Blackbelt Story

[Fire!]

I think that we have a lot of experienced blackbelts here. Could I ask you to post about bit of yourself?
- Why did you start taking the discipline? For example, kyokushin karate.
- How long did it take you to obtain the blackbelt?
- What was your aim/goal when you started?
- Has your life changed due to karate life?
- Now what is your goal?(if it has changed)
osu

[Shokei Marcsui]

Great questions, Fire. I'm eager to hear these questions answered especially the one about "Now what is your goal?"

[schuyler]

I started my kyokushin training as a freshmen in college (Washington State University, www.nwkyokushin.com) at the campus dojo. At the time it was really the only martial arts program being taught there, so a friend and I tried it out and really got into it. I tested for shodan four years later. My goal when I started was pretty childish, I really just wanted a gi. After the first class however, that all changed. The black belts in my club were all really dedicated and inspired me to work towards shodan. My life has completely changed because of kyokushin. When I graduated from college my first priority was not to find a job, but to find a city that had an established kyokushin dojo were I could continue my training. Now, a few years later, I have tested for nidan and run a small dojo in Colorado. I lucked out when I moved out here from Washington because there is another nidan about an hours drive away that I can train with. My goal now is to be able to teach full time, make a decent living, and help establish a strong kyokushin presence here in Colorado.

[kyokushin4life]

Very nice read schuyler-san, and nice thread fire. Stickied.

[veeevek]

wow..nice question..well first of all, i didnt know much about kyokushin when i started studying karate..from my childhood itself i was very much fond of bruce lee and wanted to become like him, but i dont know why i didnt like kung fu..So in my city kyokushin was the best full contact at that time, all others were half contact karate, and also ours was strict and tough too, so i took kyokushin, and as time went by i realised that i'd reached the right place..my goal was just to show off at first, then it changed, i wanted to fight someone, i wanted to show off, but again as time went by it changed, i wanted to fight but just in tournaments, then it again changed to making perfection..heh..now i dont have any particular aim but just to train harder.yes, i like to go for tournaments, but my main aim is to train hard and satisfy myself..of course karate changed my life..i was a very shy guy at first, when called in front of my classmates for some presentation or so, i would stand and shiver and i would just look at the walls and no eye contact at all..but now i've got self confidence..and thanks to kyokushin..and about the shodan..it took me four years to attend the shodan grading, because i had to move from my city i can no longer continue at my dojo, and here there's no kyokushin also...so right now i just keep training hard as if to achieve something but actually there's nothing to achieve...OSU

[Aunty Ichigeki]

I started training in June 94 (just after Sosai passed) with my female flatmate. I was living with a guy who I thought was my future & he was showing signs of becoming violent - LOL - I'd just seen the NZ movie 'Once Were Warriors' (about domestic violence) & thought if I "knew karate" I could protect my children (OMFG what an idiot! My boyfriend was 110kg of muscle) I'd been interested in karate since I was about 5 & saw a line of karateka in dogi running along the street chanting 'Osu' as they ran... my impression was they were all bald, mysterious & very cool!

I started on a Monday & went every night that week & pretty much the same for the next 24 mths. I was a dancer so was stoked to have a practical use for a fan kick! My goal was to be as staunch as the yellow belts! (Never thought further ahead). By Dec I decided the Sensei was my future (he still thought my flatmate was my 'girlfriend'!!). I moved out from my old boyfriend & in Jan was going out with... Sensei . In Nov 95 I went to Japan for the first time to support Sensei & 2 other close friends in the World Tourny. I was yellow belt by then. We went to Japan twice more for a Worlds & an All Japan & on one trip Sensei proposed. We married in Feb 98 & spent our honeymoon planning to open a full time dojo. We opened it in Feb 99. I was supposed to sit Shodan in 2000 but got pregnant 6 weeks out so did it end of 2001 (baby was 6 mths). Also ran & won the NZ Nationals mid that year - it was my best year!

