Coming from a rather sportsminded, family physical exercise and endurance training in particular were rather high on the menu (both my parents were competetive marathon runners when i was little), but I wanted to do martial arts. After a few years of whining I was allowed to start Karate, Goju ryu only at that moment. I trained long and hard in goju ryu. When I was about 14 to 15 I got admitted in to the advanced group, where I was by far the youngest and most inexperienced. In fact ,the average person in that group had more years experience in Karate than I was old. Needless to say, I learned to be humble about my "skills" there. However, the extra training meant I got Kyukushinkai training on top of my Goju ryu, which resulted in becoming rather hardened in kumite. A few more years pass and I get to go to university, but since it's quite a distance from my hometome, I had my residence at the unitown. Easily made it to the university competition team. However, things went wrong during a warm-up sparring and I ended up with rather brutal facial trauma, resulting in 2 years of running to hospital on a bi-weekly basis, and much eating of liquid food. Not a pleasant period. Kyukushinkai means you're bound to have had some injuries, and I was beaten before (broke my nose a few times, things like that, no biggy) but this time was more serious. Anyway. I stoll loved martial arts (and goju ryu in particular at that point, even though there was no gojuryu club near the univerity at that time). Still, I had seen to many injuries (and experienced) in the name of competition, which made me conclude it was all quite futile. You fight according to rules, so you are limited and you are alot more likely to get injuries.
So, I quit karate, and started "modern" jujutsu, which I did several years until I was (again)on my way through the Dan-grades. A guy in that club trained in genbukan however, a professional bodyguard. We were matched in randori and often trained together, but his techniques always had that little extra, so fights usually ended in his favour. At about nidan level I also started to realise the school I was training at could not teach me anything new. The curriculum of the next dangrade was basicly the same as the previous, but with more opponents, extra weapons, a bit more limitations (use one arm etc). But no real curriculum. I'm an academic, I like to learn new things. So I combined the JJ with escrima for a while, but it got in the way of my studies, so I dropped out. Ironically I eventually ended up hitching rides to the genbukandojo 25 km from where i resided (i had no car or anything of my own), and found the curriculum to be much more demanding and much richer than anything I've done so far. To the point one has to resent in accepting it is nearly impossible to train all the schools and disciplines Tanemura sensei has made available for us. I was immediatly impressed by the level of etiquette, controlled, yet spirited training and the vastness of new things I could get to learn. I started a training group when i moved to my homeregion again, but still keep up my training with Renshi Pofe, who looks over my shoulder and is patiently trying to instruct me in the fine elements of "properly running a dojo". I'm set for life with Genbukan. no doubt. I can only regret I couldn't have started much, much earlier in my life
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I seem to write long posts. At least I refrained from using endnotes, that's an improvement, I guess.
