Environment

An environment can have a tremendous effect on the outcome of a person's life, whether it is positive or negative. The environment that affected my life in a positive manner was the dojo. Dojo comes from the Japanese language meaning "place of the way," do meaning way and Jo meaning place. The reason I started practicing karate (the real art itself is called karate-do "the way of the empty hand") training was because of sheer curiosity. My sensei's (instructor's) son was the same age as my brother, and they were on the same little league team. I asked him one day at a baseball game about karate and he said to me, "Come to the dojo and train and you will learn about it." To this I agreed and I went to the dojo for the first time. I was seven years of age at the time I entered the environment.

As one enters into the dojo it is customary to bow. A bow in Japan is like a handshake compared to the United States customs, it holds no religious significance. So it's like whoever is bowing is giving all those who have trained before you a handshake when you enter the building. As a visitor or practitioner walks in they immediately feel a sense of focus. Once the doors close from the outside world one no longer hear the cars going by outside and you enter the other world that exists within. The first thing someone would see when you enter is the sea of soft blue mats. Those mats are your best friend in the dojo. Immediately to the right of the door is a desk where sensei keeps all of his things related to karate. As a person takes off their shoes and socks and venture to the back of the dojo to the changing area he/she sees all the Japanese kanji scrolls all over the room. At that time I had no idea what they meant or were, and I did not question either. Also one sees the gigantic mirrors all across the west side wall. These are a great tool in refining your technique. As you finally reach the changing room door the distance one travels is about 90 feet. The length from shomen (the front of the dojo) to the back of the dojo is about 55 feet. Also, again, it is customary to bow when someone go on the mats and off the mats.

I changed quickly with the others my age into my brand new white uniform with a white belt. The others I saw there who trained with me had belt colors all the colors of the rainbow. I eagerly wanted to earn my other belts when I saw this, and ultimately my black belt. As a class begins the custom is to line up all facing the front of the dojo, and to bow to shomen once and then once to sensei. The first thing sensei said to the class was, "Find a partner everyone!" Everyone, as fast as they could, scurried around frantically grabbing people for their partner. It was at this time that I learned quite quickly that when sensei said something, do it as fast as you can. I found a partner relatively quickly because he grabbed me and said you are my partner. When a partner is found to train with the first thing you do to them is bow.

Without the bow we would be nothing more than street fighters. In the dojo people are taught techniques of lethal force that can easily kill a man. Great care must be taken when practicing these techniques on a partner so no injuries happen. The bow is a sign of respect and trust you give. The same thing applies to the bow in the beginning of class. Respect must be shown or else we would just be killers with no cause, and that is the blunt truth.

But returning to my first class though, my partner and I practiced our techniques sensei told the class to practice, and my partner was quite helpful in instructing me as we went along. Before I knew it, my first karate class had ended, and it was time to line up again. Again, it is customary to bow once to shomen and once to sensei. When my mother picked me up from class and she inquired how it went, and I responded that I will be back again tomorrow.

Throughout the course of my life, training in the dojo my life has changed drastically, through karate training. Throughout karate training in the dojo something, magical happens. One learns the difference between right and wrong and how to act toward other people. One becomes quite aware of your surrounding learning how not to put yourself in harm's way. And the only way to learn this is through great discomfort. Now when I use the word discomfort I do not mean pain. Pain is counter-productive. When I use the word discomfort it means coming out of the comfort zone of the human body. Rise out of the body's comfort zone little by little and after a while it will be natural to want to keep rising out of the comfort zone.. Only through hard work is this feat achievable. In the dojo I must have thrown at least 50.000 punches and kicks and done 25,000 and 15,000 sit-ups and push-ups respectively. I have stretched my body into positions that a normal man would find painful, but I find relieving. It takes great discomfort to achieve that level, but it is very, very worth it, and being in the dojo atmosphere just pushes a person to a positive level.

My instructor Anthony DeSardi is a most amazing man. He started karate one decade later than me at the age of seventeen. Throughout his karate "career" he has been an athlete, a coach and a referee. As an athlete, he took the U.S. team to the world championships and won, twice. Quite a remarkable record he holds against all other instructors in my opinion. Most of my pushing to achieve the level I'm at right now came from him. If it wasn't for him I might have quit karate-do altogether.

I'll skip ahead about 7 years to my shodan (first degree black belt) test. It was at an AJKA (American Japanese Karate Association) training camp in Carlsbad, California. Instructors from all across the world were there for a week of straight training in the summer of 2001. They hold one every year, and a black belt test there every year as well. It just turns out that my time for shodan test fell upon these dates. The dojo we were in was not the one with the sea of blue mats, but this was a just a regular gymnasium with no mats, just hardwood floor. As one trains on the hardwood floor their entire body takes an un-necessary beating, and the feet are a constant bother. One of the instructors on the board of eight was my instructor,