A Fork in the Road

There I was, working full time as a Bartender/Supervisor at Jack Astor's Bar and Grill on Dundas in Missisauga, and training as a green belt at least 5 days a week at United Martial Arts Mississauga with Mrs. and Mr. Kersey as my instructors.  I was starting to find my feet as a fighter thanks to Friday night's sparring sessions and sparring seminar invitations from Mr. Kersey.  He also taught most Bo (staff) classes and I was very exited to be learning not only traditional but also more modern Bo techniques.

I was getting in decent shape too, pushups and situps were no longer a problem and I often thought about or even practiced martial arts when I was not at work or the club.  A few months had passed since I had dropped my resume at United, so I was very surprised when the club management called me up one afternoon out of the blue and asked if I'd still be available to work for them.
What an opportunity!  I was elated at the prospect of working in the arena I loved and with people I respected and wanted to learn from!  All silver linings have clouds however, and when I sat down with the club manager I learned that I would be taking a severe pay cut.  While bartending wasn't the most glamorous job, it was a good way to earn quick easy money.

I took some time out to think about it.  This was a fork in the road.  One path led to the same thing I had been doing for a couple of years with a carreer as a restaurant manager and a comfortable standard of living.  The other path led to improved fitness and immersion in an atmosphere that would help me become the best black belt I could possibly be and financial cutbacks.
 
What helped me make the decision was an interaction I had a few weeks before the club offer.  I was supervising the floor at Jack's one night when a waitress asked me to visit an unhappy table.  Long story short, the grandmother of the family wasn't happy with the meal, and the son made it his personal mission to ruin my night.  The offer of a free round of drinks and buying the grandmother's meal wasn't enough for him, and he did the whole, "What's your name, position and the name of your boss."  routine, threatening to write a letter to head office if he didn't get a better offer.  With my manager's backing at the time we bought the whole table and they still left unhappy.  I knew we had been taken advantage of and blatantly disrespected, and was very frustrated at the injustice of it all.

With that experience fresh in my mind I called the club and asked when they wanted me to start.  As it happened, I would be working Tuesdays through Saturdays doing the intro sessions and signing new members up to the program.  I stayed on at Jack Astors part time for a little while, until I went on holidays for a long weekend to visit my parents who had a beach house in Massachusetts.  Though I had booked the time off, the new bar manager put me on the schedule anyway.  So, that was the end of my Bartending stint!  It was real, it was fun, it was real fun, but I was glad it was over.

Back at the club, I was doing about two intros a day, and whenever there weren't intros Mrs. Kersey welcomed me on the floor to be a "Leader" - a kyu belt teaching assistant.  I had also started helping out around the club as a handyman, hanging wall plaques, changing neon lights, repairing holes in the walls (the Kerseys often did high school self defense courses, and of course, boys will be boys) and the like.  I was getting to know other club regulars that didn't attend the classes I normally did.  Reema, our Receptionist, and other students, Abe, Cliff, Lindsay, Ryan, Scott and Steve as well as the Mullings family.  These people would stay on with the club for as long as I did and longer, and though I didn't know it at the time, I was lucky to be surrounded by such quality individuals.

Krista and Brandon Kersey

Head Instructors of Mississauga and Millcreek respectively

Sometime around then I had progressed from Green to Green Stripe, which can be thought of as a senior green belt.  The curriculum was similar; Won Hyo was again our Kata, the routine (spinning hook kick, shuto, jump front kick, a couple of blocks in front, horse and back stances) was the same but done on the other side, and instead of self defense drills we had sparring drills, all of which I already knew thanks to my early start.

I recall Mr. Kersey starting to talk about "Millcreek" when I was a green stripe belt.  I didn't know what he was on about at first until it became apparent that He was going to be leaving the Mississauga club and opening another United Martial Arts with the same club manager.  It was to be about 15 minutes away (depending on traffic) from the Mississauga club. 
It was shortly after I graded for Blue belt that the Millcreek location opened.  I would be there Tuesday through Thursday and at the Mississauga club Friday and Saturday, and I'd often go to  the Queenston club (our parent club in Hamilton, Mr. Flood's club) for sparring classes on Sunday.  The clubs also introduced a new Cardiovascular Kickboxing program that the manager had purchased from one of the well established Martial Arts clubs in the Hamilton area.  This meant that we all became significantly busier learning to teach and promote the new program.

