In late 1989, I started participating in Karate classes. Being Scottish in an English school meant I was being bullied.  To anyone who knows me, that's almost hard to believe, but to those who know me and made my life miserable for ages (nearly ten years) I say "Try it now"

It started off in a sports centre in a school in Staffordshire one Wednesday evening. It turned out that a friend of mine from school was there, and for about two months we practised our karate. Unfortunately my friend decided that it was not for her and left the club that I eventually joined.  Two weeks after that I got my first ever karate gi (karate suit for those who do not know) and wore a white belt.  I was thirteen when I began and by the time I was fourteen, I had graded (been examined) to red belt standard.  From there on, it slowly started to get good.

I still got picked on, still got bullied, but not by everyone.  Things got a little better when I had a physical argument with a lad in my class over something stupid (aren't the cause of arguments always stupid?) and he hit me.  I shocked the whole year I was in when I hit him back and inflicted on him the same wound he inflicted on me : I split his lower lip.  For some reason I was hardly bullied from that day onwards ;) and just for the record, he stuck up for me a few times thereafter and he was not a lad you messed around with.

The next main incident that I used my new-found skills on was when my family and I went to Glasgow for a few weeks to visit family that we left behind when we moved in 1983.  I was out getting a chinese meal for the family when some drunk in an underpass decided that I was fair game.  He produced a knife, probably with the intent of doing me some serious harm, or seeing how much he could scare me.  I kicked the knife out of this man's hands and kicked him in the stomach, which to my surprise, knocked him to the floor (I was quite pleased at not dropping the chinese meal during this) and  he was physically sick. I picked up the knife,  folded it,  and made my way back to the flat in which we were staying.

You may ask why I didn't report it to the police?  It was an easy decision. The man was so drunk he probably wouldn't even remember what I did to him or the threat that he made.  And besides, I got out of there alive with the weapon he was carrying.  The important thing was he didn't hurt me and I probably scared the living daylights out of him, which serves him right.

In 1990 I graded once to yellow belt and in 1991 I graded twice to orange and green belt standard. In 1993 the gradings started coming thick and fast.  Mainly because all the exams I was taking the previous year were over and I could concentrate on what I wanted to do as a hobby - Karate.  In 1993 alone I sat 2 gradings, blue and purple belt, which put me within my sights of my goal - the coveted black belt.

My brown belt came six months later in 1994  and in 1995 I graded to brown belt with white stripe and brown belt with red stripe. It was at this point that I took the competitions in my association seriously. I started seriously attending the extra Sunday courses that were on offer along with the ones I needed to attend to grade to the black belt

I was riding over 7 miles when I was aged 14 and 15 on a paper-round so I was getting rather fit.  It was in the late part on 1995 that my sensei (instructor) Andy Owen said that he wanted to put me in for an advanced grading in June of 1996.  I thought I wouldn't be ready for it, wasn't ready to get to that status just yet, but he proved me wrong.

On June 2nd 1996 I passed my black-belt grading.  If you think it's easy to get a belt like that, try proving your knowledge in a physical examination that lasts anything from 3 to 4 hours. In this case it lasted three hours and thirty-five minutes exactly.  (I know because I timed it on my stop-watch.)

Andy was pleased for me and he showed it because he got the black-belt that I bought at Combat 95 embroidered with my name on it.  Nice present I can tell you.  In August 1996, Andy decided that the karate class I was attending and the commitments he had were too much for him and he handed the class over to me.  Since then, I have been called Sensei by my seito's (students) and it's been fun.

In 1997 I was involved in a car crash while on my way to work. I suffered whiplash and for obvious reasons I could not participate in very much karate, cycle very far or do a lot of anything as the pain from the head down to my lower back was somewhat tremendous. I still have the black belt and I still enjoy the classes, even if I don't teach them very much anymore.
Hopefully 2001 will bring me the next phase of my "master plan" - 2nd Dan.

2001 saw a change yet again. I was informed in early 2001 that I was scheduled to grade again, in the summer. After the experience from the 1st Dan Grading, I requested it be put back to the winter slot. There were a number of reasons for this, the heat and I along wih exercise do not get on all that well. Secondly, and more importantly, I did not feel as if I were ready.

My colleague and Sensei Tim advised what I needed to practise on. During the summer and during our lunch hours, we practised a lot of angles that I needed to cover, revise and refresh myself with. To say that Tim was gentle with me would be untrue. There was no need for the same tactices used in 1996 to be used again: I was older and wiser (Though I do question the second part of that statement) but still in need of a mentor. Thanks to Tim's coaching, in November 2001 I succeeded and graded to 2nd Dan. (I should have graded in 1999 / 2000 but the car accident put that idea very much on ice.) The grading lasted a totoal of four and a half hours this time around, an hour longer than it did back in 1996.

I still teach (Well, I help Tim teach) and I train regularly and I enjoy it immensley week in and week out, so do you still want to be a black belt in karate?

Louise Cosgrove.