In this podcast I’m going to describe some of my early days of training Karate and some of the background and circumstances that got me and kept me on this road which I have been pursuing for nearly six decades now.
In episode two, I described my motivation to begin Karate as a means of staying alive, so to speak, by holding my ground, first in boxing and later Karate against the military university students staying at my mother’s boarding house in the university town of Stellenbosch.
It actually goes further back than this to when I was five years old! As most of you have noticed, I do have a pair of rather ‘bigger than normal’ ears! Incidentally, Bakkies is my nickname and in my language, Bakkies has two meanings – it can mean soup bowls – reflecting directly on the size of my ears and secondly Bakkies can mean a funny face! You decide which one makes sense to you!
My father worked on the railways and this meant that he was transferred occasionally. I was born in a very small town called Bethlehem in the central part of our country, the Free State province.
At the age of three, my father was transferred to another small town in the semi desert or Karoo area of the country, called Colesberg.
My father and my mother were working so my younger sister and myself were left in the care of our housekeeper during the day. Apparently, I was a bit of a handful toddler – handful as in extremely naughty, according to some of my uncles, aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers!
So, one day I played with matches, striking them and lighting them while standing on a chair to get to the windowsill where the box of safety matches was kept – supposed to be out of reach to me!
As I was playing with the matches, I set fire to the curtains in the window! Luckily, our housekeeper smelled the fire and came running and managed to pull me clear from the windowsill from the chair and put out the fire with a bucket of water as it was starting to lick a bottle of methylated spirits kept in the window!
My parents decided there and then that I was impossible to be left at home and after negotiations with the local school principal, I was sent to school at the age of five – not a pre-school, a real school!
The school going age by law was seven, so I was obviously the smallest and weakest kid in the class!
What happens to the smallest and weakest kid with big ears in school – you get your ears pulled, your sandwiches taken and you get thumped by older, bigger bully types!
There were no psychologists and counsellors in those days, and your teacher and parents could not protect you 24/7, so you had to become streetwise to survive, such as becoming friends with the bigger guys in school for half your lunch sandwiches and fruit!
I was in fights at school many a day and usually the loser! I joined the school’s wrestling club, and I tried hard, but was not strong enough for my older peers and I was basically a practice bag for the other kids, although I did learn some defensive stuff that helped!
This all just made me more and more determine that, one day, I will be on top! This went on to my late Primary school days – 9, 10 years old, when I became quite a rugby star in the schools under 75 lbs team, my ears got pulled less!
When I entered senior high school, I was the youngest boy in the entire school! Boy schools are usually a ‘survival of the fittest and strongest’ scenario – initiation by the seniors was prevalent, teachers tended to ’look the other way’, all in the name of ‘school spirit!’ similar to ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays!
The ‘being everyone’s punch bag’ started changing when I was taught boxing by the Military students and joining the Karate club and I actually started coming out of encounters alive and actually the winner!
Strangely, this ‘winning’ did not really make me feel that good!
Let me explain, to this day I hate conflict and would do everything to avoid it, but when there is no other way, you need to do what you have to do!
I still have the inscription in my High School Dairy that reads ‘Violence is the Last Refuge of the Intellectually Defeated!’ One of the credos that I still live by!
Back to Karate! During the first and second years of training, doing a very unrefined version of Kyokushinkai, we received classes in Stellenbosch twice a week, and it was adequate for me, as I was involved in other sports, Rugby and Cricket – I played 1st IX cricket in my final two years at school and had the highest batting average in the team!
Frequently, Japanese ships would dock in Cape Town Harbour in those days and occasionally someone who knew some Karate drifted into the Cape Town Dojo and was immediately asked to show us stuff, no matter what grade or style, we wanted to see Japanese doing Karate movements!
An interesting fact at this point is the fact that An’ichi Miyagi Sensei was a sailor in those days and he once told me how his ship came to Cape Town in the 1950’s and he actually taught Gekki Sai Dai Ichi at a well know Judo institute in Cape Town. It was way before Karate was known in South Africa, but he said they enjoyed it and treated him really well!
Big changes came in beginning of 1965, when we changed from the Kyokushin Style to Shotokan and affiliated to the largest Shotokan organisation – the Japan Karate Association or JKA. JKA send four of their top instructors to promote the art in South Africa for a period of more than six months – in a previous podcast, I mentioned Senseis Kasé, Kanazawa, Enoeda and Shirai. Sensei Kasé came to Cape Town first and stayed for about a month, after which he left for Durban and Sensei Shirai taught in Cape Town.
