C.S. sits on his zafu before a training session. 1 - The Journey Begins When I was a teenager, I had one great love: martial arts. To be more specific, I suppose, would be to write that my great love was traditional Okinawan Karate-Do, which I had trained in since I was 9 years old. I was a small kid, tiny you might even say, compared to the size of my fellow 4th-grade classmates. For whatever reason - and perhaps schools still do this, much to the embarrassment of small boys - my 4th grade teacher would often line up the entire class against the wall of the classroom, boys and girls alike, from shortest to tallest. I was always the shortest. Add in the fact that, in addition to my smallness, I was something of an introvert, often bullied, and so my parents thought that martial arts might be a good way to build my self-esteem, not to mention keep me from getting pummeled on the elementary school playgrounds. Now, if you’re a 9-year-old boy in
Essays on Old-School Strength Training, Classical Bodybuilding, Traditional Martial Arts, and Budo Zen