Martial Arts

Western Martial Arts institutions are often criticized when compared to their Japanese counterparts for awarding black belts too commonly. This is especially problematic at youth karate tournaments.

Alvin: Hey—are you Zach? Hey, I’m Alvin. I think we’re fighting each other today.

Zach: Hey, nice to meet you.

Alvin: So where are you from?

Zach: Well, I used to live in New York City, but my parents made me spend the last six years in Japan, to work on my Karate. How about you?

Alvin: I live in New York City. I’ve lived there my whole life. So wait—how long did it take you to get your black belt?

Zach: It took me all six years. In fact, it should’ve taken more, but I took an accelerated training regimen so that I could compete in this tournament.

Alvin: Really? Wow. It only took me five weeks to get this thing. I went straight from yellow to black. I went white, yellow, black. Isn’t that weird? All of a sudden, that sounds weird to me. Is that how it worked for you? What did you have before black?
Zach: Brown with six black stripes.

Alvin: Jesus. Were practices…hard?

Zach: Not really. I mean, we’d wake up every morning at five and do sparring until noon. We only focused on the four main kinds of sparring: Yako, Sego, Jano, and Deadly. Then we meditated, chanting things like “Mashi san ban” which roughly translates to “No mercy” and “Tisa do dosai” which roughly translates to “Even in a tournament setting.” Then we prayed to the gods of Karate.

Alvin: What!? There are gods of Karate!? They never mentioned any gods of Karate in the after-school class. Well, actually, maybe they did in that one class I missed. I had a saxophone lesson.

Zach: So you said we’re fighting each other today?

Alvin: I- I don’t know. Maybe I read it wrong. I probably read it wrong.

Zach: Oh, here (pulls out a schedule). It says we’re fighting each other at noon. That’s five minutes from now!

Alvin: Oh my God. Oh my God.

Zach: Are you nervous? Don’t be nervous. This will be fun! There’s nothing like two black belts going at it, as hard as they possibly can.

MKG '10