Tom O’Brien, left, with Dunbar dojo (karate club) teacher Jonathan Greenstein. O’Brien recently became the toast of the Dunbar club by achieving his second-degree black belt at age 83.
By Carol Volkart
When 83-year-old Tom O’Brien went up against a 19-year-old in a karate grading demonstration last month, the results were as solid as a kick to the gut. Yikes! went the teenager as he hit the floor. Then Yikes! again.
O’Brien’s performance prompted his high-ranking Japan Karate Association examiners to award him a second-degree black belt, an extraordinary mark of achievement for someone of his age. It made him the hero of the Dunbar dojo, the karate club that’s operated out of the Dunbar Community Centre for the last three decades.
“It was an eye-opener for everyone at the seminar,” said the Dunbar club’s sensei (teacher) Jonathan Greenstein. “Tom was able to pass the exam not because he was 83, but totally on merit.” When O’Brien’s promotion was announced at dinner that evening, there was a collective swell of approval, Greenstein said.
“The next morning, people were telling me it was an inspiration – that there is no age limit for achievement in what we can do in karate.” O’Brien’s accomplishment was especially noteworthy, he added, because he’d suffered a serious groin injury the day before, but insisted on going ahead with the grading.
“It was a very, very good day for Dunbar karate,” said Greenstein. “We’re a small dojo comparatively speaking, but I sense we are turning heads and earning credibility from our peer dojos in Vancouver, and throughout the Lower Mainland. And after the Kelowna event, Western Canada as well.”
Greenstein attributed many of the Dunbar dojo’s recent achievements to his own sensei, ex-world champion Don Sharp of Chilliwack, who has a seventh-degree black belt. “He is a huge motivating force for us, integrating his Tokyo-honed techniques with an extraordinary grasp of up-to-date Shotokan karate, and how best to teach it to achieve world-class results.”
Greenstein didn’t do badly himself at the Japan Karate Association event, which brought Shotokan-style karate clubs from Western Canada to Kelowna on July 18-20. At age 68, and after taking a long sabbatical from karate, he was stepped up to third-degree black belt. “To me, it just means I can fly the flag for the dojo,” he said. “I’m 68, and here’s what I can still do.”
But the focus was on O’Brien, a small, white-haired man with a gentle demeanour and a propensity for a good joke. A bookbinder in England before he came to Canada and took up real estate, he doesn’t look like the “dangerous man in a fight” that Greenstein describes him as.
It’s part of the paradox of martial arts, which teaches ordinary folk “to become truly very dangerous” but also not to use it. Karate is a critical last resort only, said Greenstein. “If attacked, the first thing is to run, if that means successfully eliminating danger. Only if your back is against the wall do you resort to what you’ve learnt to defend yourself. This is the true meaning of self-defence, which is what we practice.”
Of the grading itself, O’Brien said he was so nervous that his mouth was dry and “I was in a bit of a blur. But once you start, you relax.”
O’Brien’s path to that remarkable grading in Kelowna began more than 30 years ago, when he took his son to a karate class. It wasn’t long before he was in the class too, and he just kept on, honing his skills year after year, at the Dunbar Community Centre.
“Tom is kind of an anomaly,” Greenstein said. “Obviously he has good genes, but the cumulative benefit from all the years of training has resulted in what he is today.”
O’Brien is also among a relatively small group who get to the black belt level, then keep going. Greenstein said that of every 10 people who start karate, possibly two will get their black belt, but only one is likely to continue climbing the black-belt ladder. “Many people aspire to a black belt, then stop once they achieve it,” he said. “But once you get to the first level of black belt, that’s where the karate journey starts.”
An Aug. 11 interview with O’Brien and Greenstein quickly developed into a discussion of the karate world they’re immersed in. It’s a world of discipline, thrice-weekly karate sessions, intense physical training, camaraderie, quiet humility, and strict rules, all overseen by a hands-on (literally) governing body in BC, Canada, and ultimately, the style’s headquarters in Tokyo.
“We are not expected to limit our learning to one room,” said Greenstein. “We extend our training into the world with self-awareness, control, respect, and discipline.” Those who founded karate ultimately wanted practitioners to be good people, he said, “to go out into the world and be a good person, a credit to their community.”
It’s a different focus than that of modern Western culture, he agreed. “In the West, we want to build big muscles, a six-pack, look imposing, look threatening.” Karate comes from a different culture, where demonstrations of ego are not front and centre. “Karate requires a perceptible amount of humility,” he said. “For many Westerners, that can be difficult.”
Those who are drawn to karate can become very committed, as O’Brien and Greenstein have shown through their years with the Dunbar dojo. Carmen Smith, a Dunbar resident who practised with them, but had to leave the dojo because of an injury, still comes to the community centre regularly to practice either on her own or with a small informal group.
“Camaraderie is central to the spirit of the dojo,” said Smith, who has a black belt herself. “It is such a mutually supportive community. I just love it.”
All three have seen how karate has affected people’s lives. They’ve seen the nervous and depressed gain confidence and change their attitudes. They’ve seen it help people going through hard times in their lives. While children are no longer allowed to practice with adults, when they were, they noticed how effective it was for children who had been bullied and lacked confidence. “We saw young kids come in afraid of their own shadows, and over time, they began to exude confidence, come out of their shell,” said Greenstein.
O’Brien and Greenstein are excited to see young people join the Dunbar dojo and blossom. There’s a 14-year-old girl right now who is wowing them as a very formidable fighter.
As for themselves, the longtime practitioners say they’ll just keep going.
“There is no end goal,” said Greenstein. “You impose your own. This is why we train until we drop.”
Jonathan Greenstein, left, and Tom O’Brien, who has been practising his karate moves at the Dunbar Community Centre for the last 30 years.
Jonathan Greenstein, left, got his third-degree black belt in July, while Tom O’Brien was moved up to second-degree.
Jonathan Greenstein, left, and Tom O’Brien in the field south of the Dunbar Community Centre. Greenstein is the teacher at the Dunbar dojo (karate club) there.