At the end of last year, after nine years of GKR Karate, I graded to nidan.  While I was all enthusiastic after that point, I was soon met with both a change of management and some Christmas holidays which quite decidedly killed my motivation.  GKR has been a part of my life for a long time.  In fact, my affiliation with that organisation has run longer than any other in my short life. 

I started in middle high school.  My immediate friendship circle thought it would be cool to do and when GKR came knocking, they signed up.  After much hassling of my poor parents, they agreed to let me join on the grounds of being ideal for self defence.  From day one, I loved it!!  I used to train on a Wednesday night at the local PCYC and could not wait for that night to come around each week. 

Unfortunately, I did allow myself to become involved in the politics, taking on a sempai role immediately after my 3rd kyu grading and later instructing my own class in two different regions.  While it is not a decision that I would undo, it definitely changed my perspective on the club irreversibly. 

GKR is very addictive and draws heavily on the power of social connections to keep both students and instructors returning, long after their interest has flagged.  I have learned in the martial arts world that every organisation believes they are right, the best and only way.  GKR definitely had its limitations but I hadn't really found them to be obstructive to my own personal goals.  However, after nidan I began to reassess what it was that I really wanted and another quarter dozen years of training for another certificate with no greater goal than perfecting the basics under the uninspiring management of a boy barely old enough to drive... just didn't seem appealing. (Yes this is a gross and derogatory simplification of reality). Time lapsed.... 

These holidays have been refreshing and I've been trying to reorganise my life such that I enjoy it.  I realised that I missed having a focus, something to enjoy and dedicate my time towards.  I considered training again but knew deep down that it was time for a change.  GKR being a mixture of GoJuRyu and Shotokan gave me a taste of two worlds.  My preference lied heavily towards Shotokan and that was a style I wanted to pursue.  I also wanted to do something that was going to be a little "harder" than sports karate.  Unfortunately, I found that I had difficulty locating organisations with training opportunities that would be accessible with any frequency around shift work.  Looking around at galleries and videos of different clubs, it also became quite obvious that although GKR is considered the McDonalds on the martial arts world, there were very few places that actually produced students of a significant higher quality and what I consider to be important has also been tainted by GKR ideals.

It was on suggestion from a friend that I started to look outside gis, ranks and belts.  I was lucky to find a local training centre for boxing , kickboxing and muay thai. They also offer classes most days and sometimes more than one class per night!  Stoked! I finally got the guts up to call today and tonight will be heading to my first session.  It is a womens class which is all non-contact but it will be a great start and allow me to familiarise without getting too scared.  I am soooo excited!!!  I am hoping that this will work well and then I can combine it with weights and PT to become a lean, mean fighting machine!   Okay... perhaps not quite like that but drop the extra body fat and regain some of my fitness while learning to actually use my arms in a more functional way than sports karate will allow!

Hopefully, hopefully it will mean the physical/leisure side of life is squared away and then I can worry about work after that.