Karate Essay

My son Bobby is preparing to achieve his first degree black belt. As you may or may not know, karate is much more than simply waving your hands and feet in an attempt to chop your opponent in half. It combines Mind, Body, and Spirit. As an exhibit to this I offer the Student Creed:

I intend to develop myself in a positive manner and to avoid anything that would reduce my mental growth or my physical health.

I intend to develop self-discipline in order to bring out the best in myself and others.

I intend to use what I learn in class constructively and defensively; to help myself and my fellow man, and never to be abusive or offensive.

Partof Bobbys work towards achieving this
goal is writing an essay about his involvement in the martial arts. The
following is his essay entry:

My sister won a drawing at the Plank Road festival. My mom
asked me if I wanted to join to and I said yes. I’ve gotten physically
stronger, mentally smarter, emotionally stayed the same. I feel I’ve
developed more discipline than I had before and I feel I worked very hard and
spent much time on practicing. I feel stronger and able to defend myself
if I get into that position.

I would like to go on for my 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and so
on. I want to be a UFC fighter when I get older and karate would help me
with that a lot. Master Sgcar is dedicated to what he does and he is a
good leader. He is dedicated to teaching us discipline, good leadership,
and to be good kids. Karate is fun and hard at times but I like it.

Attaboy, little buddy!

Candidate Class

Well, we asked for it I guess. Bobby is on board to receive his Black Belt at Lavalle's Black Belt Spectacular in a couple of weeks. And I think its going to be a very long couple of weeks!

They're working their buns off in order to be sharp, focused and ready for prime time. In the next 15 days Bobby has 6 'Power Weekend' practices, 6 classes, and at least four runs to complete! Tonight, after two and a half hours of training he came home and wrote a required essay on "What Karate Has Done for Me". He doesn't understand how I can consider writing fun and relaxing. Maybe in a few years he will. This essay isn't due until next weekend, but he understands that tonight will probably be one of the few times he is free to complete it, and now it is done and out of the way. Maybe after he submits it to Kyoshi Lavalle I'll post it here for the whole world to see!

My poor blessed missus is going to be run hog-wild, as my daughter is just starting her black belt cycle. So between both kids classes and school and work and trying to figure out "Where in the world is my husband today?" she'll be putting some miles on! She's a strong willed individual so I'm certain she'll do just fine. Unfortunately I have a ton of meetings in the next two weeks so I won't be able to run the taxi too much.

Tonight after their regular class the candidates separated into 3 or 4 small groups to work on their individual creative entries for the big show. They were left to work with their own devices. The adults are kind of expected to succeed in the development and deployment of this particular exercise, but some parents were worried about how their kids would interact. This is a two-minute act that they're designing from scratch that will ultimately be performed in front of 2000 people. It must include all three areas of study, Kata, sparring and weapon use. For the most part they all worked together very well, each listening to others' input and being respectful of the lesser-desired ideas.

Getting closer, Getting excited!

Bobby found out today that he is definitely "IN", meaning he's got the blessings of his Master to receive his black belt- first degree!!!

New uniforms are in, as well as the necessary patches. He got sized for his custom-made black belt too! I was at a meeting and wasn't present for this unfortunately but I'm told that once he put the belt on to check for proper size, he didn't want to take it off! I can't say as I blame him either. He was forced to 'reset his goals", as they put it, last cycle as he broke his arm about halfway through that first cycle. Still, to make it all the way through in two attempts is quite an achievement for anyone, even more so for an eleven year old kid.

I made it home in time to talk to him before he fell asleep, and he's pretty stoked. He's already worried about stage fright. I think he'll do fine, and tried to tell him that this is no different than participating in one of the many tournaments he's been in and had no trouble with stage fright. He said "Dad, that place is gonna have 2000 people in it, and that's a lot of people!"

The next two weeks will be awfully busy preparing for Power Weekend. It's now held at the Mulroy Civic Center in downtown Syracuse. He'll be busy perfecting his creative kumatae, and working on board-breaking too!

I'm a proud proud daddy right now. If he gets hurt between now and October 14, he'll be grounded until he's 28, lol!

Black Belt Bobby

Bobby has been working tirelessly on earning his forst degree black belt. This weekend he joined 2 dozen others from all the Lavalles dojo's at Lavalles HQ in Liverpool NY for what they call a pre-exam. An hour and a half of kada's and sparring followed by a timed 2 mile run, and doing this with others that he's not used to working out with as normally he works with kids from Team Cicero only.


This made it interesting, as although all schools teach the same discipline, each Sensei has their own methods. Therefore, one school might teach that you don't hit in the head while sparring, another might say "Hit to win". I guess out there in the real world one can't count on their opponent playing by the rules.

They've got an awesome team that coaches the kids with their running, Mr Bill, Mr Pies, and Mr Dave (not shown) . Bobby has got his two mile time down to 15:11 which is about as long as it takes this old man to get out of bed in the morning!