Karate and the lifting weights were really popular in my neighborhood when I was in high school.

There were two groups in my neighborhood. The kids who really knew karate and the ones who pretended to know. There was only about 3 kids I can remember that actually had professional training. One was a black belt.

All of us wanted to know karate. It was like we had no idea there were other forms of martial arts. All we knew a very very little bit about was Karate, and we all were fascinated.

It was this older man that used to teach Karate that would show neighborhood kids different karate moves. He was really good at teaching pressure points and choke holds. It was little kids all over the neighborhood that knew choke holds and different pressure point's to hit you in. Almost every kid in the neighborhood went to him at least once so he could show you how to do a simple Karate move. Almost every kid, my mom made me stay as far away from him as possible. I just heard stories and he lived a few blocks away so I saw him all the time. Apparently he had developed a drinking problem, that's how he lost his job and thats why he was teaching little kids choke holds and karate moves in his front yard for free.

The kid that was a black belt was way more interesting than the Ex Karate teacher. His name was Donnie and he seemed like Bruce Lee to us. He was 16, he wore these big glasses and his grandmother made him always dress up for everything.The kids said he looked like a nerd. The nerd look fooled everyone all the time. I can't really describe his skills,but just imagine a highly skilled teenage ninja. He had been taking Karate lessons since he was 4 years old. He was very disciplined and serious about Karate. I can recall almost every kid in our neighborhood getting into some kind of altercation, never Donnie. He wasn't feared because he was such a nice laid back person, he was respected because everyone knew what he was capable of.

Lifting weights was a entire different thing. Everyone could lift weights. Even I started lifting weights. I wasn't doing it to be strong. We all lifted weights so much because there was nothing else all of us could do together that was kind of like sports. I wasn't good at any sport, but I could lift weights. We all looked like very miniature bodybuilders all through highscool.

At all the other high schools except ours had a weight lifting class. The students learned how to lift weights properly. I knew some kids that took that class throughout high school.

The summer between my 9th and 10th grade year I think I gained like 30 pounds of muscle. All the weight lifting made me really hungry, I could eat a large pizza alone. I was only about 5'4 135 in the 9th grade. Came back 10th grade year not much taller 5'5 , but way bigger 165. It was ok at first but I didn't like it because people assumed I wanted to fight or I was getting prepared for a fight. I shed all that weight a year later.

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