Recently I was browsing Youtube and I encountered a video filmed in a Karate dojo. It engendered a peculiar response from me, an unusual response similar to what I was experiencing years ago when I stopped practicing Karate-do. At that time I had been practicing for twelve years and it had got to the point where every time I went to the dojo, or even contemplated going to the dojo, I would get this feeling of heaviness and unease. I ascribed this feeling to chronic fatigue syndrome - due to the fact that I had practiced very hard for many years. It is interesting to me that this feeling actually hasn't diminished in the 17 years since I stopped practicing because viewing that video brought back the same feeling.
I began following Karate-do in 1980, at the age of 20. I was at the University of Winnipeg and looking for an activity that would challenge me physically. I had always had very poor flexibility and I thought that pursuing an activity like Karate-do would improve that problem. Of course, I had seen the Bruce Lee movies as a kid, so there was always that mystique about the martial arts in general. I had also taken a course at the U of W on Sports Injuries and a girl in that course had mentioned the Karate Club at the University of Winnipeg. From the age of 16 to 20 I had primarily relied on Curling as my activity, sometimes Curling 200 games a year. However, that game was beginning to frustrate me because it simply wasn't enough exercise. Then I hurt my back one day warming up for a Curling game and I decided that I had to do something much more physical while I was still young. So, in the fall of 1980, I signed up at the Karate Club at the University of Winnipeg.
This program was taught by a U of W alumnus named Harold Abosh. Harold was a student of Tug Wilson, who was, in turn, a student of Mas Tsuruoka. Mr. Tsuruoka was a native born Canadian who had returned to Japan to live after the second world war. He had learned Judo in Canada but began training in Karate-do with an Okinowan master named Dr. Chitose. Later Mr. Tsuruoka returned to Canada and started teaching Chito-ryu in Canada.
The classes were conducted in a small Judo room in Riddell Hall at the Univeristy of Winnipeg. The floor had tatami and there were mirrors along one wall. The only ventilation for the room was to the indoor parking garage! I practiced for one year and found the training very intense and demanding. We would train two days a week to begin with and then added a Saturday morning class as well. Sometimes the Saturday morning classes would have only two or three students. I persevered, however, and soon there was a nucleus of several dedicated practitioners. Foremost were Bill Young and myself. In the next year we were joined by Terry Hendricks and my friend Ivan du Plessis and Anne Gaultier After the second year we had a very dedicated bunch and were practicing three times a week all year round.
Having a good dojo is like having any good sports team, you need a good coach and dedicated players and that certain chemistry. I think we had that for a few years at the U of W club. The number of students increased, as did the intensity level. Mr. Abosh also put on some Karate camps in the fall as well as special winter training. We participated in the Manitoba Karate Association Tournaments and were very successful at our levels and we also hosted clinics where Mr. Tsuruoka would come from Toronto to do seminars.
I found Karate-do to be difficult because of my large frame and terrible hips. I worked hard in the dojo but also practiced outside a great deal and did a lot of additional conditioning in the gym and running, but my progress was slow. After 5 years of hard work I was a brown belt, close to obtaining a black belt but not there yet. Then there were pressures from the University of Winnipeg because they were uncomfortable with Mr. Abosh's direction of turning the Club into his own business. He certainly deserved to have that type of success but the University was not comfortable with it and the pressures began to affect everyone, soon there was an incident or two where I was put in a position with Mr. Abosh that made it impossible for me to continue on training at that club. These kinds of breaks are always difficult but Anne and I left and started training at a new club.
The new club was the Japan Karate Association of Manitoba. The instructor was Phil Dingman and it was located on the third floor of an old warehouse building in Winnipeg's exchange district. The Japan Karate Association or JKA follows a lineage established by Gichin Funikoshi, an Okinowan master that brought Karate-do to Japan in the early part of the twentieth century. His students eventually fanned out across the globe teaching Mr. Funikoshi's style, which came to be known as Shoto-kan. At the time I began training Mr. Dingman was affiliated with a Japanese master named Mr. Yutaka Yaguchi.
Of course these types of dojos have to pay the bills and the dues are high, and there are many gradings. What I really liked about this dojo was that Mr. Dingman was able to bring in many well known Japanese Masters for clinics. I saw Mr. Osaka, Mr. Tanaka and Mr. Yaguchi. After two more years of very hard work I was awarded the Shodan, it was 1987 and I had been training for 7 years.
That same year I had begun teaching Karate-do at the Kirkfield-Westwood Community Centre. I would teach three classes a week for ten months of the year. I quite enjoyed the teaching and I ran this program for 5 years until 1992 when my oldest son was born. At that time I had been having some trouble with the hall at the Community Centre being left very dirty for Saturday classes and Anne said she wanted me at home more with Adam, so I retired from Karate-do. The truth is that I had been experiencing the physical tiredness and malaise that I mentioned earlier. I had slowly been getting back into playing recreational hockey, so it was time to leave.
In total I spent 12 years involved in Karate-do and I do not regret it. Although I was not naturally gifted for the activity I learned a great deal and I think that it developed my character. In the end it is all about working as hard as you can and the people that you meet. It really doesn't matter which path you choose, as long as you enter deeply along the way.
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I came across your blog and I was a member of the U of Wpg karate club. I think I joined in '84 or '85. Got to the rank of orange belt, but after getting slapped in the face during practice, I said that was it. Never went back. I think I might know who you are, as Sensei Abosh only had a very small number of brown and black belts. There was this guy who was a brown belt and his girl friend also was a brown belt in the club. Don't remember his or her name. He worked in a forensics crime lab or was a psychiatric nurse in Selkirk.
