Participate In Karate

Basketball was a new experience to me a few years ago, but i never realized I was going to love it. When I was younger, I’ve always wanted to play the sport of basketball, and I got my opportunity to play when I was in fifth grade at Monte Vista Elementary.

I found my love for athletic activity at a young age. When I was 7 years old, I was enrolled in a YMCA summer program in Michigan. That is where it all started. My summer days were filled with various sport activities. Unfortunately, when I moved to California at the age of 10, I stopped playing sports for at least a year. However, during the rest of elementary school, throughout middle school, and in high school, I played different sports to figure out which one I liked best, which is now, Track & Field.

What is karate? How do you define karate? I believe all martial artists ask themselves this, but there is no definitive answer: karate can be of many things. It can be a sport, an extra-curricular, a hobby, a way to exercise, and so much more. To me, karate has been a very influential part of my life. Some may be surprised because I didn't say karate is the way of life or karate is life. I believe life consists of multiple things but life wouldn't be life to me without karate.

Currently I am in cross country, basketball, and track, but I have done many other sports in the past. I joined the cross country team in 8th grade in hopes of finding a new passion. I fell in love with running and decided to join the track team that same year. Basketball is a different story; I joined in 3rd grade just because my parents signed me up as most sports go when you're younger, and I struggled greatly with learning and understanding the game. I spent long summers training in my yard trying to get better. This determination helped me significantly when it became time for tryouts, as I ended up making the higher team. To this day I still have a lot of determination when it comes to sports and most things in

Soccer led to days sitting in the park talking about our futures, bike rides to the beach, and nights of mischief. Around the same time I started playing and watching basketball. I remember watching Kobe Bryant play in the 2009 NBA Finals against the Boston Celtics and thinking I want to try that move, hoist a trophy, have a crowd cheer for me. There has always been a sense of energy I got from playing in front of people which can be attributed to my competitiveness. Regardless, the only people that I cared about watching me were my parents. My father was always working and my mother also working among taking care of my younger sisters and I. That is until my championship game with the boys and girls club in 6th grade. I vividly remember my dad waving to me as we started the game and although we lost I was never happier. Basketball gave me a reason to smile. There were countless nights of trash talk and one on one games with people who were my rivals, rivals that are now my closest

It just seems like it would be natural for me to begin playing organized basketball at an early age, but I did not other than the rough and tumble playground ball at recess. I began to yearn to play on a real team, and soon I would have my chance. It was the summer before the sixth grade, and I managed to talk my father into purchasing me a basketball and my mother into purchasing the rim. We put the rim up onto the shed and I began practicing.

Sports have always been a major part of my life. Since the beginning, I have always been involved in some type of sport. I am the middle child of two boys, so i wasn’t exactly “girly”, I was mainly considered a “tomboy.” I tried gymnastics, but it just wasn’t my thing, I stuck to a bat and a ball. Growing up there wasn’t a time when you wouldn’t find my brothers and I, or my dad and I outside throwing pitch. We all played baseball/softball, so it was kinda our thing just to go out and play a game of wiffle ball.

My entire family is an athletic family, everyone did or does sports. However, I never really enjoyed sports to the extent that my family did. I tried to find something I had a passion for, but didn't really find anything until I was in 5th grade. A time that I was open to growth was my entire time in Phoenix Boys Choir.

In elementary school I had stopped playing soccer because I hated running and I was unwilling to play any other sport my parents would ask me to try. Basketball and baseball seemed to have too many rules and were too complicated for me. At the end of the school year we would always get a flyer to join the Haymaker Swim Team. I hated this flyer because my mom would ask me every year to join the team and every year I said no. I was too nervous and unsure about joining a team with new people and experiences.

My parents would try to force me to do sports and I never had any interest in doing them. All my life and growing up I haven’t been the most active person I think that is why I never did any sports that were big team sports, or sports that had a lot of running. So the first sport I actually played was golf. I was seven years old and took lessons every week and eventually became very good. I stopped playing for about four years and took up cheerleading I kind of lost interest in golf so I stopped playing. I did cheer for four years, and I loved it. I was never really good at the tumbling part of cheer, so I eventually stopped doing it. I took tumbling lessons and tried my hardest, but it just wasn’t working out for me. That was right before middle school was starting, and there were no more teams for me to join anyways. That is when my love for golf had snuck its self back into my life. I started practicing almost everyday and found a new pro to take lessons from. I played at my high school El Dorado and was on the varsity team. I still play for fun now, I love how easy it is to go buy a bucket of balls at the driving range and just relax and not have to think about anything. Golf has taught me a

The words strong and me don’t go in sentences together. I have no arm muscles can barely lift anything so, no I don’t lift bro. So it might be surprising to hear that I am in fact a black belt in karate. The day that I asked our teacher if I should share my story about being in karate I was taken back when she asked if it was a part of who I was because I kinda just grew up with it. It didn’t phase me that It didn't seem like I did karate. I mean when you think about it I am a skinny small weak girly female who comes off more as a dancer if you ask me. I did dance too but it wasn't really the same as karate. In our dojo I met so many friends and we were almost like family as opposed to dance where I was among intimidating strangers.

Firstly, I believe that I have developed the qualities of being determined through doing Karate and achieving my black belt after six years which has furthermore developed my patience and I have implemented these into my school life to show I am resolute in improving myself.

In middle school, I played on the high school JV basketball team and was pulled up to Varsity in ninth grade. Basketball had always been a fairly large part of

I have been playing sports for my entire life. I have been a soccer player, tennis player, and a swimmer. I played soccer for 1 year at a team that is no longer a team. I swam for eight years, but only three years competitively. I played tennis when I was four, for about two years, but then I broke my collar bone so I quit.

In basketball I started in 5th grade which, at the time, seemed later than a lot of the people i knew. I never really saw myself as a good player especially when i