Karate Mama! By Kate Gostick
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s an over weight, uncoordinated, mother of three, young sons, with a bad back, a husband who works away from home and a chest which no undergarment has yet managed to control during a dogo jog, I was not the ideal candidate for black belt excellence. I’ve never been a natural athlete.
loved them so I decided to give it a go, but didn’t expect to last more than a few months. During my introductory lesson with Sansay Jason, a smily chap with a lot of enthusiasm, I just felt ridiculous. I was so uncoordinated I even struggled with the jab cross. As Jason and I pranced around with the occasional, “hiya” I dreaded my first proper class.
had learnt. My husband, Dominic, started to dread my return as he would be relaxing on the sofa and would be greeted with a, “Can you just strangle me against the wall?” or, “Would you mind just mounting me so I can see if I can buck and roll someone your size?”. Begrudgingly he always obliged as long as he didn’t have to turn off the rugby match he was watching.
At age seven I was expelled from ballet as my lack of coordination apparently put off the other girls in the class. At school I was always the one left when people were picking teams and after several collisions in various aerobics classes, when I bounced off in the opposite direction to everyone else, I came to the conclusion that I should just give up on fitness.
During that first class I never looked in the mirror once. It was bad enough everyone else seeing how terrible I was without it being reinforced by a mirror! I longed for it to end. As I gathered up my things and attempted to make a quick get away someone came up to me to ask if I had enjoyed the class. I said I knew I was terrible and didn’t think I would come for long, but everyone just encouraged me and each week I improved a little bit more.
It was hard to juggle the needs of my kids and my need to go to class. If they had school the next day it seemed unfair to keep them up too late. Then I got glandular fever and had to stop going to class for six months while I got better and even when I went back my energy levels still weren’t what they were.
After the birth of Henry my blood pressure never really went back to normal from my pre eclampsia and my cholesterol was through the roof so I realised if I didn’t want to have a heart attack and I did want to be around for my grandchildren I needed to do something. Several friends had taken up karate classes at a local school and
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By the first belt test I was actually starting to enjoy myself and by the second belt test I was slightly dedicated, a little bit more motivated and definitely on a quest to do my best, even if that wasn’t quite as good as everyone else’s best. I would go home after class full of energy and excited at what I
LANCASHIRE & NORTH WEST MAGAZINE
So there were times when I wanted to quit, but I felt I would be letting people down. If I gave in what sort of example would that be to my kids? By this point I regularly partnered with Evelyn, a tiny Chinese woman who smelt fantastic which is really important when you spend most of the evening with your head in their armpit! Neither of us liked to work with anyone else, so I felt I would be letting her down.
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