I've reached a bit of a watershed in my martial arts training.
I started Shotokan Karate relatively late in life (at 46). It was something that I had wanted to do for a while but never got around to actually doing until a club opened up just along the road from my house in May 2002. I went along to give it a try and found that I enjoyed it a lot. I certainly enjoyed it enough to stick at it and, as in the nature of these things, people came and went as the club grew over the years until I found that I was the only adult left from the intake that the club started with.
There were a quite a few adults who started after me, and a number of Juniors from the original starting line up, but because Juniors have to grade through intermediate grades so that they don't do too much to soon. So in October 2006 (in fact as I'm typing this I realise that it's 3 years ago to the day) I became the first person from my club to grade for black belt. I passed my grading and was awarded Shodan.
In the etiquette that goes with being the highest graded student, I also became the dojo captain; making sure that everybody else follows the proper dojo etiquette and being the guy that leads the dojo kun etc. I also started teaching the lower grades up to around 5th Kyu on a regular basis, and occasionally stepping in to teach the whole club when my Senseis are away (the club is jointly run by a 'husband and wife' team who are both 4th Dan and it's part of an association with a 7th Dan Sensei).
I've also been training hard for my Nidan grading and was assessed as being good enough to try for it around October last year (after 2 years as Shodan). That's where it all goes a bit pear shaped. I had learned the 3 kata required (Nijushiho, Enpi and Kanku Sho) plus the Bo kata that's introduced at 2nd Dan level and of course all the Kumite sets, then in January while doing the warm down from a training session we were sprinting from one end of the dojo to the other and, as I changed direction, I turned my ankle over and fell heavily, breaking my right wrist quite badly. I was in plaster for three months and a further couple of months spent trying to get my wrist to bend properly without pain - I was OK doing most stuff but for some reason shuto and uraken moves would cause searing pain and landing after the jump in Kanku Sho was a nightmare (the broken wrist didn't do much for my bass playing either).
This accident blew a huge 6 month hole in my training regime and with it went any chance of grading in the October. Gradually my wrist mended and I got back up to standard, then had to pull out of the following March grading (there are twice yearly black belt gradings) because of work commitments. The same has been true ever since, I travel a lot on business and a slight role change has meant that I've only been able to train sporadically.
On top of that, my wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 3 1/2 years ago. It's a degenerative disease and it's starting to reach a point where I need to spend much more of my time as a carer. Working full time, looking after a person with disability and having to do all of the shopping, cleaning, cooking, ironing and other household chores is really exhausting - doesn't leave time for much else.
I'm also passionate about Ducati motorcycles and for the last 8 years I've spent a lot of my time helping to run a UK based Ducati club - the club has been going through mixed fortunes and has needed a lot of help, and clearly, since I'm here, I'm also passionate about bass playing which I've done for 40 years (I'm 54 now).
Something has got to give and, with some regret, I've decided it's got to be Karate. I never went into it for the competitive element of the sport (although I do have a couple of Bronze medals from competitions) I just wanted to be as good as I could possibly be, but as I've moved up the grades I've found that more and more is expected in terms of going to competitions, teaching, helping out at Kyu gradings etc. The people are also more intense and all of the people I was training for Nidan with are just full on 'live, breathe, sleep, eat' Karate (they're also 20 years younger than me). I was never like them, I enjoy it a great deal but is it a passion? Not like my bikes or playing in a band for sure.
In the priority of things, my wife of 30 years obviously comes first, and the truth is that, unlike the OP, Karate is more of a pastime than a passion.
I haven't trained for 6 weeks now, I was going to go along tonight, but I have an important call to make tonight because I'm in the running for my bosses job...so another week goes by.
Sorry for the life story by the way
I started Shotokan Karate relatively late in life (at 46). It was something that I had wanted to do for a while but never got around to actually doing until a club opened up just along the road from my house in May 2002. I went along to give it a try and found that I enjoyed it a lot. I certainly enjoyed it enough to stick at it and, as in the nature of these things, people came and went as the club grew over the years until I found that I was the only adult left from the intake that the club started with.
There were a quite a few adults who started after me, and a number of Juniors from the original starting line up, but because Juniors have to grade through intermediate grades so that they don't do too much to soon. So in October 2006 (in fact as I'm typing this I realise that it's 3 years ago to the day) I became the first person from my club to grade for black belt. I passed my grading and was awarded Shodan.
In the etiquette that goes with being the highest graded student, I also became the dojo captain; making sure that everybody else follows the proper dojo etiquette and being the guy that leads the dojo kun etc. I also started teaching the lower grades up to around 5th Kyu on a regular basis, and occasionally stepping in to teach the whole club when my Senseis are away (the club is jointly run by a 'husband and wife' team who are both 4th Dan and it's part of an association with a 7th Dan Sensei).
I've also been training hard for my Nidan grading and was assessed as being good enough to try for it around October last year (after 2 years as Shodan). That's where it all goes a bit pear shaped. I had learned the 3 kata required (Nijushiho, Enpi and Kanku Sho) plus the Bo kata that's introduced at 2nd Dan level and of course all the Kumite sets, then in January while doing the warm down from a training session we were sprinting from one end of the dojo to the other and, as I changed direction, I turned my ankle over and fell heavily, breaking my right wrist quite badly. I was in plaster for three months and a further couple of months spent trying to get my wrist to bend properly without pain - I was OK doing most stuff but for some reason shuto and uraken moves would cause searing pain and landing after the jump in Kanku Sho was a nightmare (the broken wrist didn't do much for my bass playing either).
This accident blew a huge 6 month hole in my training regime and with it went any chance of grading in the October. Gradually my wrist mended and I got back up to standard, then had to pull out of the following March grading (there are twice yearly black belt gradings) because of work commitments. The same has been true ever since, I travel a lot on business and a slight role change has meant that I've only been able to train sporadically.
On top of that, my wife was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis 3 1/2 years ago. It's a degenerative disease and it's starting to reach a point where I need to spend much more of my time as a carer. Working full time, looking after a person with disability and having to do all of the shopping, cleaning, cooking, ironing and other household chores is really exhausting - doesn't leave time for much else.
I'm also passionate about Ducati motorcycles and for the last 8 years I've spent a lot of my time helping to run a UK based Ducati club - the club has been going through mixed fortunes and has needed a lot of help, and clearly, since I'm here, I'm also passionate about bass playing which I've done for 40 years (I'm 54 now).
Something has got to give and, with some regret, I've decided it's got to be Karate. I never went into it for the competitive element of the sport (although I do have a couple of Bronze medals from competitions) I just wanted to be as good as I could possibly be, but as I've moved up the grades I've found that more and more is expected in terms of going to competitions, teaching, helping out at Kyu gradings etc. The people are also more intense and all of the people I was training for Nidan with are just full on 'live, breathe, sleep, eat' Karate (they're also 20 years younger than me). I was never like them, I enjoy it a great deal but is it a passion? Not like my bikes or playing in a band for sure.
In the priority of things, my wife of 30 years obviously comes first, and the truth is that, unlike the OP, Karate is more of a pastime than a passion.
I haven't trained for 6 weeks now, I was going to go along tonight, but I have an important call to make tonight because I'm in the running for my bosses job...so another week goes by.
Sorry for the life story by the way