To make a full time facility viable we took tenants - Judo & BJJ. This opened our eyes to a world outside Kyokushin but also made us appreciate the strengths of Kyokushin and understand where it fits into a big picture. I train in BJJ & my personal goal is to fight pancration style or maybe MMA before I get too old. Sensei & I share a goal of growing Kyokushin as a strong training style for fighters who want to be pure or who want to fight mixed style (the way of the future I think). We think Kyokushin should be a much better source of self defence training than it currently is too. The elements are there but not often taught well. We're having fun developing something of our own syllabus in that regard. We're finding that mixing in training elements from outside Kyokushin has made us better fighters & coaches... even of pure Kyokushin. I hope to sit my nidan next year but mostly for the kaikan - belts don't really matter to me any more. We'd like to give up our 'day jobs' eventually & just promote MA training.

[Billy no mates]

I started largely because my brother started and introduced me to the dojo he trained at i had boxed and done judo as a kid but hadnt done anything for years,it took me 8 and a half years to get a black belt my aim when i started was merely to train and get fit and then after that to fight becoming a Yudansha was never an ambition fighting always came first the emphasis i put on kumite is part of the reason it took me a while to take my Shodan grading that and an irrational fear that being a black belt would somehow close a chapter in my karate life that i was really enjoying,Kyokushin gave me focus and direction at a time it was sorely needeed in my life my ambition now is just to train .

[Lucy]

I started training in september 1991 at the age of 11. I was mad about all kinds of sports so i thought id give martial arts a go! I enquired into a few karate styles but kyokushin really took my attention,i was immediately absorbed by the atmosphere in the dojo! It fascinated me so i joined up. I progressed quickly through my belts,competed in a few tournaments with success. I had a break for 6 years though (having a family). I missed training so much i felt depressed!Kyokushin had changed my life by giving me more confidence, gaining respect from people, and mostly it felt like i was part of one big family! I gained my black belt this summer at a gruelling summer camp but although its been 15 years since i started training its only now that i feel ready to be a shodan and ready for all the responsibility thats goes with it. As for my goals im thinking of some new ones right now. I achieved what i wanted this year...success in fighting full& non contact and my shodan. I want to strengthen further my foundations ie my basics especially kata so i can pass on the knowledge to students i enjoy being an instructor which at first i was apprehensive about! But to see a student benefit from your teaching is very rewarding. Each and every student i help makes me more and more confident and the respect is a great feeling!

[Fire!]

Many great stories! Thank you! Hopefully I will write my story in this thread sometime. osu

[Spirit]

Why I started I don’t think I can really remember anymore. But I can remember that what my goals then and now have not changed much. I think, do to what my best friend and sempai told me and set as a foundation for me back in 1976, “all I ask of you is to do one thing better than I do, once accomplished then I have done my job as sempai” I believe this attitude and approach put me in a focused mind to learn and to keep ego out.
I can say that my desires how I instruct have changed dramatically as well my thoughts on and about Karate and Kyokushin. I see Kyokushin as only a vessel of Karate and not the ultimate that it has always been painted. Though I have trained long and hard in many other styles AND I would never change from Kyokushin. I don’t see it as the ultimate style , but I do see it as a superior way of approaching Karate over ally other styles.
I can say that Kyokushin has given us an upper hand in training if you follow the complete doctrine of Kyokushin over all the other styles, and do not focus on parts of it (who is a stronger fighter blah blah blah) as most do. I really don’t see anyone in Kyokushin as the best at any one thing but people with talents in that part of Kyokushin which i can gain Knowledge from . I don’t ever see kyokushin ever being lead by anyone else like Sosai, since we are all a little different and no one person can follow in the same steps as another, though we can follow very closely to them we (or anyone) will never be like Sosai or like me and you!
I believe that as an instructor I (or any one who instructs) should focus on their strengths and pass on all the knowledge they have to each student and bring in other instructors to pass on knowledge to ones students that I do not have strengths in.
I have also changed my way of teaching from stick in hand to kind voice and discipline within the dojo.
I no longer look at what I could do as a teen and what I can do now as a much older man. I look at how I can pass on the knowledge to those who wish to learn it.
“Youth has its purpose but it only for a short time, wisdom always has purpose and it is forever”!

