December
13, 2017 marks my golden anniversary in the martial arts. (How
the heck can he remember the exact date?)
I kept a log when I began, showing the date of each class and what we worked
on. The log was lost until my family
moved from Jamaica, Queens to Merrick, Long Island in 1971, when it was found
sifting through some papers. As it
turned out, my brother Rick married Rita on the same date, December 13, but in
1970. I can never forget when I started,
because it’s their anniversary too, just three years apart.
My
first instructor, Sabumnim Illowsky, called his teachings Karate, which was a rare (but known) term, as Tae Kwon Do was almost unknown to the public. I then went on to Moo Duk Kwan – Tang Soo Do,
another ‘Korean style’ in Brooklyn. As
we know, Koreans trained with Funakoshi O-sensei in the 1950s, then went back
to Korea and created ‘Korean styles’ based on Shotokan. I learned Taga 1-2-3, Bin-an 1-2-3-4-5,
Chul-ki, and Passai. Do these names
sound familiar?
As
a teen, the attractive patch at right caught my eye, but I knew nothing about the
style. I studied Judo for a while. New York Tech had a Karate Club, which I
joined in 1976. It turned out to be a
Shotokan club. I guess it was kismet all
along. Next month is my 42nd
year in Shotokan, but today is my 50th anniversary in the martial arts.