I'd never been much of a sports fan, I was a nerd, a brain, I avoided
sport if at all possible at school. The only game I actually
liked playing, Lacrosse, was a private thing outside of school.
School made me play soccer, football, hockey, cricket and tennis.
I sucked at all of them and had it not been for Lacrosse, I would have
thought I had no sporting talent at all. The thing I liked about
Lacrosse was that I played centre. Technique was second-nature
and I could relax and play a strategic game. It was very
successful - we were the State champions.
Time moved on, I changed schools and Lacrosse was forgotten.
Marriage and kids came along, and my only exercise was walking and work
in the garden. When I was about 44 years old, I had a health
crisis, and ended up in hospital. I lost weight until I was about
56 Kgs - 123 pounds - and I thought I was going to die, but I
didn't. I had a lot of recovery to do, I was determined to get
fit again. Determined to look in the mirror and see a powerful,
fit healthy body.
As 'luck' would have it my workplace had a scheme where I could
sacrifice part of my salary on gym membership and personal
trainers. I felt so stupid going to the gym, being so skinny and
emaciated looking. Other people looked like they should be on the
cover of a fitness magazine or were clearly working on the other type
of weight problem. Although I felt humiliated, I resolved to keep
going and keep pushing myself like my lovely personal trainer told
me. I reminded myself that I could have been dead now, so I put
up with the humiliation and worked at the weights, the cardio workouts,
the endless reps of crunches and lunges, flys and rows, hammer curls,
push ups, pull-ups, lat pull-downs and you know. But I didn't
enjoy it. I forced myself to do it to stay alive and gain some
fitness back. But it was time to move jobs again, and that meant
losing my personal trainer and my subsidised gym membership.
Again, as 'luck' (which is not a thing I actually believe in) would
have it, a man came to my door offering membership of a karate
club that was only a few kilometres down the road. I argued with
him that I was too old, I was not very sports-oriented and perhaps
you'd like to sign up my 15 year old son instead. But I was
really looking for some way to get fit and healthy again, and besides,
my buddy Pete did Karate and loved it. So I signed up there
and then.
It took real guts to go along to that first class. Everyone was
in their uniforms - 'Gi' and had their belts. They understood the
instructions in Japanese, and I was astonished how they did those moves
that eluded me completely. Even a simple stomach-level punch -
jodan tzuki - was a masterpiece of co-ordination and practice that was
way beyond anything I could perform.
Katas were a complete mystery. Blocks defied my abilities.
Combinations left me feeling humiliated. I persisted though the
embarrassment and slowly, skills emerged. Hey I could punch the
right way, I could do a passable kick and I knew first kata - AND, the
big thing is I felt so good after class. I felt so good that I
was able to give up my anti-depressants that had sustained me since the
illness. I had read that high exertion sport was as useful as
many antidepressants, and this was proof. I was well on my way to
my goals of health and fitness, and karate was MY game. The kind
of 'go hard or go home' game that very few people in my age group could
even consider. So much more fun than the gym, even with my pretty
personal trainer to goad me into going.
There is a fascinating inner game with Karate and I think it's part of
most of the martial arts. It's not a battle against an opponent
as much as it's a battle against yourself. The challenge is to
constantly better yourself, overcoming all physical and mental barriers
to progress. If you lose at a team sport, you can blame your team
mates (if you are so inclined), but there's nowhere to hide with
martial arts. It's just you, mind body and soul. You work
to train your body for the sport, but you also train your mind.
So I guess you all know what it feels like to stand in Sumo stance -
shikodatchi or
Cat stance nekoashidatchi for a few minutes. You are sure your
quads are going
to catch fire. You mind is telling you just exactly how much it
hurts and your emotions are telling you that you'd prefer to be sipping
a beer right about now. That's one of the times when the mind
game of karate is most obvious. Or, when it's a hot day and
you've just been doing basics, combinations and katas for 90 minutes
and Sensei calls that's it's time for tournament kumite, full
intensity. You're hot and you're tired and now you have to spar
with the black belts. If you're not careful, you could get
hit. You need to be as composed as a legendary Shaolin
monk. Cool calm and collected like you've been meditating for
hours, not like you're just about spent and ready to go home.
Over the years I have done a lot of meditation, a lot of new-age stuff
with chi - life force energy - and a lot of therapy and mind
de-programming and re-programming. I know that the body can
perform miracles if the
mind is aligned. People can do astonishing things in times of
emergency, for example. I've seen people's whole lives change
through handling some bad memory and letting it go.
The ancient secrets that the founders of the martial arts used are based on the traditional Chinese
medicine (TCM) view of the energy centres and energy pathways (meridians)in the human body. See Wikipedia for more details.
They hold that all energy is centred what the Japanese call the hara or the Chinese call Tan Tien point of the body's energy system. It is believed that all
energy flows from this point. The masters of Chi Gung or Qigong centre and build their energy at this location to perform amazing feats.
They also report that centering one's awareness at that location results in a clear mind and a kind of
super-natural awareness of the unity of attacker and defender. From this space, the body efficiently performs the
art.