Martial Arts World News Magazine - Volume 22 | Issue 2

MARTIAL ARTS PHILOSOPHY
A Diary of a Black Belt, Part 4
By Sensei Gary Lee
Bull in the Ring in Acapulco, Mexico
16 months later
5th Green Belt/Black stripe
I have been an advanced student
now for almost a year,
and today I test for my
black stripe. This
will be a two-part
story of what
I feel now and
how I feel after
the test. I have to
admit it has been
tough. These
classes are harder,
more complicated, and
way over my head. I have to
listen and watch the black belts.
They’re a tight-knit
group, very
friendly but
stern.
I didn’t understand
washing
the toilets and
cleaning the bathrooms
the first three months before I could work
out, but now I do: you earn everything,
and when you do, you appreciate
it so much more. Cleaning
earned me the privilege to
learn more, for it humbled
me in a way you can’t
explain unless you
experience it, and
the black belts
knew that.
Sure, they’d make fun of me, but they would also teach me, guide
me, and beat the crap out of me. They taught me how to love the
pain! My next entry will be after
the test. Five black
belts are going
up in dan rank.
Guess I’m
going to be
fresh meat,
hope not, but
don’t mind
since all of
them beat me
up every night
anyway!
I’m sitting in back
of this Japanese sushi bar
over on the Big Island, and the entry
about the test is pretty short and sweet.
I passed, got my butt kicked all over the
place, broke my first board, and saw one of
the black belts go berserk in Bull in the
Ring. He wasted a couple of dudes; I
mean knocked them out cold. They
had to be revived with smelling
sauce.
I was so nervous when they
called my number to grab him; he
dumped me but didn’t hurt me like he did those black belts. Scary
as hell, real Karate!
I feel it was one of my best tests. Starting to understand how
the animals play their part also didn’t bleed (!). No broken bones!
And my gi didn’t get ripped. I’ve gone though three uniforms,
ripped and torn from my body.
Finally, for my birthday, I got a Tokaido brand 14-ounce canvas
from Japan.
Sensei said I will “grow old with this gi.” Oss!
SENSEI GARY LEE, the American Samurai, is a 9th Dan black belt, a USA Karate
Federation gold medalist, winner of five Super Grand National Titles, a featured actor in
the movie Sidekicks, and is the founder of the National Sport Karate Museum.
96 MARTIAL ARTS WORLD NEWS VOLUME 22 | ISSUE 2
Photograph by Michael Burrell