Sorry about not updating over the weekend, but I'm a very busy man and didn't have time. Yeah, and if you believe that one I've got a bridge in New York to sell you. Anyway...

When I was in grade school, maybe 7th - 8th grade, our town finally got a karate 'dojo'. It was pretty big news. A small town of about 1500 (at the time) gets a karate studio, it just doesn't happen a lot. Anyway, it wasn't really much of a dojo. The old grain elevator in town had been closed down and had been remodeled into a restaurant. It lasted, like most do in this town, about 5 months and then it went out of business. The guy who taught karate took over the empty building and held classes every Tuesday night. At first, there was a big rush and the classes were full. After about 3 weeks, it was basically me and one other kid. Sadly, he couldn't keep the place running with just 2 students so it closed down soon after (I also started playing football that year and began to miss class a lot). I learned quite a bit, but never got out of the white belt ranking. That would be the extent of my martial arts practice for a while.

Around '94-'95 when I went back to finish up college, and attended Central Missour State University, I noticed, one day while wandering campus, a sign posted up about Tae Kwon Do classes. I called the information number and went and sat in on a class. I was interested, paid my money and began to take Tae Kwon Do. Guess I should give a little background. Karate, is a Japanese style and means "Empty Hand". It focuses a lot on punching and hand strikes. Tae Kwon Do, on the other hand (or foot as it were), is a Korean style and emphasizes kicking and foot strikes. The class was taught by Mrs. Williams, a black woman, who was a 5th degree black belt. She was a wonderful person and a great instructor.

The class was held every Tuesday and Thursday, if I recall correctly, and it was held in one of the old gymnasiums on campus. Yes, we did all this shit on a hard wood basketball court floor. In the very first class I ever participated in, Mrs. Williams pulled me aside and asked me if I had ever had any training before and I told her I had a karate class when I was little. She said she could see some of that in my style. Cool, I guess I did learn something. As time went on and the blisters on my feet finally healed, I went from a white belt to yellow, and then to orange. Unfortunately, being a senior and having a few studio art classes, my time began to become very stretched and I started missing classes. When I finally graduated, Mrs. Williams contacted me and said that she was sorry she didn't get a hold of me sooner than she did. When I asked why, she said that I had a natural talent for learning and that even though I was overweight and not incredibly flexible, I had great potential. She even went as far as to say that if I had kept going at the pace I was, I could have been close to a black belt when I graduated. That was over 5 years ago. I can't even remember my damn forms. Sometimes life sucks.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, because I've been thinking of getting back into martial arts, seriously, and the wife has too. She would like to start taking karate classes, but I want to try something different. There are two different styles that I'm interested in, but sadly, I can only pick one due to money constraints and simply due to the amount of time each would require. The two styles that I'm interested in are Kung-Fu and Capoeira.

If any of you have seen the Matrix, and I'm sure you have, then you know what Kung-Fu is. But, I'm not interested in it just because of the Matrix. I've always been a bit of a fan of Kung-Fu. It's so graceful and fluid. The way it incorporates different styles like the Tiger Claw, the Snake, the Praying Mantis, the Iron Claw style and I'm sure there are many, many more. One worry I have, however, is that I've heard that the training can get kind of monotonous and overly repetitive. But hey, how else are you going to learn something than by doing and doing.

Capoeira is a bit more obscure to most of you, I would assume. It is a Brazilian martial art that was developed back in the time of the slave trade. It has a dance-like quality to it, and purposefully so. It emphasizes kicking and has very little punching. The reason for this was that, back in the days when it was created, slaves were bound at the hands in chains, but their feet were kept free. Also, during times of practice, they did not want the white slavers to realize that they were practicing a deadly form of self defense (and attack) so they turned it into a dance. It's all based around rhythms and motion. If you have a chance, go rent the movie "Only The Strong". It's all about Capoeira and you get to see some of the greats perform amazing moves. I got into Capoeira thanks to my bestest bud Christopher after we saw the movie. We really wanted to try to learn it, but the only way we could get accesss to it in Central Missouri would be to order video tapes. Well, things happened, I moved to Florida and he moved to Chicago. He, however, has followed our dream. He's taking a Capoeira class and is doing very well. What's ironic is that there are tons of Capoeira facilities here in South Florida. I even used to live within 2 minutes of one, but have never gone to inquire about classes. I think my biggest fear is that I'm severely overweight and I'm about as flexible as a brick. It takes great flexibility to perform most of the moves in Capoeira so I'm extremely hesitant. Maybe someday I'll get over it.

Well, that's about it for today. I'm not sure why I went into this little martial arts journey. I think it was because I saw The Matrix on HBO over the weekend and it got me to thinking about Kung-Fu again. Anyway, I'll try to have something more interesting in the next entry. Till then, may all your strikes hit their marks.

"Where are we going and why am I in this handbasket?"

Icebear

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