I began my martial arts life experience as an awestruck 5 year old. There were no power rangers or teenage mutant ninja turtles, but there was Caine. David Carradine was to have as profound an influence on my training as Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris.

Having seen how enthusiastic I was at emulating Kwai Chang by jumping around the furniture, and doing my "techniques" on my mother, Mom chose to find me a creative outlet by looking around at local schools. As it happens our only local option was a Judo club which practiced at the town high school. My instructor was a 20-something second dan from Osaka, Japan. He was a nice fellow, very personable... and a very focused practitioner. When I turned age 6, his minimum age for entry, I entered training.

Natori-sensei was fastidious in his training methods. Our sessions were quite rigorous, but fun and engaging. He was never punitive for the sake of punishment, but did give reprimands for improper behavior. I did many extra push-ups, sit-ups, and several extra laps... 6-year-olds will after all be 6-year-olds. The experience became more like work when his student visa expired and he was forced to return to Osaka. I was quite disheartened, as were many others who also left the class within the year. This young man had given me my first decent instructions in the martial arts, and would influence my view for the next 33 years.

I searched for a new school for years; wandering from this free program to that promotional introduction. It was during this period I also began seeing the darker side of martial arts. It wasn't that Kung Fu was evil, or that I'd become a sith lord by training in Hapkido... but I began to learn of varied instructors' motivations. In one school I auditioned (yes, I interviewed THEM) I was told within the period of 15 minutes that I could get my black belt rather quickly for a small donation of $5000 U.S. I also knew that I could run down a block to the next dojo and buy one over the counter for $10 or less, so I politely declined.

The relevance of these experiences indicate my thought process as to what I was ultimately searching for in my training. I wanted an instructor who was competent at his or her art, I wanted at least a modicum of honesty, and most of all I wanted a safe and fun learning environment. After 10 years of searching, I finally found a group at our community college. The interview he gave me was intensive and comprehensive. He wanted to know what

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