Its Been 40 years of my own dojo

Its been 40 years since i opened my dojo and a lot has changed in the martial arts. When i started training in 1980 no one in the mainstream knew anything about the martial arts. Movies like Billy Jack and Enter the dragon made quite an impression on me and others.

They Caused me to start my journey into the martial arts. But which one, Not having any internet or being bombarded by many advertisements i didn't know. TV didn't help with its two or 3 channels, maybe some boxing or pro wrestling on to watch. The most martial art show was Kung Fu with David Carradine who was a humble peaceful individual who took little crap. Looked like what martial arts should be. Then i was captivated by an advertisement of someone doing an un imaginable high kick posted on a store window. This is the place for me i thought. Something called Karate. So i went. I thought i was fit having done all sports in school. Holy smokes, 200 sit ups 100 push ups to warm up and then fight. Pretty much exhausted and couldn't walk the next couple days. Not kumite as today, but Fight, no set time, no set rules, no pads. Although kicking to the unprotected groin was frowned upon. When you had a break you changed partners and started again. I liked fighting and was pretty good at it right away but the partners kept leaving. My instructor was the assistant and he said we don't do kata. its not real. What's Kata? i thought, That's Ok i like fighting. But people kept disappearing. Id meet them on the street and ask why they weren't in class to which they responded.. You broke three of my ribs and i wrecked my foot on your elbow. So out of 35 beginner adults 4 of us made it to my yellow belt test 4 months later. A man from Ontario my instructor knew came to do the test. 5 nights training and the test on the 6th day. I couldn't hardly walk. He kept using me as his partner. After all i had been training for about 4 months. I learned what a foot sweep was, or at least what it does to you. He said he doesn't kick above the waist anymore, he didn't seem to need it. We trained on a concrete floor with tile, it was pretty hard but i was 19 and didn't feel much. One night he took the two blue belts who were testing for brown into a room with himself, we heard some noises and when the blue belts emerged with a bloody nose and black eye. No one ever heard of safety. It was said they needed to work on their blocks. We did what we were told and thought they knew what they were doing, after all they were black belts. You don't just get one of those for $30.00 at the martial arts store.