[Groucho]

I actually began training in Daido Juku in Japan back in '93, but some of the students I was teaching in the local high school were in the dojo, and sensei didn't feel right about us fighting each other...so he asked if I would mind training at his other dojo (he would drive...), and I switched to Kyokushin about 6-8 months before Sosai's passing.

I'd done shotokan and TKD back home, but just fell in love with Kyokushin...it was like coming home.

Took 4 years to make shodan, and I was truly karate-baka...makiwara in the front yard/gravel, training at 3 different dojos with in the same training group, the whole 9 yards. Even got to meet Andy Hug.

When I started, I just wanted to train in Japan...seemed a cool and necessary thing to do. Now, even though there have been some serious lapses in my training, it's like breathing, something that I have to do; Mrs. Groucho just says I'm a better person when I'm training.

Always have had trouble explaining it...so I've settled on: if I have to explain why I do Kyokushin (and now, Ashihara), you won't understand.

[ryudo]

Well my first introduction to MA was judo back when I was about 9 yrs old, a group of friends were practicing it and I had to go to over hell and high water to get judo gi, my mother was able to find an old sack of sugar and make me a gi from it.
Afterwards, my family emigrate here to the states, and soon enough I was able to start praticing again.
Since Bruce Lee had popularize kung fu so much, I ask my parents to enroll me in a kung-fu kun, but the hard luck of imigrants made this wish an imposibility for which I am thankfull today.
The only place that was afordable for my father's paycheck was a small dojo that charge $25.00 a month which was still a lot of money in those days.
The style was Go-Ju ryu, I stay there until I begun high school, by then my father could no longer afford to pay for my tuition, so sadly I left the school.
I continue practicing in earnest with friends from the dojo, and friends I met in high school one of them was the son of a sensei who was kind enough to teach me shotokan, since my friend's father also held a godan in judo we would also pratice ne-wazas.
After high school I join the US Army as an artillery man, there I made friends that share the same interest in Martial Arts, one of them was a sifu of Jee kune do, from him I learn to use everything that was useful and discard what was useless, also and apreciation for all styles of martial arts.
After military service I returned to my parents home and seek out a kendo club, there happen to be a jujutsu dojo nearby that taught kendo and aikido, so I quickly join and paid the fee.
This was one of the most exciting places I had ever trained at, eventhough the sessions were rigourous and rough, the training was exciting and fun.
Due to the popularity that Aikido had gained during the 1990's a lot of practioners of other styles had joined the school to get an insiders view of this style.
I became fast friend with a practioner of kyokushin who had also practice judo back in Cuba, and joshimon or yoshimon, also known as operative karate or scientific karate.
So we would practice jujutsu on monday, wensday, and friday, then aikido on tuesday and thursday. On saturday the dojo would be open from 9:00am till 2:00pm for individual practice and training (fight day basically), I had always known about the prowes of kyokushin from the Sony Chiba's movies, a few video clips I had seen of Mas Oyama fighting bulls, and a demo I saw once in a tournament back in Germany during my Army days.
So after seen this guys braking baseball bats with their shins, I said to myself that if I ever had the opportunity to practice karate again, this would be the style that I would practice.
And so, I humbly ask my friend to teach me a little bit of kyokushin and joshimon, and since he was a very good friend he did. This I did for the next 10 years without stopping or braking, unless I got sick or injure.
Saddly I have to say that I still can not brake baseball bats with my shin-bones, but at least I can fight my way out of a bar room.
And this is thanks to the kyokushin conditioning and training, with a few jutsu and aiki techniques here and there, also during this time I recieved my shodan in kendo and iaido.
After 7 years of association with this dojo, the Gracies begun appearing on the scene, I think Miami was one of the first places were they show up, one of their students came to the school with camera crew and all and offer to do a friendly challenge to all that were present, at the time the school was full of practioners from many styles and the training at the time was very good and proficient, so every body quickly dicerned the BJJ guy's technique and were able to neutralize it, endding always in a draw. At last he offer to challenge the head of the school and when the fight ended up outside in the street the BJJ guy was at a disadvantge not wanting to fall on the hard pavement. Soon afterwards the Gracie family took over the world in their UFC tournaments, mostly againts opponents who never engage in full contact kumite or fought againts pratitioners of other styles.
When I was in High School my friends and I used to go to the local park and engage in full contact kumite against all comers, judo, kung-fu, karate, anyone who was interested in sparring, sometimes we would win and other times end up explaining a black-eye or a bruise.
Still the experience we got from the BJJ Gracies and their new found glory, made a lot of people re-think their strategies and phylosophies about martial arts in general, eventhough a lot of us had a judo background, and new that the Gracie style was no nothing more than a lot of judo ground fighting, a lot of people begun to leave the dojo. Then professor begun to relax the training to accomodate for students (mostly corporate types) who lack in physical and mental attitude. So it went downhill from there, I guess a business is a business and you have to do whatever is necessary to stay open...
Training became a joke and everything was all this spiritual bull!#@$ with no enphasys on actual practicality. So after I got married it had been two years since I had left the school.
I spent about 6 years not training or doing anything related to martial arts. So when my marriage failed, and my duties as a husband ended. The opportunities to train again have presented themselves once more. I found this little place where the owner teaches judo on Mondays, Wensdays, and Fridays and leaves it open Tuesdays and Thursdays.
There's a shurin-ryu group there that practices sport karate, yet allows me and group of friends to practice full conctact M.A., so we begin by doing a little judo conditioning, then we go into tomiki style randori, and finish by doing full contact kumite.
Since latetly I have come across videos and publications of kyokushin, ashihara, and daido juku kudo, I have brought it to the attention of the guys that I practice with. We ardously are appliying the principles of full contact fighting as explained by Mr. Ashihara and Mas Oyama, but lacking a qualified instructor in kyokushin we are only relying on personal experience for guidance.
Saddly, because of lack of money we are unable to either attend a kyokushin dojo or hire a qualify instructor for personal instruction, at least the way we are training has the shurin-ryu guys impresed. Enough to the point that they have ask us on several occasions to tone it down a bit b'cause of the risk of injury and lack of school insurance.

