I just read sloum's gopher entry about 
martial art and he invited gophernauts to 
write more about martial art, so here is 
a short story about my path on martial art. 

gopher://circumlunar.space/1/~sloum/

A lot of martial art is linked to my yoga
and meditation development, but I'll leave
that aside and just look at the different
styles and school I went to. 

This might be a bit dry / event-based, 
piece but it'll give a good background 
of where I come from when I say that 
I'm a martial artist. 

I am not sure why I started martial art. 
I was in highschool in Montreal. I lived
on the plateau with my father and there 
was that Health Center, teaching Tai Chi,
Chi Kung and Kung Fu, on the second floor
at the corner of St-Denis and Mont-Royal,
two major arteries of the Plateau. 

I learned Wing Chun kung fu as well as
Lion Dance there. The Sifu, a florist,
and had a very good Tai Chi form. His 
Wing Chun wasn't too recognized trough
in the community. I didn't really care,
and I spent many years there. 

After high school, I moved back on the  
south shore of Montreal where I learned
more about Tai Chi. When I moved back 
to Montreal, I continued with the same
martial art school, but also learned 
TaiChi and Chi Kung. I was often at the
school there, it was quite a nice 
community. 

I remember visiting a Chi Kung master in 
the old part of the city. A friend of mine
told me he saw that place and I should go. 
I went into that old building, a couple 
floor up. A few students were learning 
a form and he brought me to a small room. 
He taugh me a serie call 'The old man burning
the pill'. He showed me the simple move
and let me practice there for a couple hours. 
He would check back once in a while. 

Although it was a boring learning experience,
it stayed with me, and I still practice these
move and teach it to students. 

In my early 20s I went to live in Vancouver
for a year and went to different schools
and teachers. From Mix martial art, to boxing
to praying mantis style!  It was fun but I 
realized how Kung Fu wasn't really a solid 
foundation for fighting.

I spent a few month at a gym called Cocoon. 
They were member of the Creative Fighter Guild.
A guild linked to Bruce Lee, a pioneer in 
cross training in martial art, I assume 
the early mix martial art concept came from there. 

This gym had all sort of classes all week. 
From Yoga to Hip Hop dancing, boxing, 
juijitsu, fencing... It was a great place, 
but I was in a weird place myself and got
a bit pissed at the owner.

When I came back to Montreal, I visited my
old Wing Chung school, but it had changed. 
I think something happened while I was away 
and the vibe wasn't great. 

I met Kam Thy Chow. He became my Thai Massage 
teacher but also taugh me a Tai Chi short form. 
He prefered to teach me about Thai Massage and 
he was saying that everything you do in Thai 
Massage can be used in martial art. I worked
for him for a couple years during which he 
started the Lotus Palm School of Thai Massage. 

I also started training at the Blue Cat boxing
center. Well it wasn't a center. It was a 
room. A really dirty room. On the third 
floor of an old building, next to a train
track. The windows were broken, it was cold. 
Did I mentioned, it was dirty!

The trainner there was really cool though. 
Fellipo, big guy who broke his nose too 
many time, so he was wearing a nose scarf?
Nose winter protection thigny? Like a pirate
patch but for your nose? Anyway, he was
a crazy one, like me. He liked to teach
women to boxe, so the class was quite mixed
and I liked that a lot! I really enjoyed
training under him and learned a lot about
my power and limitation and how to get over
them. 

Boxing is an awesome training and if there
was a gym close by I'd be there all the time. 

But I wanted more! 

I discovered a Thai Boxing school, which was
closer to where I lived. Muy Thai (or thai 
boxing) always scared me, and I wasn't sure 
if it was for me! But I started training there. 
I met really nice people, many buddhist,
many other practicing thai massage. We would 
have ceremonies there and the training 
was also pretty good! Thai Boxing is a very 
powerful martial art and really not as scary
as it seems. It's very complete and usable
in a real life situation. 

When I left Quebec (again) and moved to British 
Columbia I didn't train in martial art for a few 
years. I was focused on yoga and meditation, 
and also living in a yoga ashram where we
couldn't leave the place. 

It took a few years, after moving out of the 
Ashram (we're still in good term, it's a celibate
ashram so not the best place to make babies or to 
raise my daugther!) And for a couple years I 
didn't want to join a Karate group that practiced
at the local school. 

I had a really bad view of Karate, even after
practicing martial art for so many years. But I 
ended up going for a class, and I've now been
practicing Karate for over 7 years. Now a couple 
of these years were Covid, so we didn't practice
much. The organization didn't want us to meet
in person, so we had to do it under the radar. 
Add to that a year where I couldn't run because
of a knee injury and a few months of no training
after a knee surgenry, that 7 years shrinks quite 
a lot. 

I say all that because I am still a white belt
after all that time! That being said there is only
3 belt in Shotokan, white, brown and black, and I am 
about to get my brown belt. So technically all is good. 

This is just an overview of my martial art path so far. 
Martial art have always been my main way to keep myself
in shape, and I also see it as an extension to my
meditation practices. 

At this moment, I am practicing Karate a few times 
a week. Both teaching kids and preparing for my 
Brown belt test. I was really hoping to be a black
belt in the first 5 years, which isn't that much 
of a stretch as I've practice martial art before. 

Now that my dojo is disconnected from the 
Canadian organization I might never be able 
to get an official black belt. I kind of like 
that, feeling a bit rebelious is part of
practicing Karate, and martial art in general.