CHAPTER 4

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CHAPTER 4: THE INITIAL EFFECT

I was moving primarily on auto-pilot as I drove to the YMCA in North County for my karate testing.: I parked and got out with my gym bag, looked around. Everything and everybody on the outside was normal, but in my mind ... I had this momentous event I'd experienced that I felt I couldn't tell anyone about because outside of the fact that Dennis simply was not that good of an actor, the girls had been scared out of their wits, and I had seen what I had seen, I had zero facts to back me up.
"Hey, Joe!" someone yelled. A fellow Uechi-Ryu"ist" with a big smile on their face, waving big anticipating success in his testing. "Ya ready?!"
"Yeah!" I yelled back, forcing a smile.
"Hey, Palermo! How's it goin'?" called out Renee, the attractive blond young woman who I had dated in the last year (actually part of the reason I decided to get into Uechi classes) and the relationship I had tried to escape with the date last night.: "How's it goin' ... " I thought. "Fine." I replied."
"Ready for that green belt?" she smiled a supportive and confident smile. Regardless of what happened to "us", Renee couldn't deny my progress as a martial artist and she was genuinely impressed with that. I was the only white belt to ever be taught the brown belt kata because I had already mastered everything else and our Sensei didn't want me to get bored and drop out. We had a tight knit group.: "We'll see." I managed. The fact was, I still loved her. I wanted to tell her what happened last night but the reality was that more than likely she would simply laugh at me. Yeah ... would I have plenty of that to go on over the next few years.

The day and testing went by as expected ... the oral test of terms and history to get you entrance to the dojo, then groupings, basic testing, kata testing ... all of which I passed without missing a beat. Then came time for kumite . Now, an important note here.: Kumite means sparring, not fighting. If you follow the link, you'll understand that kumite is about learning what you don't know about defending yourself. That having been said...
It came my turn for kumite testing. We all had to face off with a black belt. I wound up facing off with a guy who thought I was seeing his girlfriend (he was too dense to understand that I started off just talking to her and after she broke up with him, and Renee and I were no longer seeing each other "that way" that the girl and I moved into a more affection based relationship). There was going to be trouble.: I took my position, he took his across from me. We bowed to Sensei, we bowed to each other, we took our stances, "Hike!" was called. We did some positioning.
He was cautious at first, throwing some easily defended techniques.: Suddenly, the only thing in my vision ... I have NO idea why this happened ... I was back at Creve Coeur Park seeing that thing lumber between tow trees from the night before. Then I heard a loud GASP from those in attendance for the testing.
My sense came back just in time to see my opponent throwing a serious front kick at me. I was true to my training and delivered a perfect downward circular block that would later become popular by the "Karate Kid" movies. He immediately shifted and turned the front kick into a high, fast roundhouse at my head with a look of vengeance in his eyes. I brought my circular block back up but I knew he was kicking higher than my training allowed for (per my teaching, an upward circular block meant the fingers of your hand went no higher than the eyes of your opponent). Sure as shit his toes her gliding right over the top of my fingers and headed for my right temple. My movie stuntman instincts kicked in and I began leaning away from the kick just as the toes caught under the frame of my glasses and yanked them from my face, throwing them to the floor.: I was leaned all the way to my left as I watched the glasses hit the concrete floor. I looked back at my opponent with a glare that rivaled Christopher Lee's Dracula meaning I was ready to kill this boy. As I raised up and seriously positioned myself, Sensei called out "Gomen!"
We were told to bow to each other and then to Sensei. Sensei directed my opponent away then addressed me. I always remember instances that seem very unjust to me.
"Mr. Palermo, where's the headband for your glasses?"