Martial Arts and Goodbyes

It was a sad day yesterday.

I have been doing martial arts on and off for six years now. I started in the second year of my undergrad. There was a "fair" going on in one of the gyms of my university. I wondered round looking at people sporting a variety of equipment and neoprene. I always grew up wanting to practice some type of martial art and this was the day I wanted to start. I first saw a Karate demo in which people were punching other peoples faces until they bled. This was not for me. I then saw Tae Kwon Do doing theit stuff. I was imediately mesmorized by one of the students who had a mowhawk that was shaped just so that it could poke through his headguard. This was not for me.
At last I came to the Judo table and there was Dan, a slight fellow who was very nice. We talked about judo, he told me about the rules - no hitting (good!) and how useful it is. Did you know that 90% of fights end on the ground and judo is 50% ground fighting!

Dan and Nick (OMG) - 2002 APS 24mm

The Club was then run by 2 students Dan and Nick. Dan, a budding photojournalist and Nick, a budding bouncer / national short stick champion. This was a great start for me. A year later Nick had left and Dan and I were runnning the club.

York Uni Judo Club - 2003 APS 24mm*

I faded out of the martial arts world when I left my undergrad city of York. Reaching the level just before the transition to black belt. I started Judo again when I got to Ohio State, but it was not the same and I soon left.

Dan and me - 2004 APS 24mm*

A year or so later my friend Nico introduced me to Tang Soo Do, a tradional Korean martial art a lot like Karate or Tae Kwon Do. This was where I began to notice that the clubs that had turned me off before were not the arts themselves but the way the particular club was run. Martial arts areeally good for me as a photographer is that I can get some cool photos of some cool stuff.

8 second exposure - he broke 30 1 inch concrete blocks in 10 seconds. Awesome!

The 2007 Masters Extravaganza was in Valparasio IN.

What is sad is that the more martial arts I do, the more the people I train with begin to feel like a family. Yesterday my friend Lindsay took her last regular class at Buckeye Tang Soo Do, she is moving to North Carolina and it makes me sad. So I thought I would dedicate this post to her!

One of the nicer pictures I got of Lindsay

Tang Soo Do Yondanja

Lindsay had to spar everyone in the club including our instructor!

A Bunch of idiots!*

*I unfortunately did not takes these photos as I am in them - Can you spot me in every one?