I was seventeen when I walked into Bob Sparks Goju-Ryu Karate Dojo. My reason for going there: My boss told me to. He said, "A buddy of mine just got back from Okinawa and he opened a karate school. Why don't you go sign up?
I was enrolled at a school-without-walls which enabled me to take any sport for college credit. At the time I was swimming and I found it incredibly boring. Back and forth, back and forth. I felt lonely in the pool. So I went to try a karate class.
When I got there I was told I had to sit and watch. After 20 minutes I got up and left. I literally could not sit there and watch. I had to do it!
The next night I officially enrolled. My first teacher was Linda Sparks, Sensei's wife, who was then a brown belt. She taught me Jodan Age Uke, the upper rising block, and explained that karate is only for self-defense; everything starts and ends with blocking. I was enthralled.
Later that night I walked into my father's apartment and said, "I am going to do karate every day for the rest of my life." He laughed. I guess when a seventeen-year-old speaks of eternity it's hard to take seriously. Other than two-three weeks off after the birth of each of my children, religious holidays, short illnesses and injuries - I have made good on my prediction. Thirty-seven years later I'm still punching and kicking.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Karate is Not Just What I Do; It's Who I am
They tried to make me take ballet but I refused. I was only six-years old but I categorically rejected the pink tutu. It just wasn't me.
I enjoyed gymnastics, swimming and neighborhood games like, "Mother May I?" There were no karate classes in my neighborhood then, back in the early 1960's, and very few in the Boston area. I also liked reading and writing.
When I was fifteen I wrote a long story about a woman spy who did karate. Two years later I walked into the dojo and I've never left.
What I didn't know was that 10,000 kilometers away, in Jerusalem, which is now my home, there was a young man who found karate lessons when he was fourteen, and angry. His Jerusalem karate class folded after a few years but it was in his blood. Years later, after I made aliya, he would become my student - and my teacher - as every student teaches me while I'm teaching him or her.
Sara-Rivka Yekutiel
http://www.karateisrael.co.il/
I enjoyed gymnastics, swimming and neighborhood games like, "Mother May I?" There were no karate classes in my neighborhood then, back in the early 1960's, and very few in the Boston area. I also liked reading and writing.
When I was fifteen I wrote a long story about a woman spy who did karate. Two years later I walked into the dojo and I've never left.
What I didn't know was that 10,000 kilometers away, in Jerusalem, which is now my home, there was a young man who found karate lessons when he was fourteen, and angry. His Jerusalem karate class folded after a few years but it was in his blood. Years later, after I made aliya, he would become my student - and my teacher - as every student teaches me while I'm teaching him or her.
Sara-Rivka Yekutiel
http://www.karateisrael.co.il/
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