There are two cinder blocks standing side by side on a scrap of carpet at the front of Galli’s Fighting Chance, a karate school in Pennsylvania. An instructor gently lowers a one-and-a-half inch thick cinder cap onto the blocks. School-bus-yellow number two pencils are placed at each end of the cinder cap to act as … Continue reading
I was sixteen years old the first time I tied a black belt around my waist. It was not until fourteen years later, when I opened my own school and purchased my first set of over-priced, colored fabric belts that I thought: Why do we wear colored belts? Martial arts classes and colored belts are … Continue reading