I grew up watching Bruce Lee movies and Kung Fu the television series starring David Carradine. I was fascinated with the martial arts. No way my parents were going to let me study karate. When I was a senior in high school I signed up for evening karate classes at Fredonia State. They were inexpensive and taught by a SUNY student.

Sensei Jim was a macho jerk but I wanted to learn karate so badly I would have taken affordable classes from anyone. Jim the sensei jerk said I had real potential but I sure didn’t like his attitude. He bragged about how he worked as a bouncer at a local bar and how he beat up guys who were much bigger than him. The things that came out of his mouth sounded nothing like the lessons preached on the weekly TV series that I so loved.

Our karate sessions with Jim the jerk took place in a PE classroom in Dods Hall. There was a ballet class that was scheduled just prior to our karate classes. Jim the jerk and some of the other disrespectful macho martial artists would make unkind comments to the male ballet students as they left the classroom and we entered.

One evening, after Sensei Jim and his jerks had directed some homophobic slurs at the danseurs, an older gentleman interrupted our karate class and told Sensei Jim that he wanted to speak with him out in the hallway. In a very cocky voice Sensei Jim said in front of the whole class, “You’re not going to interrupt my class. I don’t even know who you are.” Quite a few of Jim’s jerks chuckled at our instructor’s statement. I recognized the man as the college’s athletic director. The AD said to the sensei, “I run this place and I will interrupt your class any damn time that I want.”

There wasn’t any chuckling to be heard as we listened to the AD dress down Sensei Jim and call him to account for his words and the words of Sensei Jim’s jerks. There were only a couple of weeks left in the semester. We were allowed to finish up our classes and test for our belts but Sensei Jim never taught martial arts at FSUC again after that. My martial arts instruction would be placed on hold for half a decade.

Five years later I was regularly lifting weights at what used to be the YMCA on Central Avenue. One evening I was leaving the gym and I saw this physically imposing guy walking in wearing white gi. The next day there were signs on the weight room walls advertising karate classes in one of the racquetball courts.

Sensei Mark was about 6-foot-2 and weighed about 220 pounds. When I sat in on a class I was impressed not only with his physical stature but also by his martial arts skills. Mark was much more humble and respectful than Jim the Jerk and I liked him right away. Soon I was lifting weights three days a week and taking karate classes with Sensei Mark three days a week.

Mark was a better teacher than Jim but he was much more demanding and much rougher. I soon became Sensei Mark’s #1 student. His Sempei.

With that came a lot of bruises, a few black eyes and one time even a half dozen stitches over my right eye. Looking back on it, Mark beat me up way more than he taught me karate. But I didn’t mind. I liked Mark and I was learning the martial arts. Just like I had always wanted to do.

After a couple of years of training with Mark, I realized that he had a substance abuse problem and some other demons. Quite often Sensei Mark would not show up for class. He told me that when he didn’t make lessons that it was my job as Sempei to teach the class. I enjoyed teaching. That’s what I do. But when the owner of the gym started asking me where Mark was and asking me for the rent money for the racquetball court, I knew we were in trouble.

I had a talk with Mark. We changed locations. He started showing up for class regularly. Things were good again for a while. But soon Mark was back missing class and the owner of our new location started asking me where Mark was and asking me about rent money. Just as bad, other students and I had given Mark money for equipment and training manuals and we were still waiting for them months later. After Mark got into a scuffle at a bar and resisted arrest, fighting with police and kicking out the rear window of a squad car, he just disappeared.

I felt badly for Sensei Mark. I also felt relieved in a way. It was so hard dealing with the let downs and the disappointment. Mostly I couldn’t understand how a man with such physical and mental talents and such self discipline could succumb to substance abuse. Unfortunately that is something that I see all too often in others and still wonder about to this day.

About a year later I saw an ad in the OBSERVER for karate lessons in the Russo building. After what happened with Mark and Jim, I was a bit cautious as I headed down the stairs and into the basement of the Russo building to check out a free lesson. The instructor was an outgoing and friendly kid who looked to be quite younger than I am. There was something familiar about him. The trial lesson went well and I decided to sign up for a month.

As my new Sensei and I talked after that first lesson, I looked at the name embroidered on his blackbelt. Norm Yonkers. This kid was in the ninth grade Algebra class that I student taught at Jamestown High School. I remembered Norm as a quiet, respectful and hard working student. The teacher was now the student and the student was now the teacher.

Sensei Norm is much younger than I am and a bit smaller than I was at the time. I figured he could teach me karate and we could work out together. But after all I had learned from Sensei Mark, I didn’t think Sensei Norm would be able to best me in sparring. I soon realized after our first sparring session that Sensei Mark had mostly taught me how to take a beating. Sensei Norm kicked my ass.

That was the beginning of a more than 30-year friendship that continues to this day. A few years after starting my martial arts training with Sensei Norm Yonkers, I got a phone call out of the blue from Sensei Mark. He wanted to get together and work out. I don’t know if I could have bested Sensei Mark in sparring when he was in shape and when he was in his prime. When we got together for that workout, Mark was neither in shape nor in his prime.

When we sparred that evening, I bloodied Mark’s nose and literally beat the snot out of him. Not because of any malice. I still liked Mark. I just wanted to show him what I had learned from Sensei Norm over the years. Mark told me that he was proud of me. He asked me if I wanted to start up a karate school with him. I told him no thanks. Third time was the charm. I had found the best Sensei I was going to find.

I was Sensei Norm’s first blackbelt student. My children studied karate with Norm. I have recommended Norm as a martial arts instructor to scores of families over the years. He is a good man and an excellent teacher. When the legendary Coach Fogarty retired as the P.E. teacher at Northern Chautauqua Catholic School, I needed just the right person to replace him.

Sensei Norm was the first person I called. Norm Yonkers, just one of the many wonderful teachers that make NCCS such a special place.

Andrew Ludwig is a retired math teacher and a retired public school and Catholic school administrator. He currently works as a substitute teacher in Chautauqua County.