Twenty-six years ago my son
Jaime was six years old. He was very
small and thin and had just started the first grade in a public school on the
upper west side of Manhattan. We decided
to enroll him after school in karate classes at the Westside YMCA where his
older sister, Jennifer had been taking gymnastics.
Jaime
was shy and reluctant to join the other students, but the instructor, who was a
respected senior black belt in a style of Japanese karate called Seido was an inspired
teacher. He had a Japanese assistant, a
young woman who was especially attentive to beginning students like Jaime. She used to stand by his side and physically
move him around the room to help him participate in kata and endurance
training. She helped him learn the
Japanese terms like osu and the
numbers from one to ten. Jaime learned fast and I soon found out from one of
the parents whose son was also involved in Seido programs that there was a
wonderful teacher in our neighborhood who was even better with young students
like Jaime. His name was William Oliver
and everyone in the Seido community extolled his teaching style and prowess as
a karateka.
At the same time that
all this was happening, Jennifer suffered a debilitating accident (tearing a
tendon in her knee) during her gymnastics training. She was told by an orthopedist that she could
no longer compete in gymnastics and reluctantly accepted the role of student manager
of her high school gymnastics team. But
she missed the social and physical activity that she was used to in her
gymnastic training. It finally dawned on
me. “Why don’t you try Jaime’s karate
class?”
We asked
the orthopedist if this was possible given her knee problems. “It’s okay, so long as she’s careful. It will probably help develop the muscles in
her knee.”
That was
the beginning of a long career that would define Jennifer’s life after her
thirteenth year. As of today, she has
spent twenty-five years in karate training and teaching, and this week
celebrated (with her husband, Matt) achieving her fifth degree black belt as a karateka.
Jennifer met Matt in
Oliver’s class where they were both training as teenagers. They both progressed quickly, but it wasn’t
always an easy task. Oliver was a
demanding teacher, strict and sometimes overbearing. When Jennifer was ready to train for her
first black belt just before she reached the age of 18, she was an expert
karate student. But she was having
problems with discipline at home. Often
rebellious and stubborn, she came into conflict at home with my husband and
myself.
Shihan
Oliver was aware of this because by then both my husband and I were both his
students at the dojo. He told Jennifer
that we would have to sign off on her application to go for black belt. We had a long talk with Jennifer about expectations
for her in our home relationship. She
agreed to modify her behavior. We signed
the application and at 18 she received her first black belt in Seido karate.
Matt and
Jennifer, originally only friends and karate partners, became a couple who not
only trained together but were now living together as romantic partners. They were also Susheki-Shihan Oliver’s senior
black belts. One Saturday morning as
they arrived at the dojo to train with Oliver, they were shocked to discover
that he had suffered a heart attack. At fifty-two years old, the great champion,
and their beloved teacher, was dead.
At
first, the Seido community of black belts was too grief-stricken to continue
with his classes. But finally, they met
in a group and urged Matt and Jennifer to continue with his legacy and teach
his students.
Jennifer
and Matt married in 2007 and had a child named Maya. She spent her infancy in the dojo and when
she was three years old began training in Jennifer’s pre-karate program. She is now six years old and a green belt.
This year she was proud to take part in the celebration that presented her
parents with their fifth degree black belts.
Congratulations,
Kyoshis Jennifer and Matt!
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