This coming new year, 2023, will mark some significant milestones. Most importantly, it will be National Karate’s 50th anniversary which was founded in 1973! And I walked into National Karate 10 years later so 2023 marks my 40th anniversary of my martial arts training.
Often, I have people ask me why I joined karate and what was it like back then. So, over the next few months I thought it would be fun to share some of those memories.
My Martial Arts Journey
Mr. Nelson at 16 Years
My martial arts journey started in 1983 when I was 16 years old. The popular movies at that time were Risky Business starring Tom Cruise and Star Wars Return of the Jedi.
As a kid and a young teen, I had always been involved in sports. My best sports were baseball and basketball and in the winters, I also played pick up hockey at the local ice rink every day after school as did most kids in Minnesota.
But I was a late bloomer and didn’t grow until after high school. This was a problem for sports as I went to a big high school that had a very competitive sports environment. By my sophomore year I found myself too small and not good enough to make the sports teams anymore and I got cut from the baseball team. When I got cut from the baseball team, I thought it was the worst thing that could have ever happened to me, but in reality, it was the best thing that could have happened. It was a blessing in disguise – I just didn’t know it yet. Failure isn’t always a bad thing, usually it’s an opportunity for growth. It either makes you work harder or makes you change directions to find something you’re better at. For me it was both.
When I got cut from the baseball team, I didn’t want to be done with sports, so I started looking for a sport where it didn’t matter that I hadn’t hit my growth spurt yet. I considered wrestling because you compete by weight and it didn’t matter that I wasn’t a big guy. I also learned that karate competes by weight. I had a friend who was a three sport athlete and also did martial arts and he told me I should join karate with him. I didn’t know much about martial arts except what I saw from Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee movies, but it looked pretty cool. So, I decided to give it a try and I loved it! Karate put sports back in my life and it started to give me my confidence back. And the rest is history.
Now at that time karate was not a mainstream sport like it is today. Not many people did martial arts and it was not for the faint of heart. Children did not do karate. This was one year before the movie The Karate Kid changed all of that but when I walked into the karate school in 1983 it was mostly males aged 16 to 30 kicking the crap out of each other. National Karate was hanging on to the last remnants of the “Blood and Guts” era of American martial arts where it was believed to be an authentic martial arts school you needed to regularly inflict a beating on your students. It was hard core and the instructors never considered “retention”. The idea never occurred to them that if you don’t hurt your students, you might keep more clients and make more money. All the instructors were “bad a$$e$” and tough guys and consequently they didn’t make a lot of money.
Young Cris Nelson in Karate Class
My parents were not supportive of the idea of joining karate. Both of my parents were teachers and very skilled musicians so when I told them that I wasn’t playing the saxophone anymore and I was joining karate they were very disappointed. My dad shook his head and told me I’d get my nose broken (he was right).
Martial arts are so mainstream now that it’s almost hard to imagine, but in 1983 it was at best considered an “extreme sport” like motocross and at worst was considered a pretty “out there” activity. But I recognized something special about the discipline and the mental toughness that it took to be a martial artist, and as a young man that really appealed to me. Of course, there is a competition side of martial arts if you choose to compete in tournaments, which I really like, and value. I learned so much from my years of sport karate competition. But more importantly, at the core of this sport is the idea that you compete against yourself. You get out of it what you put in and you don’t get cut from the team. Martial arts are like the American dream… if you work hard enough you can come from nothing and achieve great things! I still wanted to achieve great things so the dream of earning a Black Belt was born.
“Old School” Training Was Hard On the Body
As I mentioned earlier this was the tail end of the “Blood and Guts Era” of martial arts.
Mr. Nelson testing for Black Belt 1987
There were no facemasks, no rib guards, and no padded floors. Sparring was not like it is today where we practice “controlled contact”. Every sparring class and every exam was like a real fight. I’ve had my nose broken 5 times, endured several displaced ribs, I’ve been hit in the jaw so many times that I’ve had the cartilage displaced from my jaw causing TMJ so that I have to wear two dental mouth guards when I sleep. I have bone spurs in my neck that cause me pain every day and my arches in my feet have fallen from the years of jumping and spinning on a non-padded concrete floor. I currently need a hip replacement from the years of pounding – just like all of the martial arts masters in National Karate who are above me in rank. (Grand Master Worley, Grand Master Carnahan, Master Jim Albertson and Master Scott Masterton.) The “old school” training methods were pretty hard on the body. I know some will say, “Oh I wish it was still hard core now like it was in the good old days”, but I’m here to tell you that it was NOT better. Our martial arts students today get so much more out of their training and gain so much more confidence and skill. It’s a shame how many students we ran off because of the beat downs who could have really benefited from our martial arts training. But again, that’s just the way it was back then. We did eventually come into the 21st Century with our training methods and our students are now the beneficiaries of the lessons we learned the hard way.
