The art of empty hands Karate

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For those who want to be independent from weapons, Karate, the art of the empty hand, might be the best bet. This is because people are trained to make any part of their bodies become their own vital or lethal weapons. Karate apprentices also become more self-disciplined. Mike Evans, who teaches at Chico Dojo , said he noticed a major change in his life after he learned Karate. "It helped me with other athletic endeavors," he said. "I started to do things I’d never imagined to do. My grades came up, and I finished college in 4 years." At first, Evans' friend wanted him to take Karate lessons with him. But then, his friend quit and Evans continued because the kicking and punching appealed to him. Karate has been part of Evans’ life for 23 years, and now he is a 5th degree black belt. These 23 years of experience in Karate taught him to be humble and content with what he has. "Having a black belt is only important to two people. It’s important to you because you earned it and it’s important to your instructor because he taught you," he said. The hardest thing about learning Karate, Evans said, is learning to have self-discipline. "It’s also a mental training. There is a lot of times when you’re trying to do something your body is not used to do," he said. This mental training teaches the students the absolute importance of not fighting, while they build up their bodies into authentic weapons. But even being walking weapons, the students must never fight in vain, Evans said. He teaches a code of conduct to every student and said if he found out about someone who got in a fight for poor reasons, that person would be out of his school the next day. "I won’t put up with it. There are two reasons to fight: to defend yourself and your family and to defend your property," he said. "If you wanna impress somebody, impress in some other way." Because of this strict rule, Evans said he doesn’t accept anyone in his school who is under 6 years old. Young children still don’t have a concept of right and wrong and they could hurt other children when trying to show off a move, Evans said. back next