Reply To: Introduce Yourself

[zvolencan1]

I just discovered this section in forum, I didn’t realize something like this is here, so I may as well introduce myself now. 🙂

My name is Peter Štrba (that first letter is pronounced “sh” 🙂 ), I’m from Slovakia, and I’m enrolled in Complete Shotokan Karate. I’m an absolute beginner, no previous experience with any martial art whatsoever. How I got here? To be honest, I think we’re headed into some rough times here in Europe, so I was thinking about learning how to defend myself, and my family. That was the primary motivation. I work in theater as a lighting technician, so we have very unstable work schedule, sometimes I work from 8am to 4pm, sometimes from 1pm to 9pm, so ordinary dojo was not an option for me. I went on YouTube, as anyone who wants to learn something, and searched for some instructional videos. Very quickly I got to video with Sensei Jon, because it had the best quality and actually showed something from training. So I followed the first lesson, and I really liked it, so I wanted more, but the only way was to buy the DVD set. So I did, but to be honest again, only after I read the Study Manual I realized, what I actually had done. 😀 I thought I would just train a few times, and I would quickly become something like Bruce Lee. I never planned to train regularly, and certainly not so many hours, as it is required in curriculum. And also many big changes were happening around me at that time, so I didn’t really understand what’s going on, but in many ways it felt like destiny, something very important, that I just have to do, so I finally decided to embark on this ship, and start training. And very quickly I realized it felt good. It actually brought back some nice childhood memories – I was a fan of martial arts films, and I have always regarded Karate to be very cool, and we used to play with my friend that we actually fight with Karate. I saw Chinese movies Three Evil Masters, and 36th Chamber of Shaolin – that was a quarter of a century ago (!!!), but I remembered it, and I actually watched them again during this Christmas – and this time I was searching for techniques I already knew – that was a completely different experience!
And other thing: As I progress through belts, I can see how everything has it’s order in curriculum, and certain moves can come only after I trained some other before that. I can see how the degree of movement in joints is being increased, and I feel I’m starting to use muscles I never used before, or used only a little. I can literally feel centuries of experience and development in techniques, One Steps, and Katas. It’s absolutely amazing.

So I have a practical motivation, and I’m emotionally hooked, so I might go a long way in Complete Shotokan, but we’ll see.