A Lifestyle

MARTIAL ARTS USA^Ž

CHOOSING THE MARTIAL ARTS LIFESTYLE

By; Professor John Chambers

Have you ever heard the old statement; "We are what we eat?"

As martial artists, we eat, drink, think, read, write, meditate, practice and sleep the martial arts. we are fanatics, we are addicted, and we wouldn't have it any other way!

Why are we this way? ...... Because we chose at some point in time to study the martial arts, never knowing that this thing would overpower our every thought, our every waking moment. It's far more addictive than any legal or illegal drug. Once addicted, you couldn't quit if you wanted to!

Most of us started our martial arts training with no more knowledge than we absorbed from some martial arts movie, book or exciting demonstration we were lucky enough to see.

As for me, I started my martial arts career at age fourteen. I will celebrate my 50th martial arts anniversary in the year 2001.

I remember it as clear as yesterday. I fourteen and watching an old Humphrey Bogart movie, where I saw the most amazing judo fight between two judo masters in a cocktail lounge. They threw each other non-stop for at least fifteen minutes. I had never seen anything like that in my life, and I wanted the talent they had!

I was instantly committed and then addicted to judo/yudo, where I have remained active for the last fifty years.

That was in 1951. I was a child of a poor family and times were really hard. Without money to pay for instructions, it was most difficult, almost impossible to find a judo/yudo instructor in those days. There were only a handful of military or former military men, who had served in the Orient and were lucky enough to have studied the martial arts.

I wasn't choosy, I would take anybody that I could find, to teach me anything they knew about the martial arts. I scoured the two military bases in Jacksonville, Florida where I lived and contacted every YMCA and recreational facility, praying to God, that I would find somebody, anybody, that knew anything about the martial arts, and would help me.

I read every book on the martial arts that the library had to offer, over and over, cover to cover, which was a very sparse selection to say the least in those years.

I did make contact with a couple of military men, who helped me with what they knew about judo. They introduced me to an Oriental Sailor, who would work with me at the YMCA on my Ukemi (breakfalls) and beginner throws. One of the Sailors had two new judo gi's and an original copy of the Kodokan Judo Manual that he brought back from Japan, in a trunk at his barracks. You can believe this or not, but he gave this poor skinny fourteen-year old kid all of it.

I have never treasured anything so much in all my life. The gi's were a size five and I guess I would have worn a size no larger than a two or three at that time. I looked like I had a parachute wrapped around me, but I didn't care. I was so proud of my gi's, and I wore them with much pride, every chance I got.

Here I was, at fourteen, already hooked, committed, addicted! It is most difficult to explain, but the martial arts does this to people. You get addicted and just ride with the martial arts tide of whatever or whoever comes your way.

Before you know it, you are committed for life!

There is an Oriental word known as JUNARI. To the non-martial artist, this word or it's meaning would have little value. As for any student of any martial art, this is a beautiful word meaning:

* For this I devote my life.
* This is the life that I have chosen.
* This is the way.
* This is the path I will follow.

Only the devoted, committed or addicted to the martial arts, could ever understand the beauty of this word and it's meaning!

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