June 2, 1975 I made first black. Mike Sanders in Sterling, IL signed off on me after flunking it the first time around. Three years later I moved to second after being on probation for a year. Mike didn't like my sparring skills and I had to fight, fight, fight. I was more of a kicker due to my initial training. The first kenpo school I went to gave no formal instruction in sparring, so we went to tournaments to see what we could pick up. With a predominance of Korean and Okinawan styles, we didn't fight much like kenpo people. Mike told me I had to get the hands better, so I did. When I pulled off a triple win (fighting/forms/weapons) at a tournament in 1978 or early 79, he signed my certificate.
It seems funny that 46 years after starting in the martial arts, I'm still at it and closing in on 40 years as a black belt. And I'm still working at it.
No comments:
Post a Comment