One of my favorite stories about training.

[peoplecallmemilk]

My Sensei was in the Special Forces and did 2 tours in Vietnam, as the story goes him and his unit (12 men) would hire Hmong (Mung) guerilla solders as bodyguards and guides. Hmong are a mountain tribe that fought for the US during the war... Anyways, each soldier hired 2 Hmong bodyguards for $5 a month (each) who then never left their side; they ate, sleep and fought together.

Sensei had just had been training in Okinawa 7 days a week for nearly 7 years when he was called to war and he didn’t let that stop him from training. When there was down time Sensei would teach the Hmong solders Shorin-ryu right there in the jungle day or night.

I can’t help but imagine that he may have spawned a Hmong Shorin-ryu spin-off style thats evolving on some remote Vietnam mountain top.

Edited September 1, 2005 by peoplecallmemilk

[peoplecallmemilk]

share one if you got one.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Sensei had just had been training in Okinawa 7 days a week for nearly 7 years when he was called to war and he didn’t let that stop him from training.

''

Who did your sensei train under during those 7 years on Okinawa?

[y2_sub]

Cool .. At fist i thought that your storry is about how your sensei learned Vo Vi Nam during his service in Vietnam

[peoplecallmemilk]

Who did your sensei train under during those 7 years on Okinawa?

Zenryo Shimabukuro

[Shorin Ryuu]

Who was your instructor? I'm not grilling you, I'm just curious. I know some instructors who have trained on Okinawa and spent a lot of time in Vietnam. I don't chat with them on a regular basis, per se, but maybe I can ask them if they knew your instructor back then.

[peoplecallmemilk]

Sensei Edward Takae

[Drgnslyer]

well..not as prestigious, but a very simple story that always motivates me when i train now...

When i was a yellow belt, I finally started to begin to build my endurance, and my sparring coach and I were working on full speed and power techniques for waht seemed like teernity, and as i began to lag he looked me in the eye and simply said "tyler, just think about how good that water is going to taste in five minutes, keep going."

when it happened, and every time i think of it now while training, i get another wind to work with, and am able to push myself over that mental barrier.

[Why_Worry]

Cool story. At first it seemed like your sensei was jsut going to stay training and not go anywhere and beat a bunch of those guys with karate and i was like "What? Wow this is a strange story." But then i saw that he went with them and tough them karate. Not as action packed but very cool none the less. I might look up your sensei some time to see if anything is under his name.

[peoplecallmemilk]

I might look up your sensei some time to see if anything is under his name.

His name is mentioned in the books "Okinawan Karate: Teachers, Styles, and Secret Techniques" by Mark Bishop, "Unante: The Secrets Of Karate" by John Sells and "Karate-Do: History and Philosophy" by Takao Nakaya. As well as a few places online.