i am thankful

i am thankful for sensei tatsuo shimabuku who taught me how to kick ass efficiently and devastatingly with his isshinryu one heartmind karate, sensei ron lynch who taught me the jujutsu joys of hurling and being hurled through the air into submission chokeholds and bone breaks, sensei koichi tohei who reinforced and amplified my understanding of energy flow with his four principles of keep one-point, relax completely, extend ki, and weight underside

and my sensei friends, sensei partick martin my push-hands brother of menacing intent, sensei jon rudy fierce warrior and healer in a quiet unassuming package, and sensei bob frumhoff who helps me remember that i don't know shit

how the martial arts got into me

Well, yes, it's time for another re- collection, or this one might best be termed a wreck-o-lection. Today I want to tell you how I got into the martial arts. This here boy when I was maybe 14 or so invited me to his house. It was a setup but like all setups the dupe doesn't know and guess who was the dupe? This boy, let's call him Biff as in Biff-Bam cause that's what happened, had a dad who taught him how to box. Now I didn't have a dad and didn't know nothing about nothing. Biff says wanna box? I says sure. Next thing I know I got these gloves tied on my hands where I can't throw any dirt clods which is my favored form of defense and he's beating the holy hell out of me. He must have gotten worn out in there somewhere because mercy was not in his catechism. I went home with a stinging face and a determination -- you can guess what it was. It took a while though -- I had some things to do first. Years later I joined the Marines and went to Okinawa. Fast forward. I was teaching karate and jujutsu in Atlanta with a bunch of fight fanatics. A boxer came over -- it was a large open gym -- and asked if he could try out his boxing against what I was doing. I said sure. Poor guy. He knew nothing of Biff. This time I didn't put on any gloves. Every time he jabbed I went in low and gave him a spear hand in the armpit. He stopped jabbing pretty soon. We departed on friendly terms. And I had come full circle. He had given me a gift. So there you have it. How I got into the martial arts. Or rather how the martial arts got into me. I guess if there's a moral it's that getting whupped up on in life can cause one to blossom in unexpected ways.