It was by far the largest and probably the first Karate organisation in South Africa with intangible roots in Japan and all the prominent Karate men in South Africa were part of this – names such as Sensei James Rosseau who founded Higaonna Sensei about a year later and so started to spread the popularity of Higaonna Sensei’s Goju Ryu worldwide, as I touched on in a previous episode
The first time I saw and was taught by Sensei Kasé, I was totally blown away! He was of similar build to Higaonna Sensei and incredibly powerful and fast! Interesting, he did Kokutsu Dachi with the heel up, similar to our Neko Ashi Dachi!
Sensei Kasé left after a few weeks for Durban and Sensei Hiroshi Shirai came to Cape Town – a previous All Japan Grand Champion, similar to Senseis Kanazawa and Enoeda. His training was slightly more athletic, compared to the raw power of Kasé Sensei, but also unbelievable technically and physically and mentally tough.
And we learned the word Ossu!! Many theories on the origins, but the most likely two would be that it is a slang abbreviation for Onegaishimasu or Arrigato Gozaimasu or even Ganbarrimasu.
Nevertheless, it was used for any reply such as ‘Yes’; ‘I understand’ ‘Thank You’, ‘Goodbye’ – a good technique that got past you by an opponent – Ossu – basically for everything! The golden rule was not to use it when addressing someone senior to yourself or elderly persons.
It could really be killing to be in the company of a group of university students in Japan, such as at a baseball tournament – hearing ‘Ossu’, ‘Ossu Sempai’ all day long!
So, classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays in Stellenbosch and Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Cape Town. Luckily, one of the military university students Dojo members staying with us, drove through to Cape Town – about 45 kilometres from Stellenbosch – on Tuesdays and sometimes on a Thursday and Fridays as well, and I could hitch a ride by donating about 20 cents for fuel – it would buy about two gallons of fuel for his VW Beetle!
I could not get enough of training, although my arms had permanent blue patches because of blocking and both my shins the same from being Ashi Harai’ed constantly!
The problem for me was the few Thursdays and Fridays that we did not go because of his studies, so, I made a plan!
I would tell my parents that I had an opportunity into Cape Town and back with someone else from the Dojo.
I would then hitch-hike to Cape Town – absolutely forbidden by my parents – no highways then, the road to Cape Town was through the suburbs, so not too difficult to get a ride, but of course dangerous – but try to tell a 16-year-old about danger!
After class, which stopped at 20h00, I would rush down to Cape Town station and catch the last train from Cape Town that passed Stellenbosch – it was a combined long-haul goods and passenger train. A few times, I would not have any money for the train back, so I would sneak into an unlit compartment and when I heard the conductor coming, would just sit in the dark and hoped he did not see me! Fortunately, this did not happen too often!
Training sessions were about ten minutes of warming up, lots of basics, standing, moving, mainly straight linear and at least half the class time was sparring – from basic to moving, Ippon to Sanbon to Jiyu Kumite.
A favourite type of training of both Kasé and Shirai Senseis was ‘line Kumite’.
One person would stand with the back against the wall in Kamae and a line of anything from three to ten or more persons would attack you with one attack and you had to block and counter.
Mostly Yakusoku, so you knew what attacks to expect and the attacker would shout ‘Jodan’ Chudan’ Mae Geri’ shortly before attacking, but sometimes it was Jiyu or free, so any attack could be expected! Hence the blue marks on my arms and legs! We would also do it in a circle, where one guy fought the circle, then the next one in, etc.
Higaonna Sensei also liked the circle training when he taught in 1972 in Cape Town and we did a lot of that!
Then free sparring at the end – also sometimes in a circle, and then we finished off with Kata – the basic Heian Kata and then usually the Kata for your next grade.
I still credit my long moving ability to my Shotokan days, but adapted it to more angular and circular moving in line with Goju Ryu style.
In July 1965, I, along with three others, were invited to test for Shodan and after a cruelling session, I was awarded my Shodan – I still have it signed by Nakayama Sensei, dated 30 July 1965 and although only 16 years old, it was a senior Shodan, I also went on to become the Cape Open Grand Champion later in the year, again in a senior division.
I personally embroidered my first Black Belt with the Japanese Kanji for Kara Te by hand! I still have that belt, to give you an idea of what a milestone it was for a little guy with big ears! Reflecting back, I was a little disappointed, as I thought that I was not really that good at that stage, so I guess this was the starting point of my quest to just simply get to be the best I could by constantly and unconditionally pursuing excellence forever, driven by my resolution when five years old that ‘One day, I will be on top!!
I’m still getting there!
In this podcast I’m going to describe some of my early days of training Karate and some of the background and circumstances that got me and kept me on this road which I have been pursuing for nearly six decades now.
