Antonio Diaz — Karate Start
You are to read a first-person narrator story presented by one of the biggest icons of modern karate, Antonio José Diaz Fernandés (Venezuela — kata male), about his journey from the beginning of his karate experience to the present day. Antonio could be the right role model for all of us.
“What brought me to karate? I encountered karate thanks to my father, who used to practice karate in the dojo (Japanese term for the gym), and sometimes, when he was running late from work, he trained at home and I, as my father’s follower at that time, repeated what he did. A short while after I turned six, my father started taking me with him to the gym to practice in group classes. I wasn’t the best when I was a child. At first, I didn’t participate in official tournaments, just in the tournaments at our gym. The first time I took part in an official competition was after I got my blue belt. I did both kata and kumite. Frankly, it is kumite that I remember more from my early times. I remember someone hit me hard once, and I got really angry. I was crying and the referee disqualified me. Step by step, I continued to practice, and step by step, I moved forward. Even shortly after a competition, I never skipped trainings because I liked and enjoyed them a lot. And naturally, the more I practiced, the better my results were. I remember I was not nominated in the kata individual category at my first big competition, the Pan American Championships, but I started in kata teams, because one contender in the team had an injury, so they called me in to be his backup. However, I once took a free place in the junior kumite category when I was 12 or 13 years old and won a gold medal. That was the point when I realized I can win even at big competitions. The more I trained, the better and better I got at kata, until I got the opportunity to join the senior representation team, despite being a junior regarding my age. I wasn’t number one on the list but rather a number three; it was, nevertheless, an incentive to choose the one discipline I wanted to start building my future in. Until then, I was practicing both kata and kumite.”
I tried to stay mentally strong, and I took the first important step to achieve that at a young age, = and I still try to stick to it: training hard (step no. 1). It is one of the three points to help me remain mentally strong at competitions, and that is the basis for success. The more and harder you train, the stronger your mind gets. Sometimes, even if we practice hard, mental pressure grows bigger at competitions because of external stimuli, like the pressure related to being nominated, to responsibilities, to the coach, parents and more. Understand that anytime, whatever you do, you must relax and enjoy (step no. 2) what you are doing. Life is more than competitions. And the last step: especially in this sport, decisions are subjective. You must be satisfied with what you are doing and look for reasons you have failed; you cannot let unfavorable consideration from referees get you down (step no.3). Every karateka must keep his mind equally strong as his body. You always must seek for ways to motivate yourself not to let anything drag you down to the bottom. Seek things you have to work on to get better and better.
You can read hold story in Hajime Issue 1.
