Lots of Pushups

You may have wondered about the title of my previous blog post, "Musings of a Ronin". A Ronin, or Wave Man, is a masterless warrior, sourced from the Japanese samurai era, in which a warrior would travel around searching for work, typically as a mercenary, bodyguard or teacher. Of which, I've been all three to a point. My 23andMe genetics test claims I do have an ancestor whom was at least 100% Japanese about 350 years ago. So, hey, maybe I am descended from a Ronin!

Continuing off from last post, the story ended with me recounting my first school, and sitting in a loft watching the noobs learn deadly punches from horse stance. A horse stance is, feet spread apart to about twice one's shoulder's width, then squat like a bear taking a shit.

My next major flash of memory is standing in the bleachers of the school in front stance copying the adults in class. A front stance is a deep forward lunge to deliver strikes. If you've ever done yoga, this is identical to warrior pose. I could never quite do front stance perfect, due to inflexible ankles messing with my form. Which leads me to my next blurry memory: I'm doing pushups, in the bleachers, because the instructor of the class didn't like my front stance. My mother happily recounts this story often. She stated I had to do A LOT of pushups, even though I wasn't a student yet, I was merely spectating! Stupid inflexible ankles!

I have a few more early flashes of memory, then we start getting into full motion video, lessons learned and funny moments. My next memory is seeing the class train in the nearby park, in the grass, with their white karate gi's on. I see green knees and elbows. Apparently they were doing takedowns and the grass was thier mat. I like this. Train in real world turf!

At the same school, I am still about five, maybe even six by now. I'm sitting in the bleachers, it was a demonstration of some sort. Tons of students were on the floor. I remember seeing a black belt, I knew his name at the time, but cannot recall it now. He ran across the room, attempted a jump flying kick and failed to extend his foot in time. He violently smashed, awkwardly, into a stack of boards with his knee. I remember the rush of people around him, and me being worried. This was the first of many martial arts injuries I will witness. This is also the final memory from that school.

Next post teaser, I am about six or seven, and learn my first tactical lesson...from a girl!

Musings of a Ronin.

I remember quite distinctly my two earliest memories. The first is a confirmed account of a mere flash memory. Two frames out of an old, grainy movie film strip, of me reaching up for a bottle. The background is dark, the bottle, is the shape of a Flintstone cartoon character, and I can see both of my hands reaching for it.

The next memory, was while I was sitting on the floor of a living room in a old farmhouse near Medford, Oregon. My mother, sitting on the couch reading a newspaper, said something about karate classes. I remember being instantly focused upon her words. At this point, I have tons of life memories scattered in all directions. For purposes of this blog, I would like to take this path strictly down the martial arts memories, lesson learned, and interesting tidbits. I shall change the names to protect the not-so-innocent.

My first real martial arts memory. Once again, I am sitting on my butt, all I see is a single grainy frame. In my mind I am panning around looking at the details. I am sitting on a loft, with my back towards the railing, inches away from certain death. Watching the noobs, in the their workout clothes sitting deeply in horse stance. Later, I would learn, this was the introduction class to weed out the weak, before being thrown into the meat grinder. I recently spoke with my mother to get some approximate dates of these initial events. She said it was eight months before Chuck Norris's "A Force of One" came out. Doing some amazing math, this would have been about November of 1978. I would have just turned five years old.

Out of curiosity, I performed some Internet sleuthing. I found the school! The loft is still there, seen clearly in the background! The school looked so much bigger in my child hood mind. Talk about a serious blast from the past!

I have a few stories from this time period. Which I will save for next time.

~Mark