My Life with Karate

By Ann Strieby

My journey in martial arts began years ago, when I started to ask myself several questions: 

What am I getting out of going to the gym everyday? 

If I don’t pay extra for a personal trainer, am I making any progress on my own? How would i know if i’m making real progress?

If I just go there to burn calories, can’t I just do that on my own sidewalks?

Is there a more efficient use of my time? 

What am I really getting out of this?

So the karate came into my life because I had these questions.  I was going to the gym, and not really getting anywhere.  And it also came from a need of self defense.  The first man I married had an aggressive undertone, as many men (and some women) do.   But he started showing signs of abusive behavior after we were married.  I felt trapped, stuck in never-ending arguments, where he wouldn’t allow me to look away as he stammered his points for hours on end.  He would puff up his chest, like a gorilla, if I tried to walk away or stand up to him.   He clearly felt proud of his “self defense” and once even spat in my face to put an exclamation on whatever point it was he was trying to make.  Nonetheless, I tried to make it work.   No joke—a marriage counselor told me to get out.  He told me this “husband” was not good.  But sadly, I avoided more meetings with that counselor, determined to make it work.  For 3 long years.  We lived in Portland Oregon, not the type of place you want to be in if you are not happy (it rains a lot, and I didn’t really have any friends or family up there)  Eventually, when his anger turned against one of the dogs, I left him.   I packed up both dogs, and moved back to my mom’s in California.  Luckily, I felt safe at home and felt the best relief of my life; the miserable marriage was finally over.   

Back in California, I had to find myself again.   I started learning how to surf, and started a veterinary house call business that I called minivet.  The surfing was a good first step towards healing, but I wanted a little more.  I was always interested in martial arts.  My niece had done karate when she was young, and I wanted the ability to defend myself if ever I was in a situation again like I was when I was married.  So one day I asked one of the surfers about it.  This is the pathway that led me to Camarillo Shotokan, led at the time by Sensei Victor Young.   

I went to the Shotokan dojo to check it out.  I was shocked.  These people are hitting each other, and yelling while they do it.  But they looked like they enjoyed it.  I knew from that day on, that this was going to be a part of my life forever.  It was an answer to the above questions:

What am I getting out of going to the gym everyday?  Not much.  The goal of becoming a greek goddess with six pack abs is just not realistic. 

If I don’t pay extra for a personal trainer, am I making any progress on my own? How would i know if i’m making real progress?   With martial arts, you have to test to advance, putting yourself though rigorous exercises that you must know in order to go to the next level.  You have to do this in front of your Sensei, your peers, and even your family if they are in the audience.

If I just go there (the gym) to burn calories, can’t I just do that on my own sidewalks?  Yes, by walking the dog.   You can still walk the dog.  

Is there a more efficient use of my time?   Time is precious.  It takes at least 15 minutes to drive to the gym, 15 to drive back, and whatever in between that I can say is a workout.   I’m not learning anything, I’m just going there to run on the cross trainer and lift a few weights.  Not a good use of all this time!! 

What am I really getting out of this?   I mean, come on.  At the gym, you could spend an hour on a stupid machine, bored as heck.  Who cares if you reached level 5 today? In the dojo, I don’t feel I waste my time.  I am learning new things every time I go; a new way to avoid a punch, or the history of a kata.  My mind gets to be involved, figuring this stuff out.   That’s gold. 

Martial arts is so much more that a “Hay-yah!” that you hear on TV.   It’s way more artistic than just plain fighting, and it’s way more than just self defense.  It’s a mindset, and it’s a lovely way to spend a few nights a week.  It’s a challenge, it’s always a progression, and my mind gets engaged.  That being said, now that I dissed gyms so much, I do consider working out an augmentation to what I’m learning in the dojo, to work on muscles that now have a purpose.  Maybe that’s the theme here that I was searching for the whole time: purpose.   

Karate became a purpose, fitting nicely as a point in my triangle: Body. 

And indeed, ever since that night back in 2010, Shotokan karate and martial arts in general became a part of my life.  It is a corner of my peace triangle, the body part of my mind/body/soul circuit that keeps me alive and happy.    

It has become so much more than that, though.  It’s also a mental workout, forever trying to perfect the kick, the punch, or the block that one would use to protect.   But it’s not just to protect.  It’s to fight back.  I don’t want to be somebody’s victim.  I don’t want to make excuses for something that might be my own fault.  Karate for me is about humility, to acknowledge that I am not perfect but it is fun to keep trying at that.  Karate is about community, friends, and being a respectable, respectful, human being.  Karate is about accepting that you have limitations, and work with them, not against them.