As most of you know, back in March, I had knee surgery, which I wrote a blog post about back on September 14th, 2020.  Since before that, I've thought about going back to martial arts.  There is a place near me that teacher Brazilian Jiujitsu (BJJ), but to I have a few issues with going to that place, which I won't get into here.  To go along with that, I really wanted to go back to karate. 

There are basically two (2) different disciplines in karate.  There is Japanese karate and Okinawan karate.  Here is a one of my favorite youtube people for martial arts, Jesse Enkamp, talking about 10 differences between Okinawan karate and Japanese karate.

Now, there isn't anything wrong with Japanese karate or Okinawan karate, it's just that Okinawan karate was where I got my start when I still lived in the States.

Now, in Thailand, I studied Japanese karate.  To be more specific, I studied JKS Shotokan Karate, which I really do enjoy.  I studied for about 3 years.  You can see my belt tests here with these videos:

10th kyu (White belt) to 8th kyu (Orange belt) test:

8th kyu (Orange belt) to 5th kyu (1st purple belt) test:

5th kyu (1st purple belt) to 4th kyu (2nd purple belt) test:

4th kyu (2nd purple belt) to 2nd kyu (2nd brown belt) test:

2nd kyu (2nd brown belt) to 1st kyu (3rd brown belt) test:

1st kyu (3rd brown belt) to Shodan (1st black belt) test:

I felt so honored when I achieved my Shodan belt.  The problem was, my life got busy, and I moved away from karate for a bit, and when I did come back, I didn't agree with some of the things that I saw happening at the dojo, and I had a really hard time with that and I ended up walking away from the dojo.  I came back a year or so later, and it was pretty much the same, just fewer students.  

Fast forward to November 2020, and I feel like I'm ready to go back to karate, actually, I'm kind of craving it.  So I went back to karate on October 22nd:

https://www.facebook.com/Timberwolf1771/posts/10157352946052676 <=== My FB post about it.

I have since done a total of 4 classes, with last night being my 4th class.  Now, I can't do as deep of stances as I used to, not yet anyway, and I can't quite move the way I used to, but I will get there.  It's just going to take some time, and I need to be patient.  Katas are slowly starting to come back, and I'm seeing different layers of the katas again which is nice.  Also last night, we were recorded doing the kata teki-shodan.  

I'm really happy to be back doing karate, and I'm looking forward to doing more.  I'm really looking forward to doing more karate.  I don't know if I will do any more tests, but I will keep learning and finding more and more layers to the katas.

Always Remember:  You should do the things you love, even if you don't get the chance to do so in the autumn of your life.  Still do it, because you love it.