| Teaching from learning experiences
By Pat Healy Craig Craig has always tried to turn everything into a learning experience, and then turn each learning experience into a teaching experience. “If you learn something and master it, you should pass your knowledge around,” he said, echoing the words of an influential sergeant in his life and applying it to the new dojo he has just opened on School Street, Craig’s Kempo Karate Academy. Craig certainly has a lot of different experiences from which to draw. A former U.S. Army Airborne Ranger, paramedic and IT network administrator, he has always come back to his love of karate. His first learning experience came when he was born, with the slightly unusual name he was given. “It’s my real name,” he said of the fact that his first and last names are the same, “and it really gave drill sergeants and bullies in school a whole bunch of ammunition.” After his experience in the Army, where he served in Panama, the black belt Belmont resident abandoned karate temporarily to commit himself to helping people as a paramedic, which he said after four years became very draining. “Being a paramedic wears on your soul, “he said, “It’s helping people, but it’s sick people, and it’s the real downside of society.” After a shoulder injury as a paramedic he decided he had enough, so he turned to the burgeoning IT field. “I decided to go into the IT field because computers don’t lie and they don’t overdose on drugs,” he said. It was during this time, when he was rehabilitating from his shoulder injury that he returned to practicing martial arts. He said couldn’t lift weights because that would hurt his shoulder. After he was laid off when the tech boom went bust, Craig said he realized he wanted to open a karate school because the most rewarding aspects of his other careers were when he was helping others. As an Airborne Ranger he taught martial arts to others in his unit, and as a paramedic he taught CPR, and he also had experience as a baseball coach. He chose Watertown because, although there are already a few karate schools in the area, there was a sense of community he really liked. “I want to stay here for a while,” he said. “There’s a pizza shop next to me, Arsenal Pizza, and some of my students have been going there for as long as they can remember. The families grow up and they’ll take their kids. That’s what I want. I want to be here and be part of the neighborhood.” Craig said for the variety of Kempo karate he teaches, he combines all the best elements from almost every program he has been a part of. Kempo blends the fluidity of Kung Fu, the five animals of Kung Fu, the hardness of Karate blocks, and the hand techniques of Jujitsu. Craig also adds some elements he picked up from Boy Scouts. When students are preparing to graduate to the next belt, their parents have to sign a slip saying that their child has been respecting them, respecting his or his siblings and not using what they learn for the wrong purposes. Slips are also sent to teachers. “They’re here and they’re studying this thing, but they’re a reflection of my school,” he said of his younger students. “When they leave and go out into the community I want to make sure that when I’m teaching them how to punch and kick and how to fight, they’re not going around abusing that.” Alex Yildiz, a Watertown resident is in the middle of his second lesson. As he masters the concept of the eight-point block, he errs slightly. “It’s not how many times you make mistakes, but how many times you correct your mistakes,” says Craig, coaching him. Yildiz gets it right the next time. Vatche Chamlin, also of Watertown watches his friend, while he contemplates enrolling in a class himself. In the front room a bubbling fountain calms all who enter. “We’re not fighting here, we’re training,” Craig tells Yildiz. It is the fighting aspect of karate that Craig is constantly trying to avoid. The way martial arts were used in the Army, he said was offensive, not defensive. It was karate, but without the traditional aspects that he enjoys. “We train here so we don’t have to fight. I teach this so people can have confidence, self-respect and be able to walk away,” he said. |
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