Yes you are correct. I was the forensics guy and the girlfriend is now my wife. The psych nurse was Darwin Kupchik. I vaguely recall a face slap incident, although there were several bizarre incidents like that. My son now goes to U of W, but he is not involved in any physical activities.
You sure aged well! Ah yes, Mr.Kupchik, at least that is what us grasshoppers referred to him. A somewhat intimidating character in the dojo. That jarred loose more memories. There was a black belt, a guy with dark hair. His name escapes me. He would run the dojo when Sensei Abosh was not present. Ah man, I just now recalled spring training week. Up in the gymnasium at... what? 5 or 5:30am? Going thru the routines, katas, and taking a run around the campus in bear feet in early spring! I enjoyed that week. Do you still practice karate? By now you must be at least 5 or 6 dan? You were a good teacher, I liked it when you at the head of our line and in rotation took turns practicing our punches or kicks. You were encouraging but yet honest. Congrats on your marriage and your family.
Ok, I'm pretty sure I know who you are. Funny how a sequence of recollections like that can trigger your memory. Anyhow, I stopped doing Karate when my kids were born - that would be 1992. It was time anyway, I was really starting to suffer from arthritis. A couple of years ago I had to have both of my hips replaced. I feel great now, in a bionic sort of way. How about you, what did you end up doing?
Hmm..I trained under sense I abosh for 12 years. All I learned was self discipline, dedication and right and wrong. I was in so much trouble at age 8 or 9 before I joined that no on3 wanted anything to do with me. I'm thankful for sense I abosh and his teaching without it I'd be less a man today.
I'm glad that you had a positive experience with Karate-do while training with Mr. Abosh. I did too, for the most part. What I remember most fondly was the people that I worked out with. I suppose you would say that it was the dojo spirit. There is something about a group of people working hard towards a common goal that brings them together. I once asked a question along those lines to.Sensei Tsuruoka and he had a very simple answer. It was "pain" , the shared pain brings people together.
I remembered Harold from the days of the old Winnipeg Karate Club on Main Street. Darwin was at his peak and quite formidable. Sadly, the club went into slow decline after Tug Wilson retired and eventually folded. My martial arts days ended while I was living in Sendai Japan and I couldn't get into the local dojo due to a no gaijin rule.
You only have a limited lifespan for martial arts unless it's a lifetime vocation. Interesting memories remain.
Well,it sounds like you had the experience of practicing Karate-do during the Winnipeg Club's heyday. It must have been a wonderful experience. Mr. Wilson came out to some of our camps to lead a couple of work-outs, but he had essentially retired before I started.
I have heard of that kind of xenophobic treatment at certain places in Japan. I knew several people who did train in Karate-do in Japan but they had to have a sponsor who was one of the Japanese Sensei who had come to North America. Someone like Mr. Yaguchi or Mr. Nishiyama, for example. It seems that you did have the opportunity to live in Japan for a while, and that would have been something. I have never done that, I am interested in the culture but I would find the culture shock too overwhelming.
The death of Tug Wilson earlier this year resulted in a number of people from the old Winnipeg club getting in touch with each other through the internet. Some had the opportunity to go to Tug's funeral and re-connect with each other.
One of Tug's old black belts said the gathering looked like a lot of fat old men with canes, a sad reflection of another time. He added that arthritis throughout most of his body was the price of earlier martial arts training. I got off lightly with only stiffness in the knees to contend with.
I can remember helping write a programme for the Canadian national championships that came to Winnipeg one year in the 80's and remembered a quip from Tug on the state of the Manitoba Karate Association: "Harold's a weirdo; Marr and his crew are twits." A quote that's remained unpublished until now.
I saw Mr. Wilson’s obit in the paper and recalled thinking that there would a lot of fat old men at his funeral. Of course that is a testament to the profound influence he had on so many people. I did attend a few workshops that Mr. Wilson instructed but he had retired from Karate-do before I started. I actually met him many more times at the Law Courts because my profession brought me there. He was a Sheriff so I would often see him outside of the court rooms and chat. As for the canes and arthritis...been there, done that, now I have some nice hip replacements so at least I can walk around, not doing much kata though.
I volunteered at the National Championships that you refer to. As you might recall, it was hosted at the University of Winnipeg and I was the President of the University of Winnipeg Karate Club and helped out at the tournament. I learned a great deal from observing at that event and also from meeting many karate-ka from around the country. Harold Abosh was the driving force behind organizing that tournament, and I have to say that for many years he dedicated a lot of time and energy to the Manitoba Karate Association as its President. In the years that I practiced Karate-do the most dedicated people all seemed to be a little “weird” in their own way. I mean, objectively speaking, who else would spend so much time in such a demanding activity? I think you were fortunate to experience Karate-do at a very good club in its hey-day. I’m sure that among the canes and arthritis you met at that funeral, there was also an unusually high amount of character.
Hey I googled Harold abosh and found this blog. I joined the Uof W karate club in 1980. Harold abosh was my sensei. Ivan du Plessis, Terry Hendricks, Mike, Anne, Bill Young etc. were there at the time. I was the only Chinese small guy if you could still recall who won the gold in kata in the provincial championship probably 1982.
I believe you are the big guy in the dojo and Anne was your girl friend that time. You once put a big foot print on my chest with a front kick which sent me across the floor ha ha...
Training was tough but I enjoyed it very much. It's a pity that i finished my college and had to return to Hong Kong in 1984.
Time flies...
Oh yes I remember you. I can't recall kicking you in the chest, it was not something that happened very often because I couldn't kick that high. I remember when you won the kata competition. I seem to recall that you did a Chito-Ryu kata that really demonstrated your outstanding kiba-dachi stance. We did have very good training in those days and the dojo spirit was very high. It is too bad that you had to head back to Hong Kong, hopefully things have gone well for you. It seems strange that all that happened almost 40 years ago now!
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