When I was 12 years old I was a very shy, very introverted, overweight young girl. For someone who was always the last person to be picked for teams during gym class I suddenly and out of the blue decided that I wanted to learn judo. Because The Man From UNCLE (United Network Command For Law And Enforcement), an old-school spy show was my favorite TV show and I wanted to flip people over my shoulder like the stars in that show. After telling my mother what I wanted to do, she promptly enrolled me in a jazz ballet class because judo wasn't lady like.
She dropped me off at my first jazz ballet class and I suffered through it, hating every single moment that I was there. At the end of the class (while waiting for my mother to pick me up) I wandered around the building, looked through a doorway and saw............a judo class. The next time my mother dropped me off for the much hated jazz ballet I skipped the class and stood by the doorway watching judo. And then did the same thing the next class. Eventually my mother found out that I was skipping jazz ballet and spending my time (and her money) watching judo, and so she reluctantly enrolled me in judo, figuring that I would quickly tire of it. I didn't.
I loved it immediately and quickly learned that this shy and overweight girl was a natural. I learned fast. And I was GOOD. My first judo competition I came second. My second judo competition I came third. And I never lost again.
I was living in Australia at the time and in addition to my regular judo club, I was also a member of the high school judo club. One day a couple of years after I first started training, we were doing a demonstration for parents. After we had done our thing a karate instructor stepped out onto floor. He had only been in Australia for a few days and could barely speak English, and as a young, successful martial artist I watched this instructor doing things on the floor that I could never have imagined. I was enthralled.
I tried to find where he was teaching but could not find him, and so I enrolled at a huge commercial karate club in downtown Brisbane. While still a high school student I went from 2 days a week of training in judo to five days of training a week (2 judo and three karate). Between training and school I was a constantly busy young woman.
A few months after starting training in karate I was walking downtown one day early into my summer vacation and saw a huge blackboard standing outside the front entrance of a commercial building. The board had one word written on it. KARATE. Curious, I stepped through the entrance and walked up the steps, and found myself staring at a small Japanese man training by himself in the center of a huge wooden floor. It was him. The instructor I had watched so closely at the high school during Parents Day a few months before. That same day I dropped from the commercial club and enrolled with this instructor. His English had improved (a little), and he had only a few students.
The first summer was a blur of training. I was still doing judo twice a week in the evenings, but also training twice a day five days a week in Karate. Again............I was good. Strong, athletic, motivated, learned quickly. Judo had a strong competition circuit in Australia and I won everything I entered. Although I moved up through the belts quickly in karate, back in the 70s there were no karate competitions for women. But there were many times where I would weigh in for a judo competition, drive across town to train in karate, and then rush back to the venue in time so I could compete in judo.
By the time I was 16 I had a brown belt in judo and a purple belt in karate, had a room full of trophies, and had also somehow managed to keep decent grades in school. And then we moved to Canada.
As soon as we moved to Ontario I enrolled in both judo and karate clubs. Not too long after I signed up for both clubs I made the decision to stop training in judo and focus strictly on karate. Too much traveling, too important to keep good grades, I was only a couple of belts away from black belt in karate, and (most importantly) women could compete. For the next couple of years I trained four days a week at my regular club and two days a week at a higher level club 100 miles away. It was a BUSY time. Before I had even graduated from high school I had a black belt in karate, was ranked fourth in the nation, competed at the state and national level, and had lots and lots of trophies.
I ran my first marathon right after I turned 18. My boyfriend at the time wanted to run a marathon, and asked me if I would run from my town to his town with him for training. We lived 17 miles apart. I had done some running with some cross country friends in high school but nothing focused or serious but...........I was 18 and indestructible, so I said I would run with him. He asked me if I wanted to do the marathon with him. I said "let's see how THIS run goes first". I ran it without a problem. How could I run 17 miles without a problem, when I was never a serious runner? I don't know, but at the time I never gave it a second thought.
After that 17 miler my boyfriend asked me once we got to his place if I wanted to run the marathon with him and I said sure. Holy Cow! It's amazing how much I didn't know. I didn't know that you weren't supposed to be able to run 17 miles without training in running. I didn't know that you were supposed to actually RUN in the three months between your 17 miler and your 26 mile marathon. I didn't know that you weren't supposed to wear brand new Adidas running shoes the day of a marathon. I didn't know that running 17 miles and running 26 miles were two different animals entirely. Thankfully, not running and wearing brand new shoes, I could overcome without a problem. It was the "hitting the wall" around mile 20 that actually ate my lunch. I finished the marathon, but those last six miles were very ugly. Boyfriend dropped out around mile 19,
When my parents decided to go back to Australia I elected to stay in Canada. I competed in karate, and trained regularly and with focus until not long before I got married, finally got to college, and then began to start a family. After years of martial arts, I was ready to move on to something new........................