My Instructor – Scott Masterton
Scott Masterton Kickboxing Champion
Johnny from original Karate Kid
When I watch Cobra Kai on Netflix I have to laugh because the way Johnny Lawrence teaches is the way I was taught by my instructor Mr. Scott Masterton. He would beat you up, he would make fun of you, he was politically incorrect. Except, unlike Johnny Lawernce, Mr. Masterton wasn’t a dummy, he was an extremely intelligent and philosophical young man. He used to read Shakespeare for fun. He was also one of the best kickers in the history of martial arts and became a champion kickboxer that was feared by everyone. He was a real dichotomy; he could be warm and engaging, but when you would bow to spar, he would “see red” and you knew you were going to be in a fight. There was a lot you could learn from Scott Masterton… if you could survive the beatings.
The day I got my green belt Mr. Masterton asked me if I wanted to stick around after the exam and spar. In our system, green belt is the belt you first learn how to spar, so yes, this was my first sparring lesson. I thought, “Boy, I must be good if my instructor wants to spar me!” No. It was called “initiation” and it wasn’t pretty. Try as I might, I couldn’t even hit him. Not even once. I just got destroyed. This was how they let you know that “you’re not all that” and you have a lot to learn. It was a painful lesson. Literally.
When I was a blue belt Mr. Masterton broke my nose for the first time. Usually when I would fight Scott Masterton, I was so outclassed that I wouldn’t even land any kicks or punches. I would just move around for twenty minutes like a human punching bag absorbing blows. But on this day, I actually hit him! I landed a spin backfist which is illegal in karate tournaments, but legal in kickboxing. Upon landing the technique I had a moment of sheer elation, but it quickly faded when I saw the look in his eyes. I knew I was going to pay a heavy price for my moment of success. He chased me across the room with a flurry of kicks and punches that I was surprisingly able to move, parry and block. It’s amazing what you can do when your life is hanging in the balance. I could hear the kicks whistling past my face missing me by only a millimeter or less. But my luck only lasted so long and soon I ran out of room to run. Finally, as I was trapped in the corner, he threw one of his signature hook-kicks that I was able to evade but then he followed up with a left cross to my nose. I heard the bones crunch and saw a lot of blood. Mr. Masterton stopped and said, “Your nose is broken. Come with me.” For a moment I thought he felt sorry for me and was going to give me medical care. But no, he brings me out to the lobby where people were starting to gather for the next class and announces, “Hey everyone! Look at Nelson’s nose! Doesn’t he look stupid!” And then he left to go finish his workout. Of course, now we are very close friends and I love him. But back then, not so much.
And then there were the mirrors. Scott Masterton had such a strong side kick that he could literally kick you across the room with one kick and he thought it fun to kick his sparring partners into the nearest wall. Many times, I would be in the office that shared a wall with the classroom explaining a program to a potential student when you would hear a loud “slam” and all the plaques would fall off the wall onto my new customer. Of course, it was Scott Masterton on the other side of the wall kicking some poor sap into the wall. But walls were not the only thing to get damaged. Our classroom had mirrors on one wall and windows on two walls and on a regular basis Mr. Masterton would kick someone through a window or break a mirror. I imagine it was an expensive endeavor for Grand Master Worley to constantly be replacing windows and mirrors. I would be gripped with fear when I would have to make the dreaded phone call to Master Worley to let him know that we had another broken mirror. I never offered who broke the mirror, I just told him one had been broken. But every time he would say, “Did Scott break another mirror?” and I would hold the phone away from my ear as he would vent his frustration with Mr. Masterton. But he never really disciplined him for it, he knew that was just the way “karate guys” were back then.
Of course, since that time Mr. Masterton has become enlightened to the fact that students will actually learn more and gain more confidence if you don’t beat them up and use a modicum of control. I wish he would have felt that way 40 years ago. But at least it makes for some good stories. :-)
That’s it for now. Perhaps I will have a few more memories for next month. Until then, Happy Training!
Sincerely,
Cristian Nelson
As a special event to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of National Karate, we will be having my instructor, Kickboxing Champion Scott Masterton coming to your National Karate School to teach a sparring seminar! Ask your instructor for details.
[Click to watch Scott Masterton Fight]