In episode two, I described my motivation to begin Karate as a means of staying alive, so to speak, by holding my ground, first in boxing and later Karate against the military university students staying at my mother’s boarding house in the university town of Stellenbosch.
It actually goes further back than this to when I was five years old! As most of you have noticed, I do have a pair of rather ‘bigger than normal’ ears! Incidentally, Bakkies is my nickname and in my language, Bakkies has two meanings – it can mean soup bowls – reflecting directly on the size of my ears and secondly Bakkies can mean a funny face! You decide which one makes sense to you!
My father worked on the railways and this meant that he was transferred occasionally. I was born in a very small town called Bethlehem in the central part of our country, the Free State province.
At the age of three, my father was transferred to another small town in the semi desert or Karoo area of the country, called Colesberg.
My father and my mother were working so my younger sister and myself were left in the care of our housekeeper during the day. Apparently, I was a bit of a handful toddler – handful as in extremely naughty, according to some of my uncles, aunts, grandfathers and grandmothers!
So, one day I played with matches, striking them and lighting them while standing on a chair to get to the windowsill where the box of safety matches was kept – supposed to be out of reach to me!
As I was playing with the matches, I set fire to the curtains in the window! Luckily, our housekeeper smelled the fire and came running and managed to pull me clear from the windowsill from the chair and put out the fire with a bucket of water as it was starting to lick a bottle of methylated spirits kept in the window!
My parents decided there and then that I was impossible to be left at home and after negotiations with the local school principal, I was sent to school at the age of five – not a pre-school, a real school!
The school going age by law was seven, so I was obviously the smallest and weakest kid in the class!
What happens to the smallest and weakest kid with big ears in school – you get your ears pulled, your sandwiches taken and you get thumped by older, bigger bully types!
There were no psychologists and counsellors in those days, and your teacher and parents could not protect you 24/7, so you had to become streetwise to survive, such as becoming friends with the bigger guys in school for half your lunch sandwiches and fruit!
I was in fights at school many a day and usually the loser! I joined the school’s wrestling club, and I tried hard, but was not strong enough for my older peers and I was basically a practice bag for the other kids, although I did learn some defensive stuff that helped!
This all just made me more and more determine that, one day, I will be on top! This went on to my late Primary school days – 9, 10 years old, when I became quite a rugby star in the schools under 75 lbs team, my ears got pulled less!
When I entered senior high school, I was the youngest boy in the entire school! Boy schools are usually a ‘survival of the fittest and strongest’ scenario – initiation by the seniors was prevalent, teachers tended to ’look the other way’, all in the name of ‘school spirit!’ similar to ‘Tom Brown’s Schooldays!
The ‘being everyone’s punch bag’ started changing when I was taught boxing by the Military students and joining the Karate club and I actually started coming out of encounters alive and actually the winner!
Strangely, this ‘winning’ did not really make me feel that good!
Let me explain, to this day I hate conflict and would do everything to avoid it, but when there is no other way, you need to do what you have to do!
I still have the inscription in my High School Dairy that reads ‘Violence is the Last Refuge of the Intellectually Defeated!’ One of the credos that I still live by!
Back to Karate! During the first and second years of training, doing a very unrefined version of Kyokushinkai, we received classes in Stellenbosch twice a week, and it was adequate for me, as I was involved in other sports, Rugby and Cricket – I played 1st IX cricket in my final two years at school and had the highest batting average in the team!
Frequently, Japanese ships would dock in Cape Town Harbour in those days and occasionally someone who knew some Karate drifted into the Cape Town Dojo and was immediately asked to show us stuff, no matter what grade or style, we wanted to see Japanese doing Karate movements!
An interesting fact at this point is the fact that An’ichi Miyagi Sensei was a sailor in those days and he once told me how his ship came to Cape Town in the 1950’s and he actually taught Gekki Sai Dai Ichi at a well know Judo institute in Cape Town. It was way before Karate was known in South Africa, but he said they enjoyed it and treated him really well!
Big changes came in beginning of 1965, when we changed from the Kyokushin Style to Shotokan and affiliated to the largest Shotokan organisation – the Japan Karate Association or JKA. JKA send four of their top instructors to promote the art in South Africa for a period of more than six months – in a previous podcast, I mentioned Senseis Kasé, Kanazawa, Enoeda and Shirai. Sensei Kasé came to Cape Town first and stayed for about a month, after which he left for Durban and Sensei Shirai taught in Cape Town.
