Back to the Beginning

I have been fascinated by the martial arts for as long as I could remember.  When I was young, I would never miss watching Kung Fu theater on Sundays, and went to every Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris movie I could.  There really weren’t any martial arts schools in my area, so I started wrestling in school, where I was a very average wrestler.

When I went to college, I discovered a Hapkido class being offered.  I had never heard of HapKido.  I went to watch a class, and discovered it was a mix of Taekwondo striking, Judo throws, and wrist locks.  The instructor was a national Judo champion from South Korea.  I was able to attend Hapkido classes for the year I attended the university.  I moved away for a job offer, and over the next 8 or so years, I moved to different cities several times.  I would always seek out some local martial arts schools to see what they had to offer, but none of them seemed to match what I was looking for.

I moved back to my home town, and in 2001 I started attending classes at the Hapkido school again.  The school is great, the instructors all have decades of martial arts experience, there is taekwondo, judo, instructors with karate backgrounds.  They were very open to incorporating other arts and techniques into what we did, if it worked, we would train it.  I would go to class early to get in on some judo training, never attaining any rank in the art, but many of the throws were the same that we used in hapkido, so the extra practice was great.  I continued to train, and received my first degree blackbelt in July 2005, and my 2nd degree in January 2007.  I continued to train until 2011, but my attendance started to drop off, my family was growing, and I wanted to spend more time with my kids, coaching them in their sports.  The time available to train just wasn’t there, so I stopped attending classes.

My kids are older now, and I have some more free time.  I missed training, and decided it was time to pick it back up.  I wanted to try something a bit different.  I looked at quite a few schools in my area, and decided on one that has Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.  I am familiar with BJJ, and it seems like a good choice.  I have been coaching youth wrestling, and I think the training will help me be a better coach.  Some of the submissions are very similar to what we used in the Hapkido and Judo training I have had.

I signed up for classes about a year ago, June 2017, was given my white belt, and was able to attend 3 or 4 classes a month due to other commitments.  About a month ago, June 2018, I was able to start attending classes multiple times per week.  The more I attend class, the more I enjoy it.  The focus on controlling your opponent, and escaping their control is incredible.  I am looking forward to continuing to train.