Newspaper Article from today that just came out, about the head instructor of our studio.
Link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifestyle/stories.nsf/healthfitness/story/C63F4FB155ED588B86256FE5001D8C43?OpenDocument
article:
Link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/lifestyle/stories.nsf/healthfitness/story/C63F4FB155ED588B86256FE5001D8C43?OpenDocument
article:
St. Louis Post Dispatch said:Ninth-degree black belt shares his skills
By Amy BertrandPost-Dispatch Health & Fitness Editor04/18/2005
HOW HE DID IT Name: Tim GolbyAge: 58
Home: Manchester
Occupation: Karate instructor, owner of two Tracy's Karate studiosWhat he did: Earned a ninth-degree black beltQuotable: "Karate is what I am and who I am. It's not a hobby or a sport. It's what I've spent my life doing."
Tim Golby is a soft-spoken man. He talks lovingly of his wife and three children. He grew up on a farm. He joined the seminary. And yet ... he could kill an attacker in an instant.
Golby is a ninth-degree black belt, the first awarded nationally by Tracy's Karate, and despite his gentle demeanor, he has fashioned his body into a weapon.
"Originally that was the point of karate, to make your body into a human weapon," he says.
In the beginning:
Golby grew up on a farm in central Illinois. While he was a kid he got hold of a book on karate and studied it, a la "Karate Kid."
"I thought karate was really cool," he says. "I always wanted to take it, but back on the farm there wasn't exactly a lot of opportunity," he says.
When he moved to St. Louis in 1969 to study at Kenrick Seminary in Shrewsbury, he decided the big city offered him his first chance to try karate.
"I felt called to karate," he says. "Right away I fell in love with it. It was an escape from what I was doing."
He joined Tracy's Karate, a unique karate system that combines Southern Chinese and Japanese styles for American consumption. Al and Jim Tracy founded the first Tracy's Karate in the '50s in San Jose, Calif. There are now more than 1,000 franchises in the country. One of the first was the Kirkwood studio, and one of its first students was Golby.
After two years at Kenrick, he decided to leave the seminary. "I didn't like the celibacy clause. I thought I might want to get married, have children." And so he did. "I've been married 31 years and have three beautiful children."
However, on leaving the seminary, he found himself poor and struggling. After much soul-searching, he decided to buy the Tracy's Karate Studio where he was studying, and which he still owns in Kirkwood.
"I was fortunate enough to turn a passion into a career," he says. "And I've loved every minute of it."
Black belts:
Four years after starting karate lessons, Golby took his black-belt exam.
"In those days there were very few black belts in the U.S.," he says. "It was an honor to be one."
He quickly rose through the ranks, at first fighting in tournaments, then teaching others to do so. In 1990 he opened a Tracy's in Chesterfield. In 2001, he was honored for his work and promoted to a ninth-degree black belt (out of 10), the first that Tracy's awarded.
"This is a real rare thing," he says. "You had to be here for at least 30 years, and there are few people who do it for that long."
Teaching:
Golby is at his karate studios six days a week. He still teaches group classes and private lessons.
"I teach the best fighters in the city, but it's about the little kid who can't walk and chew gum and who doesn't make the soccer team," he says. "My work really is built upon individual kids and adults, helping them reach their physical and mental potential."
Golby says his studios are equally mixed with children and adults and have just slightly more males than females, up from the 10 percent females when he started teaching.
"Karate is for everybody. It's amazing exercise. You work the left and right side of your body, you work your heart, and you learn a practical thing. Learning how to defend yourself is a built-in motivator for working out."
He says karate offers such great motivation, everyone should try it. "People join a gym and have great ideas, but no one is there to help them do it. Here you have accountability. You have instructors there to make you safer, stronger."
Golby says he takes great pride in the accomplishments of his students, whether a fighter winning an international fight, a kid learning self-confidence or a young mother fending off an attacker in a parking lot, which actually happened recently.
"I feel like I saved her life, because I was able to teach her the skills to stop the attack," he says.
He especially loves teaching children in private lessons. "By teaching them one on one they are able to progress based on their ablility. Everyone is successful. Karate is cool stuff, and all their buddies think it's cool.
"One of the saddest things that ever happened to me was when my son was cut from the baseball team. It makes me glad I do what I do. I don't cut anybody. I make them better. It's the magic of what we do."
Personal fitness:
Golby says karate has allowed him to stay fit mentally and physically over the years. Of course, knee surgery a year ago caused some of that fitness to fade away.
"But I'm going to make a great comeback," he says. "Karate is the ultimate exercise, because it works your whole body and mind. It works your heart, your lungs, your muscles, flexibility and mental toughnesss. There is no better form of exercise."
In addition to the value of karate as exercise, Golby says everyone should learn it because of the self-defense properties. "It's not about being violent," he says. "It's right and good to learn how to defend yourself the right way."
He remembers the time he told a friend: "Before you send your daughter to college, send her here first so she can learn how to defend herself."
A typical day:
Before his surgery, Golby would spend three hours a week sparring in addition to the time he spends teaching classes and individuals. Now he bicycles about two hours a week to keep up his cardio conditioning.
For breakfast, he eats oat bran cereal with a banana and coffee. For lunch he has a roast beef sandwich and often a salad. Dinner is "whatever my wife fixes," he says. An example would be chicken, vegetables and a potato. He says he doesn't snack much, just drinks "a lot of water."
Reporter Amy BertrandE-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 314-340-8284