It was by far the largest and probably the first Karate organisation in South Africa with intangible roots in Japan and all the prominent Karate men in South Africa were part of this – names such as Sensei James Rosseau who founded Higaonna Sensei about a year later and so started to spread the popularity of Higaonna Sensei’s Goju Ryu worldwide, as I touched on in a previous episode
The first time I saw and was taught by Sensei Kasé, I was totally blown away! He was of similar build to Higaonna Sensei and incredibly powerful and fast! Interesting, he did Kokutsu Dachi with the heel up, similar to our Neko Ashi Dachi!
Sensei Kasé left after a few weeks for Durban and Sensei Hiroshi Shirai came to Cape Town – a previous All Japan Grand Champion, similar to Senseis Kanazawa and Enoeda. His training was slightly more athletic, compared to the raw power of Kasé Sensei, but also unbelievable technically and physically and mentally tough.
And we learned the word Ossu!! Many theories on the origins, but the most likely two would be that it is a slang abbreviation for Onegaishimasu or Arrigato Gozaimasu or even Ganbarrimasu.
Nevertheless, it was used for any reply such as ‘Yes’; ‘I understand’ ‘Thank You’, ‘Goodbye’ – a good technique that got past you by an opponent – Ossu – basically for everything! The golden rule was not to use it when addressing someone senior to yourself or elderly persons.
It could really be killing to be in the company of a group of university students in Japan, such as at a baseball tournament – hearing ‘Ossu’, ‘Ossu Sempai’ all day long!
So, classes were Tuesdays and Thursdays in Stellenbosch and Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays in Cape Town. Luckily, one of the military university students Dojo members staying with us, drove through to Cape Town – about 45 kilometres from Stellenbosch – on Tuesdays and sometimes on a Thursday and Fridays as well, and I could hitch a ride by donating about 20 cents for fuel – it would buy about two gallons of fuel for his VW Beetle!
I could not get enough of training, although my arms had permanent blue patches because of blocking and both my shins the same from being Ashi Harai’ed constantly!
The problem for me was the few Thursdays and Fridays that we did not go because of his studies, so, I made a plan!
I would tell my parents that I had an opportunity into Cape Town and back with someone else from the Dojo.
I would then hitch-hike to Cape Town – absolutely forbidden by my parents – no highways then, the road to Cape Town was through the suburbs, so not too difficult to get a ride, but of course dangerous – but try to tell a 16-year-old about danger!
After class, which stopped at 20h00, I would rush down to Cape Town station and catch the last train from Cape Town that passed Stellenbosch – it was a combined long-haul goods and passenger train. A few times, I would not have any money for the train back, so I would sneak into an unlit compartment and when I heard the conductor coming, would just sit in the dark and hoped he did not see me! Fortunately, this did not happen too often!
Training sessions were about ten minutes of warming up, lots of basics, standing, moving, mainly straight linear and at least half the class time was sparring – from basic to moving, Ippon to Sanbon to Jiyu Kumite.
A favourite type of training of both Kasé and Shirai Senseis was ‘line Kumite’.
One person would stand with the back against the wall in Kamae and a line of anything from three to ten or more persons would attack you with one attack and you had to block and counter.
Mostly Yakusoku, so you knew what attacks to expect and the attacker would shout ‘Jodan’ Chudan’ Mae Geri’ shortly before attacking, but sometimes it was Jiyu or free, so any attack could be expected! Hence the blue marks on my arms and legs! We would also do it in a circle, where one guy fought the circle, then the next one in, etc.
Higaonna Sensei also liked the circle training when he taught in 1972 in Cape Town and we did a lot of that!
Then free sparring at the end – also sometimes in a circle, and then we finished off with Kata – the basic Heian Kata and then usually the Kata for your next grade.
I still credit my long moving ability to my Shotokan days, but adapted it to more angular and circular moving in line with Goju Ryu style.
In July 1965, I, along with three others, were invited to test for Shodan and after a cruelling session, I was awarded my Shodan – I still have it signed by Nakayama Sensei, dated 30 July 1965 and although only 16 years old, it was a senior Shodan, I also went on to become the Cape Open Grand Champion later in the year, again in a senior division.
I personally embroidered my first Black Belt with the Japanese Kanji for Kara Te by hand! I still have that belt, to give you an idea of what a milestone it was for a little guy with big ears! Reflecting back, I was a little disappointed, as I thought that I was not really that good at that stage, so I guess this was the starting point of my quest to just simply get to be the best I could by constantly and unconditionally pursuing excellence forever, driven by my resolution when five years old that ‘One day, I will be on top!!
I’m still getting there!
I recently launched my Traditional School of Karate Global Virtual Dojo. For information, visit https://traditionalschoolofkarate.com