Karate Kids

One of the most unique aspects of the TRUCE Fitness and Nutrition center is the karate program they have established. As most of you CUSPers know, Geoffrey Canada is a black belt in martial arts. He feels that karate is a positive way to take the violence that children growing up in urban environments experience on a daily basis and control it. He teaches the kids that their body is a weapon that should not be taken lightly. Children as young as five years old are taught not only how to defend themselves from attackers, but also how to truly hurt those who threaten them. Geoff has handed the karate program over to a friend that he grew up with in the South Bronx, Charles William, but he goes by Aziz, or to his students, Sensai.

Aziz runs the karate room with strict discipline and control. He practices a philosophy of tough love with these kids, for he knows that when they are out on the street and living in the rough environment that they are in, babying them and coddling them will only hurt their chances of survival. My first day at HCZ, I watched as Aziz screamed at a 5 year old boy named Emanuel because he didn't know his routine. As I watched the tears stream down this young child's face, I thought this was the worst form of teaching I had ever seen. I thought about myself at the age of 5, about how I was timid and fearful and would never have responded well to being yelled at, but would've crawled into my mother's arms and cried and never come back to that karate class ever again. I left that day feeling that karate was not the answer, and if it was then Aziz's style of teaching was not the right way to get that answer. However, since that first day I have gotten to know Aziz, his personal struggles and his teaching philosophy. I have begun to see that although Emanuel cried in the classroom, the next time someone yells at him on the street or tries to mess with him on the playground, he will be prepared for those tears and he will be able to control them. He will have learned, at the young age of 5, how to control his emotions and harness his strength, and most importantly he will know how to defend himself from those attacks that are sure to frequent his life. It's a fine line to walk between teaching self defense and facilitating provocative violence, between tough love and coddling kids too much, and between preparing them early on for the realities of life in an urban environment and sheltering them for too long. I think that Aziz, despite my initial reactions to his rough teaching style, has found a balance that seems to work for his students. They learn to be assertive, to defend themselves, and to be respectful of authority and of their own power. Karate is much more than a sport to this community- it is a way of life.