MARTIAL ARTS: A REAL SPORT FOR REAL WOMEN

I never thought I would have a black belt. As a child, karate studios did not sit in every strip mall, and even if they had, my parents couldn't have afforded the monthly tuition. Even if the money had been available, they wouldn't have approved of such an activity for their daughter. Boys were rough and tumble, girls learned to be ladylike. Little girls didn't hit. We went to Girl Scouts and took ballet lessons. On Sunday, we wore starched dresses, white Mary Jane's and tights to Sunday school. For girls who were very athletic, there was softball, but for those of us that were too small to guard home plate or make the throw from first to third, team sports weren't our gig. Unfortunately for my parents, my Mary Jane's were always scuffed, my tights usually sported dirty holes in the knees, and I was more than happy to spend my afternoons catching tadpoles in the local creek.

Even at the ripe old age of forty-one, I still manage to exasperate my parents. To this day I remain domestically challenged. The house is never tidy. My kids go to school in wrinkled clothing. Dinner is an afterthought thrown together when one of the kids wanders into the kitchen like a starving refuge.

Thankfully, times have changed. My daughter has had a much broader range of activities available to her. When she asked to try karate at the age of four, my husband and I encouraged her. I knew the value of learning self-defense. I was always one of the smallest kids in the class and was frequently picked on. Bullying wasn't something addressed by the school system in the seventies. It was pretty much a fend-for-yourself era.

I spent the first five years watching my daughter progress through the belt ranks. With each promotion her self-confidence grew. Last year she proudly earned her junior black belt and intends to test for her first degree next year. In our house, "hits like a girl" has a totally different meaning.

Several years into the whole karate-parent thing, the studio offered a free month for parents. I thought about if for about a minute and signed up. I had nothing to lose. You can't beat free. Not only did I want to learn to defend myself, I have to admit the cool factor contributed to my eagerness. I needed something to make me feel younger as I moved from an occasional highlighting to needing to once a month root touch ups to cover the streaks of gray that striped my head. Nothing makes

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