Every rule has an exception <--- 1st Dan in Tae Kwon Do + rank in Kali/Escrima

So you’ve been around a few dojos too. When I was a kid, I also earned a green belt in Okinawan karate. Mas Oyama was a boyhood hero of mine- as well as Gogen Yamaguchi (The Cat). But that was years ago, and except for whatever muscle memory remains, I’ve probably forgotten more about karate than I ever learned.

Jiu jitsu was more recent- mid nineties. For three hours a night, twice a week, for five years, six of us would show up to our teacher’s house, move the living room furniture into the his office, and that bare room became our training ground.

It was the spirituality of martial arts that always attracted me- not the kitsch of “Ah, grasshopper” stuff- but the spirit that lay behindthe various martial arts themselves.

My teacher, Professor Gary Jones, studied under Professor Don Beech who studied under Professor [memory fails me at this point], who studied under Professor Seishiro “Henry” Okazaki, the founder of Danzan ryu jujitsu.

My teacher, as all senseis seem to do, had a handful of sayings which he repeated endlessly.

Rule number 1: Run-fu beats kung-fu. Translation- if you can avoid having to fight, that’s always the best case.

Rule #2: Ninety percent of fights end up on the ground Translation- (on the ground-where all those fancy roundhouse and spinning kicks won’t do you any good.)

Rule #3: when you get up from the ground, if your opponent is still moving, you did something wrong. And of course, the translation- if you have no choice but to fight, then finish the fight.

And guess what? In my entire adult life, I’ve never been in a physical fight. And paradoxically, I owe a large part of that to martial arts training and the spirituality it imparts- of not looking for a fight, not wanting a fight, not provoking a fight….. but being ready to fight if I have to in order to defend myself or those I love.

Now…. At 75 years oldz, I don’t have the speed, agility or strength I once had. I haven’t trained in a dojo for two decades. But I still have the attitude and the muscle memory, and probably the advantage of being underestimated by any untrained adversary who only sees an old man whose joints hurt.

But…. Why push it?
I’d like my long streak of non violence to contine.