instructor to get there, and I'd stay until he left. Unlike him, I never spent any time just sitting around...I was busy practicing. Learning.
I'd get jobs, and then they'd start to encroach on my training, and I'd quit. Ah, fraud was easier anyway, wasn't it? My instructor didn't pay any attention to me beyond bumming me the occaisional cigarette. No asking me what I was up to, no trying to encourage me to get into school, NOTHING. I'd relate tales of street violence, including how I brought the violence upon myself, and did he ever admonish me? Tell me I was going to end up dead? No; he'd gruffly laugh as I told him about how I sent some gangbanger to the hospital and mutter something about his school being able to kick the rice out of all the other schools.
I was getting pretty damn good. In a year or so I became a green belt and began teaching. What a gratifying feeling! I was also getting into a lot of trouble at this point. I got a DUI charge, and a couple months later I got a battery charge when I beat up my girlfriend's brother. My instructor didn't care. After a couple of months, he gave me a key to the school. I treated it like my child.
I kept passing people in rank, getting better and more knowledgeable (sp?) until the two highest ranking brown belts at the school were myself and a guy who got his brown belt the WEEK I STARTED! Between myself, this brown belt, and my instructor, we were teaching pretty much everyone in the school.
In terms of total hours, I was there the most though. And I grew as a person, too. A girlfriend of mine, along with my fellow brown belt, convinced me to get into school. And I did, and I did pretty well for someone who had no aspirations to higher learning. I took an anthropology class that taught me about the theory of violence: violence not as a physical act, but violence as a violation of another being. I came into a greater understanding of humankind.
And I gave up my criminal inclinations, and not a moment too soon. My old "road dog" is now serving six years for armed robbery and aggravated battery. We write sometimes and I try to help him.
So time went on. I kept working hard in the dojo, still spending five-six hours a night. Most days I'd get there before my instructor. The other brown belt and I kept working and working. It became clear to us that our instructor had no intention of promoting anyone to black belt. After he taught you Long 4, you got Long 5 to deal with. Then Long 6. Then Long 7. Finally I expressed that I didn't think a black belt was attainable at our school. This drove my instructor INSANE and he finally gave these requirements for black belt: all 124 techniques off both sides, Short 1, 2, 3, Long 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Setting Sun, Mass Attack, Book-Set, Tiger, Crane, 2-Man Set, Finger Set, Moving Finger Set, Staff 1, 2, 3, 4. Since 1981, when our (well, the school, now) opened, over 10,000 people had joined. Three got their black belts. My fellow (ah, let's call him Jim) and I were rip-snortin' to be the next two. We set a date for October.
Jim had to leave for his federal cop training in Fletsie (sp?) Georgia. The test date got pushed back.
My instructor had hernia surgery. The test date got pushed back again.
Finally, my instructor was ready to push the test date back some more, and I pleaded with him to let us test Nov 3, because Jim's (the other brown belt's) wife was due to give birth to their first child in later.
I was told that this wouldn't be a black belt test, that we were testing for 1st degree brown.
The test was a joke. Jim was breathing like a steam engine after the the first or second kata we did, his form slipped mightily(he's a typical fat cop). Mine didn't; I'm in good shape and I was better able to regulate my breathing and "connect" my breath to my movements. Jim goofed on a technique he was faux-teaching as well. I didn't goof on mine.
After a couple hours, it was over. It was so anti-climatic I was certain there'd be no black belts coming out of that.
I was wrong. Jim, he of the fat *** and the flubbed techniques, recieved his black belt. I was promoted from 3rd degree to 1st degree brown.
Which is why I quit. I have a life to get started on. I have to do well in school so I can transfer into a good university, so I can have a shot at feeding myself. I could use those hours ordinarily spent at the dojo WORKING and maybe actually making some money.
I started because I didn't want to lose fights. Now I'm quitting because I am sick and tired of my instructor's ego and bulls**t, I could make decent money waiting tables, I'm perfectly secure in my ability to take people out, and well...I didn't think I'd cry, but I am. All I really needed was someone to show me how to be a good person, help me because my dad left and my mom was always too stoned to help me with anything, and I got NOTHING! No help...that's all I wanted, really. It's sad that I realize this now, I feel like I'm wasted so much of my life. Six more months of training the way I have, teaching as much as I have? No. I was being walked on and I didn't even realize. Oh, this hurts so bad.
Anybody who wants clarification can go ahead and ask. It's funny, but I don't think I'll actually stop training...I am addicted now. But I also don't think I'll ever go back to an Asian martial arts school...maybe I'll just box. But I'll keep on reading MartialTalk (sobbing and laughing)!
:asian:
), but because after taking that long I feel like I earned what little I do know. It is mine - I worked hard for the knowledge, and it can't be taken away.
