INTERNATIONAL SHOTOKAN KARATE
When my son was seven, I took him to a local Karate class. After a few lessons, the Sensei (instructor) asked me if I fancied learning Karate too – which I didn’t if I was honest – but he said it would help and encourage my son in his training, I could learn at the same time, rather than sitting around watching AND the first couple of lessons were free. So I said OK, I’ll give it a go.
My first lesson was a disaster. It was far more difficult than I imagined. I’d always thought of myself as pretty coordinated (after all I teach dancing for a living!), but Karate was something else entirely. I was useless at it. I couldn’t get my head around it, let alone my arms and legs. There was all this ‘jargon’ (in Japanese no less!) to learn and I felt like a complete idiot – as everyone else in the class seemed to be able to do it.
I had three lessons before I came to the conclusion that Karate wasn’t designed for middle aged women – even coordinated ones – and more suited to fat, short, Japanese men. I decided that the Karate path was not for me.
I got home from that third lesson ready to chuck it in, but something in my head didn’t want to be beaten by it. It’s not often I give up on things. I’d also recently been reading about how, as we get older, we need to challenge our minds as well as our bodies – and Karate was certainly doing that, so I made a deal with myself that I would go back to training and at least try to get better at it. I bought myself a Gi (karate suit), cut my fingernails, as it’s hard making a fist with long nails, tied my hair back and embarked on my personal Karate challenge.
To spare you reading (and me typing) about the whole journey – let’s fast forward seven years after those first few lessons. On the 23rd April 2017 – I gained my 1st Dan black belt. I was 56.
The journey to black belt taught me much. Yes, it was tough. I often found myself thinking a nice evening in front of the TV with a glass of wine would do me more good than a hard training session (it never did). And many times I thought about taking up a gentler, more ladylike hobby after being punched and kicked in training. But I didn’t give up. I trained three times a week. I learnt that I can do press-ups! I even picked up a bit of Japanese, although how useful, ‘Kick to the head’ will be if I ever visit Japan, remains to be seen. But, seriously, for me, I now know that Karate is far more than just a martial art. Karate teaches you about yourself – your mind, your body and your spirit.
Today, I don’t train as much as I would like to as I’m super busy teaching Yoga and running the dance classes and doing Health Coaching, but the skills Karate taught me – like how to be more focused, fitter, stronger and more resilient, help me every day.
And God knows, in today’s challenging world – we could all do with some of that.
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International Dance Teachers' Association