She dropped me off at my first jazz ballet class and I suffered through it, hating every single moment that I was there. At the end of the class (while waiting for my mother to pick me up) I wandered around the building, looked through a doorway and saw............a judo class. The next time my mother dropped me off for the much hated jazz ballet I skipped the class and stood by the doorway watching judo. And then did the same thing the next class. Eventually my mother found out that I was skipping jazz ballet and spending my time (and her money) watching judo, and so she reluctantly enrolled me in judo, figuring that I would quickly tire of it. I didn't.
I loved it immediately and quickly learned that this shy and overweight girl was a natural. I learned fast. And I was GOOD. My first judo competition I came second. My second judo competition I came third. And I never lost again.
I was living in Australia at the time and in addition to my regular judo club, I was also a member of the high school judo club. One day a couple of years after I first started training, we were doing a demonstration for parents. After we had done our thing a karate instructor stepped out onto floor. He had only been in Australia for a few days and could barely speak English, and as a young, successful martial artist I watched this instructor doing things on the floor that I could never have imagined. I was enthralled.
I tried to find where he was teaching but could not find him, and so I enrolled at a huge commercial karate club in downtown Brisbane. While still a high school student I went from 2 days a week of training in judo to five days of training a week (2 judo and three karate). Between training and school I was a constantly busy young woman.
A few months after starting training in karate I was walking downtown one day early into my summer vacation and saw a huge blackboard standing outside the front entrance of a commercial building. The board had one word written on it. KARATE. Curious, I stepped through the entrance and walked up the steps, and found myself staring at a small Japanese man training by himself in the center of a huge wooden floor. It was him. The instructor I had watched so closely at the high school during Parents Day a few months before. That same day I dropped from the commercial club and enrolled with this instructor. His English had improved (a little), and he had only a few students.
The first summer was a blur of training. I was still doing judo twice a week in the evenings, but also training twice a day five days a week in Karate. Again............I was good. Strong, athletic, motivated, learned quickly. Judo had a strong competition circuit in Australia and I won everything I entered. Although I moved up through the belts quickly in karate, back in the 70s there were no karate competitions for women. But there were many times where I would weigh in for a judo competition, drive across town to train in karate, and then rush back to the venue in time so I could compete in judo.
By the time I was 16 I had a brown belt in judo and a purple belt in karate, had a room full of trophies, and had also somehow managed to keep decent grades in school. And then we moved to Canada.
As soon as we moved to Ontario I enrolled in both judo and karate clubs. Not too long after I signed up for both clubs I made the decision to stop training in judo and focus strictly on karate. Too much traveling, too important to keep good grades, I was only a couple of belts away from black belt in karate, and (most importantly) women could compete. For the next couple of years I trained four days a week at my regular club and two days a week at a higher level club 100 miles away. It was a BUSY time. Before I had even graduated from high school I had a black belt in karate, was ranked fourth in the nation, competed at the state and national level, and had lots and lots of trophies.
I ran my first marathon right after I turned 18. My boyfriend at the time wanted to run a marathon, and asked me if I would run from my town to his town with him for training. We lived 17 miles apart. I had done some running with some cross country friends in high school but nothing focused or serious but...........I was 18 and indestructible, so I said I would run with him. He asked me if I wanted to do the marathon with him. I said "let's see how THIS run goes first". I ran it without a problem. How could I run 17 miles without a problem, when I was never a serious runner? I don't know, but at the time I never gave it a second thought.
After that 17 miler my boyfriend asked me once we got to his place if I wanted to run the marathon with him and I said sure. Holy Cow! It's amazing how much I didn't know. I didn't know that you weren't supposed to be able to run 17 miles without training in running. I didn't know that you were supposed to actually RUN in the three months between your 17 miler and your 26 mile marathon. I didn't know that you weren't supposed to wear brand new Adidas running shoes the day of a marathon. I didn't know that running 17 miles and running 26 miles were two different animals entirely. Thankfully, not running and wearing brand new shoes, I could overcome without a problem. It was the "hitting the wall" around mile 20 that actually ate my lunch. I finished the marathon, but those last six miles were very ugly. Boyfriend dropped out around mile 19,
When my parents decided to go back to Australia I elected to stay in Canada. I competed in karate, and trained regularly and with focus until not long before I got married, finally got to college, and then began to start a family. After years of martial arts, I was ready to move on to something new........................