Just finished watching Cobra Kai Season 5, a very nostalgic TV series that caters to 1980s kids who grew up with Ralph Macchio and the Karate Kid. The series has evovled over the various seasons to be about less about karate and more about growing up in the San Fernando Valley as a high schooler (and also the used car industry in Encino and Reseda- for anyone like me who's ever wondered what it's like in those neighborhoods off the 101 driving from downtown L.A. Northbound to Santa Barbara- well, the Cobra Kai/ Karate Kid universe is a pretty good depiction). I've also wondered what I would have become had I not stopped going to a Chinese school-sponsored karate club back in middle school and stuck with it past just the random demonstrations we did at schools (I vaguely remember going into a classroom with tables and desks and having to perform a karate routine in front of other parents and students- really wish there was better video technology back then to get a sense of what I looked like doing karate moves).
It's surprising to me why karate/ other martial arts don't get more traction for students in the U.S. Perhaps it's because there are so many other activities that dominate the scene, like football, basketball, and surprisingly, soccer- one of the more popular sports I hear kids play, as did I, I suspect because of the ability to let the kids run around and tire themselves out, making the parents' jobs easier. My sister got into Tae Kwan Do in college and claims she can beat me up nowadays despite never testing that thesis out, but her case gives me an explanation of why people avoid combat sports: potential injuries. She had to go to the hospital and get treated for $3000 worth of a hospital stay despite just getting a couple Tylenol or something. (Side note: the U.S. healthcare system is a pyramid scheme on top of a scam. MJ and I recently experienced a doctor pushing a surgery on us that we had doubts about whether we actually needed, or it was the hospital trying to market more medical procedures to up their bottom line so they could bill the insurance companies beaucoup dollars, subsequently making everyone's insurance premiums go up). Neither middle school nor high schools taught any karate or martial arts, the reason likely being illustrated in Cobra Kai: If the whole school knew karate, everybody would be fighting each other in the hallways. Combat sports will always have a hard time gaining traction with a school board especially in today's environment of prioritizing "safe spaces." Even if people like Daniel LeRusso (the original Karate Kid) promised that karate was just for self-defense.
Knowing karate would be at least an ace in the sleeve in some situations: I've never gotten into a physical confrontation, but there's been a few times I've wondered on a night run whether the couple guys in front of me meant any harm, and that's when karate would be useful as a last resort. Likely it would just be another outlet for my competitive drive and to proceed in the system from the lowest belt (white belt) to black belt. If I've learned anything about myself, it's that I have low pain tolerance, so I might have trouble with people getting shots off on me, although I'd be a lot more afraid of being choked out or having my arm broken in jiujitsu rather than blunt force harm like karate, where as long as I protect my head area I should be OK to deal with striking damage and just bruises to various parts of the body.
No comments:
Post a Comment