[SHIHAN MERCADO]

My advice to you is to learn as much as you can from different kyokushin instructors. That is the only way you can pick up so much varied knowledge in kyokushin to make you a competive instructor.

[sonofkanga]

WOW!!!!!!!!!
Great posts.wanted to start TKD like my friends, but they directed me to Sensei where i would enjoy it more.Of course the TKD people were correct.I ENJOY THE DISCIPLINE the sparring and the atmosphere of Kyokushin Karate.
After 5 years i graded Shodan it took me 16 years to sandan.
When I started my goals were fun and releasing energy.now my goals are to continue training and pass on my knowledge.

[Kyokushin555]

I started Kyokushin back in 1994 when i Was about 7 years old, I did it for 2 years and got to green belt. I took a break for the next 3 years and just trained myself, when I was ready to go back I went back, but only to find that my school had changed styles to Goju-Ryu Karate. So I started that, then 2 months later I found a Kyokushin school. So no I am doing both schools 5 days a week and I am brown belt in both. I practice and love kyokushin not for the full contact or any of that fancy stuff. I love it for the Spirit. I do full contact and all that other stuff, but to this day 13 years later the thing that still amazes me is the spirit, and how it has never changed in me. Kyokushin has definetly changed my life in many ways that are hard to explain. But it has made a great impact on my life. My goals to this day are still the same, to continue training my mind, body, and spirit to perfect myself in every aspect of Kyokushin. I will continue doing Kyokushin as long as my heart beats and as long as I am able to move. I honestly dont know where I would be without it today. A lot of my friends took the dark path of Booze and Drugs. But I believe because of my dedication to this art that it has help me through the bad things in life.

