May 19, 2009
One armed fighter an inspiration
It was with great interest that I videotaped the one-armed fighter who columnist Michael P. Mayko will be writing about in coming weeks.
We have a similar battle to fight.
In my case, I had studied in the Korean martial art of Hapkido through brown belt levels in the 1990s, before I was sidelined by an injury. "Wherever you go from here, I have given you a foundation," Grandmaster Hosoo Hwang told me. Things went from bad to worse: no sooner had I recovered from that injury (a torn groin muscle that prevented me from doing any form of exercise, even taking a walk, for several years until it healed) than I took a bad fall on some stairs and had to go for surgery on my neck.
I wanted badly to get back into martial arts, but there was a stumbling block: in Hapkido, you must participate in classes in which you are thrown by others. It would be nice if you do all the throwing and would never have to take a fall yourself, but it doesn't work that way. Each member of the class is expected to take his falls, and I could not do that any longer because of my partial spinal disability, with my neck held together with metal parts. So I was flummoxed, to say the least.
So, like our friend the one-armed fighter, I stopped thinking about what I cannot do and focused instead on what I CAN do. "I can't take a fall, but I can still kick. I can still perform te waza (hand techniques.)" So, I got back into martial arts through the back door: I did cardio-kickboxing for a year and a half, to help get myself back into martial arts shape, and found an instructor who would allow be to be the Tori, the one who performs the throws, but never the Uke, the one who gets thrown.
I have been training hard and am now two months shy of the test for my black belt, and can once again deliver powerful kicks to head and face level -- something that is amazing for a 50-year-old guy with a partial disability who at the turn of the century weighed nearly 300 pounds and wore size 50 pants. It is nothing if not a rebirth.
I have to say the principle at work would apply to anyone: stop thinking about what you CAN"T do, and focus on what you CAN do. Like the one-armed fighter, you have to get out of the negative and stay in the positive!
-- TONY SPINELLI
ADDENDUM: Being a certified black belt is not merely a hobby, like flyfishing. It is also a career opportunity: it would allow me to take a job as a self-defense instructor or personal trainer if that's the direction my desire and fate lead me. (I am already the author/manager of a Hapkido newsgroup in which every facet of the art is examined and am the producer/performer of a successful Hapkido demonstration video series on YouTube.)
ADDENDUM: The requirements for black belt are voluminous: the student must demonstrate knowledgeable proficiency in all aspects of the art learned in the previous years, including joint locks, throws and advanced spinning and jumping kicks, plus, demonstrate a facility with basic weapons including the staff, the baton, the cane, the nunchaku, and demonstrate the ability to apply the techniques for use in defense against knives, handguns and baseball bats. There must be a knowledge of inside and reverse as well as outside moves, and an ability to defend freestyle against at least two armed or unarmed attackers. That's a lot of study and training! It takes dedication and discipline, for certain. And, as the instructor who brought me to green belt years ago, Mr. Harry Williams, had said, "when you get your black belt, then you can begin." Because it is then you really begin to learn the higher aspects of the art, and how to apply it to your life. It is then that Korean Hapkido takes on the essence of its parent art, Japanese Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu -- Daito Ryu in Japanese meaning "the closed room," because the teachings were kept secret for hundreds of years.
Posted by Spinelli on May 19, 2009 5:33 PM
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