Martial Artist KO
I am sure at one time all young boys thought they would grow up to be a tough guy like one of their favorite fighting actors. From Bruce Lee to Jackie Chan to Sylvester Stallone as Rocky. When I was ten I wanted to be Frank Dux (Jean Claude Van Damme from Bloodsport). I remember the first time my dad took me to a military base where my uncle was stationed and they had the new release of Bloodsport playing in the military barracks. I had never seen anything like it. High flying acrobatics, a lot of fighting, and of course blood. After the movie all I wanted to be was an ass kicking fighter.
My parents signed me up for karate lessons and for the next two years I ranked my way up to from no experience required white belt to intermediate rank of purple belt but still was definitely not a highly flying take no shit skull breaker like Frank Dux. I started to get bored and like most 12 year olds I switch to other interests. As I got older I would get in fights with other kids at school but my karate was so rusty I don’t think I ever used anything I had learnt in those lessons.
When I become a father and my son was old enough to start taking extra activities the one thing I signed him up for was karate. He was not really interested in learning karate because he rather be outside running around than in a room learning about discipline. One day he asked me “Why do I have to take karate?” I told him it was to teach him discipline and to teach him to protect himself from bullies and bad people he would encounter in the world.
I never explained to him that karate never really helped me as a kid as felt it was because I never took it very serious long enough to master it like the real martial artists. That was until yesterday when I saw a news article reporting that Dirk Van Tichelt Olympian in Judo was punched and robbed. Dirk is no lightweight as he is a judo black belt and bronze medalist in the 73kg (161lbs) division. I am sure there a million ways that probably went down but like most athletes there is always a time you think all that training will come into practice.
If you a baseball player it’s at the batting cages pretending to be at the word series bottom of the 9th with two out and you’re at bat to hit the winning run. If you’re a basketball player practicing free throws you’re in the NBA finals no seconds left on the clock down by one and you got two shots to win the game. When I was a kid it was some dickhead starting trouble somewhere and me using my high flying moves that I never learnt to thump him.
Instead I have learnt that no matter if your professional athlete or not nothing can prepare you for the real world experience. To my son I am sorry you can stop taking karate because it’s not going to be useful in beating up bullies.