[orisha66]

In '75 i started learning hung gar kuen from two old guys with dreds who practiced in central park all the time. the training was too demanding so i quit. i went to see Enter the Dragon and wanted to learn something again. My cousin was learning karate in BK and told me to try out his class and thats when i met Shihan Oliver. I recieved my shodan in '84 under the Seido, I trained in the class until then. I continued to train and work out with other martial artist in the park or where ever. i moved to Ohio in 1990. no kyokushin, seido, or oyama styles, so i sign-up with a shotokan group that reminded me of kyokushin in NY. i recieved my shodan in shotokan in '94. my goal was to one day open a karate dojo under the kyokushinkai but as time went on my goals had changed. learning karate in NY gave me many oppertunities sometimes on a negative. Because of those negatives, karate has changed my life in good ways so that i can now teach all the positives that karate can give you and help to become a better person to society. Sorry to say that my goals are not the same as they were when i started traing... now my goal is to open a Cuban resturaunt here in the C.O.
CHEF A LA KARATE de Cubana

[AJH]

Hi all - I started my Martial Arts career studying Judo in January 1984. It was a very small club in London and there was little chance to grade so in March 1985 I changed to Kyokushinkai (BKK) and trained under Hanshi Steve Arneil.

I trained to get fitter but I also had an interest in Martial Arts from an early age. In 1988 I moved to the Bristol area with my job as a 4th Kyu and continued training at the Bristol Dojo.

The training in London was certainly tough, particularly the day Hanshi Arneil had us doing 3000 kicks without stopping! The kumite was unbelieveable most sessions ending with full contact knockdown fighting.

Eventually reached Shodan in 1995, and was awarded Nidan by Hanshi Arneil in 2003. My goal is to continue training and hopefully reach Sandan.

regards
AJH

[seienchin]

Hi all.
I started my training when I was 20, because I was tired of being afraid. My goal was to stop being afraid, and to become confident enough to be able to live alone - a big step for a 20 year old girl, who had grown up in the country, and was living in the big city.

I knew I was making progress when I was a yellow-belt, and I was cringing from a cockroach in the kitchen (now, before you laugh, the cockies are bloody big where I come from). I took a deep breath, and thought " this is really dumb. How can I be a karateka if I can't kill a cockroach?????". the cockroach died, and I started learning to conquer fear.

Unfortunately, during my 1st kyu grading, a huge guy threw an enormous kick into my knee, and I blew all teh ligaments and cartilages. Many, many operations later, I was able to do my shodan.

I remember the first time I really realised that his had changed my life when I was waiting outside for a job interview for my "big break". I was nervous as hell, and I suddenly realised that nobody was going to hit me! I aced the interview, and got the job, and it changed the course of my life.

Subsequently, I was training for a tournament and visited another dojo when in what was supposeed to be friendly kumite, and guy from another style stood on my foot and drove his knee through my remaining good knee. That one got busted too.

Back to square one. REconstruction, multiple revisions, endless therapy sessions.

Finally, was able to do my Nidan grading (although by that stage, I felt it should be renamed Knee-dan).

I have posted elsewhere about how this journey has chanaged me. One question I often aske myself as I struggle to bend my knees enough to put on shoes is "was it worth losing the function of two knees". Crazy, but YES What are knees compared to spirit that will not give in. Compared to the confidence of knowing that I can surmount any challenge if I simply set my mind to it.

I used to take great pride in my physical prowess and strength. I have been humbled. and then I have grown.

I have learned to take the lessons of my karate and put them anywhere. What more can I say? If I knew exactly how it would all turn out, I would make the same choices. I had no idea when I started that it would be this painful, or this good. And I am not afraid.

Osu.

[Shokei Marcsui]

Great "Knee-dan" story Seienchin!