Okami Kai

Karate and Me
By Sinclair Minshull - 1st kyu (brown belt)

At least once a week someone asks me what karate means to me. I normally reply with something like “It’s fun” or “It keeps me active”. Though these simple answers are normally all I can think of, karate has a much deeper meaning which it has taken me almost 7 years to uncover.

Karate is discipline. Anyone can punch someone in the face without lessons, but it takes a real martial artist to know when karate is needed, and that it is only a last resort, a defense, as it is commonly known. It is restraint, having the power to defend yourself if needed, but controlling yourself when you get angry and feel tempted to use force. No matter who antagonizes you, you can look beyond their unnecessary ways and see what karate is really about, discipline.

Karate is a state of mind. Many people think that karate is raw force, making people do what you want, because you’re threatening. Others think that the belt around your waist defines you. None of these assumptions are true. Yes, we do train to defend and we do wear colored belts to show our rank, but in truth neither matter, because in the end Brown is just a color, and karate is all a state of mind. Thinking, and acting like a brown belt is what makes me so, if I acted any less, I wouldn’t have my brown belt.

Karate is a life style choice. You must live a karateka’s lifestyle to go far in karate. You can’t show up twice a week and expect to shoot up. I learned that the hard way. You have to live, laugh, love, sweat and bleed karate. Once you are living a karateka’s lifestyle, you will start to get going up in your studies. When you’re outside the dojo it is even more important to live the karate lifestyle, because to live with discipline, grace and love for the sport you must always be a role model. To be a karateka is to conduct yourself with integrity, respect, an open heart and a guiding hand.

Being a Karateka doesn’t make me perfect, but I will always strive inside and outside the dojo to be the best I can be.
I will always strive to bring out the best in myself and in others.