Pankration

For reasons unknown, last night I wondered what became of my karate instructor. Mind, I studied with him in '73 and '74, having to give up the study when I went to DC, so I wasn't sure that he'd still be teaching. Or even still alive.

Boy howdy! Seems I'd missed a NYT report from last year. One can learn a lot by letting your fingers do the walking through the yellow Googles. He's 90 and still teaching.

For those who've made the transition from graduate school to 9-to-5 Cubeland job, it will come as no surprise to know that one of the major adjustments to living is what to do with all that unconstricted time. For myself, I looked for activity as far removed from academia as I could stand. I'd joined the Boston Y, and signed up for a karate class there run by Dave Edwards. After a few lessons, Dave told me that I really should be studying with his teacher, George Gonis in East Boston. So I went.

Along with the NYT article are some comments, which mostly cavil the story. The two main criticisms are that the health claims aren't specific to this version of karate and that there really isn't any such thing as Greek karate.

As to the latter first. George had written a paper on the origins of ancient Greek style of karate, as he described it. The fact that George is Greek may well have something to do with that point of view. Yet, there is historical evidence, which he presents.

As to the former, some backstory. By the time I began with George, he had been promoted to the highest level by his first teacher, in New York City, some time earlier. So his study moved to that man's father, who happened to be the head of the school. This study entailed George going to the mountains of India every other year for training and testing for a couple of weeks. I was fortunate that he made such a trip early in my study. When he got back, even the white belts (self included) got to hear of the trip. This was significant in light of the fact that only black belts were allowed to be in the facility during black belt class. Only during the semi-annual tournament did the lower belts have a chance to see what the black belts did. Light years from what we white belts were doing. Intimidating.

The singluar revelation from his talk was the fact that his teacher was 104. Or, as George said, "from the neck up he looks old, but from the neck down it's like he's made of rubbah!" So, yeah, it works.

During my time in Boston, I also took up tai-chi (yes, yin and yang of a kind) with Julian Miller, who learned from William C.C. Chen (still living and about 85), also in New York City. He took us to a hall in Cambridge to see another master, T. T. Liang. This would have been '73. He performed a double sword form. Liang lived from 1900 to 2002. So, yeah, it works.