Going distance for black belt

High school athletics have always been about competition. From football to track and field, the name of the game will forever be wins and losses, and who has the best statistics. These circumstances created a dilemma for Northwest Whitfield’s Adrian Buttenhoff.

“I was looking for a sport, but I wasn’t really big into team sports,” Buttenhoff said. “I needed an alternative.”

So, three years ago as a freshman, Buttenhoff decided to take up karate at Mickey Brock’s Tenchi Goju Ryu Budokai school. Goju Ryo is a type of karate that originated in Okinawa, Japan.

Brock explains why people like Buttenhoff, who isn’t a big fan of team sports, would be drawn to karate.

“In karate, no one sits on the bench,” Brock said. “Everyone participates and everyone gets the chance to improve.”

Buttenhoff’s parents, Dena and Alan, also decided to take up karate. Now, after a few years climbing the ranks at Brock’s school, all three Buttenhoffs are about to earn their black belts.

Earning a black belt is an incredible honor within itself. But the Buttenhoffs and a few more select students will get the opportunity late next month to test for their black belts in Okinawa during the International Okinawan Goju Ryu Karate Federation’s World Budosai, an extensive training and testing event that takes place once every four years.

When Adrian Buttenhoff got the news she would be traveling to Okinawa, she was ecstatic.

“I started bouncing off the walls,” she said.

For Buttenhoff, karate filled the athletic void of left by not playing team sports. Her father signed up for different reasons.

“It’s different for each person,” Alan said. “For me, I was always competitive. I played high school and college tennis and I’ve always liked to have people pushing me to stay in shape. I was looking for something new, and karate was something that was physically challenging.”

Dena Buttenhoff teaches fitness classes at the Bradley Wellness Center and said Brock’s school has helped bring her family closer to other families within the community.

“This particular school has several families that belong,” Dena said. “You get to know people better and on a different level. And everybody there is happy to help one another. We’ve grown closer.”

Amy and Laura Tolliver, of Dalton, will also be making the trip to the Far East. They’re both in college now, with Laura a junior at Dalton State and Amy a sophomore at the University of Georgia. The two began taking karate and will train for their second degree black belts.

Very few students who earn their black belt get to do so in Okinawa in front of an international panel that includes Morio Higaonna Sensei, one of the most revered masters of Goju Ryu in the world. But because Laura Tolliver and the rest of Brock’s students are on pace to earn their black belts this summer, their timing allows them to be a part of the international experience.

Laura Tolliver jumped at the chance to go to Okinawa.

“I think this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” she said. “We’re going to the land of karate, where our art came from. It will be wonderful. I’m not sure if this opportunity will come around for me again, so I’m glad to be able to share the experience with my sister and all of the others.”

July’s World Budosai ceremonies will be especially sentimental because this year marks the 120-year anniversary of the birth of Chojun Miyagi, the founder of Goju Ryu who passed away in 1953. There are only two men alive who trained with Miyagi: Anichi Miyagi and Schuichi Aragaki. Both will be at next month’s event.

Though Brock has been to Okinawa before, this is the first time he’ll be taking students to be graded for their black belts. He’s looking at how his students perform as a direct reflection of his teachings.

“I will have no say in the grading process,” Brock said. “They either meet or do not meet the standards. But I would not invite them to be tested if they weren’t ready.”

Brock’s students are well prepared, according to Adrian Buttenhoff.

“We did a run through of the Okinawa test for our last belt test,” she said. “So we know what to expect. It’s a little different from past tests in that it’s more group-oriented and a little more physically demanding.”

The tests in Okinawa are different because they go beyond grading the student’s karate technique. The students will also have to take written exams and will be tested on Japanese vocabulary terms.

The students are feeling the pressure to succeed.

“I think all of us will feel the pressure to do our best,” Laura Tolliver said. “We all know we have to be better than yesterday to be ready to do this, and always be improving.”

Pressure aside, the trip will be fun for Dena Buttenhoff.

“No matter what, we will enjoy the experience,” she said.

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Local karate students head to Okinawa for tests in July

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