I was 18 when I started karate in May 2001, I went to a lesson because my sister had been to a couple and it sounded really cool! Almost 16 years later I am still here and loving it more than ever.
I won’t lie, at first it was just about learning all these new moves and funky looking Kata’s and generally just feeling cool because I was learning karate. I initially progressed pretty quickly, I had done various sports whilst growing up so coordination and making shapes came easily, the grades from white to orange seem a bit of a blur. However this is where it all slowed down for me and I began to realise it wasn’t just about the physical, and I found the non physical side much harder to grasp and implement, but I got there! I also struggled with being assertive, I was a very shy person, I got bullied throughout primary school and really struggled to stand my ground when growing up, so being assertive has been a lifelong progression, and I would quite happily say that karate played a huge part in helping me become less shy and more confident. Something I don’t think I have ever properly expressed my gratitude for, so a Big thank you to Zenshin!
I think blue belt was the hardest for me. At the time everything felt so hard, and I really wasn’t progressing, but loving the club for more reasons than just learning to make shapes really well, I kept on going, and at the time I just climbed on out of that hole I had gotten in. In hindsight I now realise it was because I had gone to university and had a lot of new things happening in my life, which meant for a while I didn’t have enough energy left to give karate, but eventually life settled down and I was back to moving along my karate path. So don’t fret if you take a detour occasionally, you can always find your way back.
Brown belt was a fabulous time in my karate life, we worked hard i.e. sweated a lot, but it felt great, and although it took me 3 years of being a brown belt to gain my black I never felt like I was too slow, it was all exactly the right pace for me. So I think what I would like to say to any kyu grades who may be reading this is, we all progress differently, I practice every week and take it very seriously (yes even when I am giggling). Even so Deb and Phil who started the same time as me got there black belts 3 years earlier. That was their paths, not mine.
April 2008 I got my black belt, this was my 3rd attempt at this grading and eventually I did feel ready, the club had helped me work on the areas I needed to improve, and Rob led an amazing kumite lesson on the weekend course which really got me in the mood for my grading. That’s not to say that I wasn’t a little worried at what it meant, did I need to be some kind of super Ninja who could save the world, fortunately not, although a special power would have been a nice perk! I came to realise that it was a sign post along my path (yes a pretty impressive sign post), it showed me that I had achieved a certain level of practise, which opened up a whole lot of routes for me to explore. This is the really fun thing about progressing in karate, the more you learn the more you play and experiment, and in turn you learn even more!
I am now a 2nd Dan and it just gets better and better. Gaining my 2nd Dan was a brilliant experience. I was pushed to limits and beyond, and was capable of things I didn’t realise I was. The biggest thing I took away from the experience was to know what inner strength I do have, and hopefully I will be able to draw on this whenever I need to.
I am so glad that I stumbled across this amazing club and martial art that has given me more than just the thighs of a pack horse!