Things were not going very well for me financially at the time.  I was sinking too much money into my car, which was going on 11 years old and in need of constant repair, plus the cost of upkeep, insurance payments, ahhh! It was all getting to be too much.  I noticed the car was really labouring to get up the big hill on the bridge in Hamilton, but I had absolutely no spare money or even room on the credit card to fix the problem.  This was going to come to a head, and soon...

Yours on the journey,
J.

Early Days

After the introductory session, my first official class was on my next day off work which was a Sunday.  The chief instructor Krista Shearer (now Kersey) had the day off, so Gerry Watson was teaching classes.

Being a Jiu-Jitsu man, Mr. Watson had a different teaching style and focus to other instructors in the United system.  When you say "Jiu-Jitsu" nowadays, people usually think you're talking about Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the grappling system that has gained such noteriety thanks to UFC and MMA.  The type of Jiu-Jitsu Mr. Watson specialised in can be thought more of as self defense with joint locks and strikes to vulnerable positions, so while there are ground fighting components, it is usually done from a standing position.

After the warmup and stretch we paired off and began to work an entirely new concept for me, self-defense.  I was much too stiff and unwieldy, but Mr. Watson was very patient with me, he even used me as an Uki (can be thought of as "guinea pig for demonstrations") in that very first class!  What a privilege.  I was quite visibly nervous so he held out his hand for a handshake.  I took it and the next thing I knew I was on my knees looking down at the ground with pain shooting through my thumb.  I had to learn how to do things like that!

Mrs. Kersey's classes were structured differently.  They were very demanding physically, more specifically, cardiovascular stamina, flexibility, strength, good technique and co-ordination were all expected.  Of course it took me a few sessions to get my windbags working (some say now they work a little too well!).  I would go to the day classes whenever I didn't have to work lunch and the night classes whenever I could get to them.  Basically, if I wasn't at work and there was a class I could attend, I was at the club.  In retrospect, it's a good thing I was single at the time!

As a white belt I also had the esteemed privilege of being able to spar early (again, usually reserved for orange belts and above).  Guy loaned me his sparring gear for a Sunday sparring session since he wouldn't be around.  I had never sparred properly before.  The only experience I had was tying on old straw-filled boxing gloves with my brother when we were boys and getting the stuffing knocked out of me in the back-yard one summer.  This Sunday session was much the same!  The class started off with drilling our basic blitz attack, Backfist reverse punch.  Since this was the only technique I knew I did it repeatedly and with increasing intensity when it was time to free spar.  Being of larger stature than most and not the prettiest face to look at I did quite well against the lower belts with even those two techniques.  Then I lined up across from a gentleman about ten years older and a little bigger and taller than me.

I went in hard and he easily side stepped my attack.  A few more times.  He paused for a second and said something along the lines of "try to relax a bit, you don't have to aim to take my head off.  We're sparring partners, here to help each other."  While I heard what he said and nodded, I'm not sure my body wanted to listen.  On the next technique I went in hard again and saw stars.  It wasn't until a few seconds later that I realised I had just been kicked in the head - and hard!  I glanced in the mirror and saw a little red splotch forming beside my right eye - This guy was so good he kicked me in the head and gave me a black eye in no time flat!  I looked over at him and he gave me the most disarming smile and said "Sorry about that!"

I didn't realise it at the time but I had just sparred with the head of United Martial Arts at the time, Mr. Jim Flood, and he had taught me one of the most important lessons I've ever learned in Martial Arts.  When it comes to training, we're here to help others, not dominate them. 

Mr. Jim Flood, head of United Family Martial Arts

I continued to train diligently right through from White belt to Green Belt.  I was always happy to train with Guy as we were friends from before martial arts.  Sadly, when I was a yellow belt Guy had a falling out with the management of the club. He was very bitter and I haven't seen or heard from him since. He was a talented and enthusiastic martial artist and I must admit that the atmosphere of the club was a little less jovial without him there, but in retrospect his absence encouraged me to seek out other friends inside the club.

