2026-05-13

Teaching my regular classes at the Ross Farnsworth - East Valley YMCA.

Karate is about overcoming adversity. It uses the development of physical technique to accomplish that goal, but physical self-protection is only a single instance of the overall objective.

The first hurdle is joining the dojo. There are so many competing claims on our time, from school, to work, to family. Then there are the mental hurdles: No, karate isn’t just for children (quite the opposite) and yes, you have to wear white pajamas.

The next hurdle is showing up … consistently. Learning karate is like Sisyphus pushing the rock up the mountain - if you don’t keep pushing, it slides backward. Or, as Gichin Funakoshi put it, “Karate is like boiling water - without constant heat, it cools quickly.”

The final hurdle is the obvious one but, remarkably, the one people don’t think of when joining karate: Students are expected to yell at each other and try to punch each other in the face … regularly. But think about how beneficial that can be. When you spend 40 years with scary people trying to punch you in the face several times a week, the teacher who “doesn’t like you” or the jerk at the DMV just don’t phase you anymore.

To review, karate teaches you to sign up, show up, and toughen up … useful skills in any endeavor.