With an honorable discharge in my pocket, I left the Air Force and having the usual long term plans of most 22 year old Veterans, I moved back in with my parent’s right here in Baytown while I got my feet on the ground. My 3 younger brothers were all active in Kim Soo’s ChayonRyu in Houston and my number two brother was now living here in Baytown also, so we located a ChayonRyu school and joined.
The Baytown Karate School was located in an old building tucked neatly out of the way on Kilgore Road and we were in the Whitehall Apartments on Ward Road, so off we went to our first lesson. The School was owned by an old fellow with a ponytail, droopy mustache, a red t-shirt under his uniform, and truth be known, he was small in stature and being 22, I thought he looked, well…old.
Before class started, I looked at the pictures on the wall of the school and noticed an action picture of the instructor getting the better of Bill ‘Superfoot’ Wallace. I made a mental note.
Now let me back up a bit and add some history. Martial Arts in the USA were not something children studied back in the early 70’s. Karate classes often had brutally exhausting workouts and were run in a military fashion. It was common to leave class with a bloody nose or lip and limp out to your car, only to limp back to class the next night. This school had some impressive black belts and soon to be black belts. Baytown Fire Chief Shon Blake, Herbie Hathorne, movie star Eddie ‘Blue’ Deckert, Lionel Jagnanan, and the Head Instructor was none other then ChayonRyu Master Conrad Pickens.
Conrad had double 3rd degree black belts at the time and was 46 years old...an old man. He led us in warm-ups that first class and as we did 50 slow push-ups on our knuckles, he talked steadily. We would go halfway down and he would pause us to make our muscles scream. I was used to heavy work-outs, doing 160 sit-ups, 200 push-ups and my 9 minute mile and a half every day, but this work-out was exhausting! I made another mental note.
After about a week of adjusting to this new form of combative art, sparring day arrived. Digging around in my bag, I pulled out my bamboo-reinforced equipment much to the consternation of my fellow students, who were wearing the latest cloth-covered neoprene gear. Conrad inspected my gear and pronounced it serviceable and asked me whom I would like to spar. Now, I’d never been accused of being shy when it came to being a smart-mouth, so if I remember correctly, I sparred his black belts and top students in rapid succession totally 5 strong men and taking ten minutes of non-stop action. I did okay, I thought and feeling rather cocky I proclaimed the only person I wanted to spar next was Conrad himself.
You could have heard a nunchucka made of balsa wood drop, as I faced the man with the peregrine falcon eyes. He said, “You want to spar me”? “Yes”. “Okay”. I’m told Baytown martial artists have recalled this act of extreme act of temerity, stupidity and arrogance for years and recently while retelling it, someone said “Oh, so you were the guy, eh”? We shared a laugh.
The ‘old man’ and I squared off in usual Karate duel fashion and to make a long story shorter, I flailed about like the spastic no-skilled fighter I truly was, never touching the ghost-like image of Conrad Pickens, as he made an absolute fool of me in front of his students. First my legs went and finally I couldn’t hold up my arms and then came a surprise left punch, which flattened my solar plexus. I dropped like a 170-pound blob of boneless flab onto the mat, helpless to defend myself against this…old man? “Get up”! “I can’t”, I wheezed. “Had enough”? “Yeth”.
This was the day I learned humility from an old man.
© Bert Marshall 9/8/2006
4 comments:
Humility is important.
Thanks for that post.
I trained under Conrad Pickens for years. I was there when you were there. I can tell you that you are right. Conrad did not really want to train young people. The first night I was there he dropped me to the carpet with a front kick. He told me years latter that he never expected to see me again after that night but I was sitting in front of the school the next day when he arrived. I ultimately received my Black Belt after more than five years of continuous training. I am honored to be one of Conrad's Black Belts because he did not turn out very many of them. He just did not care about keeping students by advancing them through the belts in order to keep them interested. Conrad was a father figure for me and will always be a good friend.
Conrad is my uncle, he was in the hospital with my mother the day I was born, he was her coach along with his wife, and they actually drove her to the hospital. This article made me smile and tear up at the same time. I have never taken any type of martial art but I admire my uncle Conrad so much, he is an amazing man and I am so grateful that he has been able to touch so many people's lives. Thank you to the author of this article, I would have liked to see him take you down! Im sure it was a sight to see.
Conrad was one of my very first teachers, and the first man I met when I stepped in the door of the old Karate Incorporated dojo on San Pedro street in Albuquerque. He was a great teacher, a wily opponent,and a true man of Zen with a deep sense of kindness and a wry sense of humor. I was deeply saddened to hear of his passing. Rest well, Conrad, I will never forget you. :)
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