Between yellow and green belt I attended a couple of tournaments, I won my division in Kata and in Sparring.  Mrs. Kersey asked me to write an article for the newsletter on the subject of intensity, which I had plenty of.  My Katas were always strong and almost savage as though I was in a fight.  When I did partner work I went at about 80% intensity if I thought my partner was up to it, otherwise I started slow and worked my way up as the drill became more familiar.  I was developing my style as a martial artist and was quite comfortable with how I was progressing by green belt.

I had met Mr. Kersey and had participated in his Weapons and Sparring classes.  Sometime around my green belt, Mr. Watson and Kyoshi Steve left the club as instructors.  Sundays now saw the club closed and my training diminished slightly, as I always had Sundays off. 

I became little disheartened at green belt because it took me a month to go from white to yellow, the same to get to orange, and two months to get to green.  As a green belt a month had already passed when I wrote the newsletter article and I didn't even have one grading stripe! (three, sometimes four required to be eligeable to grade).  Still, I perservered and kept my nose to the grindstone, and I kept reminding myself to be disciplined and have a good attitude whenever my ego tried to fight its way out of the neat little cage I was slowly building for it.

I was around then that I started getting sick of bartending.  I was a supervisor at Jack Astor's on my way to becoming the bar manager and I felt I was at a crossroads.  I felt like I was living a double life, bartending, which was in my opinion promoting unhealthy habits, and martial arts which was promoting healthy ones.  I decided to apply for the postiton vacated by Guy at the club.  I was politely told that they would love to have me, but the club didn't require it at the time.  Mrs. Kersey was able to to both her job and Guy's with the current customer load.

So, I continued to train dilligently and work at Jack's in the short term.  Little did I know what was around the corner...

Yours on the journey,
J.

Where it all started

My fascination with Martial Arts began back in '97.

I was working full time as a bartender at Casey's Grillehouse and Beverage Company on Dundas St. in Mississauga.  That summer a guy from Saskatchewan (named "Guy" no less!) joined the staff and had a bit of trouble finding his feet - as an already old hand at table and drink service I helped him out whenever I could and we became fast friends.

The restaurant business wasn't for him and he faded away after a couple of months.  Coincidentally, all that summer my eyes were drawn to a new shop across the way that had the coolest looking purple neon lights that were like a beacon in the night sky.  I had no idea what kind of shop it was, and kept promising myself to check it out the following day.

It wasn't until sometime in September that I went to find out (I wasn't too big on integrity back then).  As I walked across the parking lot on a split (lunch/break/dinner shift) I was surprised to see it was a Karate club by the name of "United Family Martial Arts".  There were neons around the door glowing dully in the mid-September sun which read "Karate, Tae-Kwon do, Jiu-Jitsu".  Though I admit to feeling a little intimidated by what I might face inside, I decided I was tired of reverting to my two handed chest push I had learned as an offensive lineman in high school football whenever things got out of hand at the bar.  I wanted to learn something useful and get in shape, and have something in common with my oldest brother Chuck who was at that time living in Japan, teaching english and studying Shotokan.

So, I walked through the door, and there was Guy sitting behind the desk!  After paying $30.00 I had an intro session and a lightweight white uniform with a brand new and very stiff white belt.  As I think back, my martial arts skill really was well represented by that thing.  Way too stiff and needing to be worked in.

I was hooked immediately and decided to sign up without even meeting the instructor.  I was allowed to sign up to the BBM program (unlimited classes for $90.00 a month) right away - usually only reserved for orange belts and above.  I guess it really is about who you know.

Then I met my first instructor.  Miss Krista Shearer (Now Mrs. Kersey).  She was already a world champion in Kata and Sparring in the WKA.  I hadn't yet met Mr. Brandon Kersey, her fiancee and also world champion in Kata, Sparring, and Weapons in the WKA.  We also had the special privilege of learning from Sensei Gerry Watson, a rokudan in Jiu-Jitsu, and Kyoshi Steve, also in Jiu-Jitsu (I wish I had more information about him!)

Krista Shearer and Brandon Kersey

From that day on, I trained a minimum of four times a week, more often five or six, but more about that part of the journey to come.

Yours on the journey,
J.