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.
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