The News Herald (Willoughby, OH)
WITHSTANDING THE TEST OF TIME
6 martial arts students emerge after intense black-belt exam
It’s one thing to strike a pose. But to hold it for more than an hour and a half on a sandy, pebblestrewn Lake Erie beach in the wee hours of the morning is an entirely different matter.
That’s exactly what six intrepid souls did on June 23 as part of their black belt examination through Madison Combined Martial Arts Association. And that was just the warm-up.
Under the tutelage of Shihan (Japanese for Master Instructor) Richard Fike, five men and one woman, ranging in age from 16 to 38, passed through a door few dare to even approach, after years and years of hard work, training, discipline and commitment.
When Fike explains the significance of the examination, it’s clear he’s not just handing out Mcblackbelts. He’s helping to shape the minds, bodies — and lives — of the elite few students who take on what he describes as this
“This test is a very physical, mental and spiritual examination." — Richard Fike, Master Instructor
life-changing challenge.
“Oh, sure, you can go to some schools and train for a year or two, move up through the ranks and get a black belt,” he said in a June 21 phone interview. “But that’s not the way we do it.”
In a June 20 email to The News-Herald, Fike explained that each of the six students who tested June 23 “have been working for this test for over a year, following over seven years of intense training.”
But, to Fike, the test is all about the journey it took to get there, not just the black belt each participant earns at the end of the — very long — day.
“This test is a very physical, mental and spiritual examination,” Fike writes. “What makes this interesting is the dedication the candidates have displayed, especially the younger test students.”
He elaborated over the phone June 21.
“There’s a lot of negativity in the world today,” he said. “More people need to realize that you don’t just give up. And, in a day when it’s so easy for young people to just sit down and play video games, and not have to say ‘yes, sir’ and ‘yes, ma’am,’ etcetera, that there are organizations that still demand that kind of respect from their constituents.”
The “young people” who took the June 23 exam are 16-year-olds Tyler Cahill, who lives in Austinburg Township, and Geneva Township resident Ryan Downie, along with 17-year-old Rio Caya, who hails from Madison Township.
But the test, which lasts some 20 hours, was also a monumental event for the three elder brown belts who took part: 32-year-old Painesville resident Josh Dean, 38-year-old John William “Billy” Montgomery, a Madison Township resident, and Klint Tomlinson, who travels all the way from Pataskala — south of Columbus — to train at Fike’s dojo.
Fike said the kind of dedication
these “Despicable 6,” as they’ve dubbed themselves, display is becoming less common every day. But those who do, he said, are able to meet whatever challenges life throws their way.
“In a world of continued problems and issues, we still have individuals that will work hard and tackle challenges that will ultimately lead them to success in life,” Fike said.
When asked how they felt around 4:15 a.m. June 23, before leaving the dojo at 18 W. Main St. in Madison Village to assume the Kiba Dachi (or horse stance) for what wound up being an hour and 42 minutes, the most popular answer was somewhere between “good” and “nervous.”
From the sidelines, one mom said she had nothing but confidence in her son’s ability to pass the test, however rigorous it might be. And she knows all about determination, considering she and her son have been making the 3 1/2-hour trip from Pataskala every week for about six years now.
“No. It’s not your average drive,” said Kathee Tomlinson, Klint’s mom. “But he’s very dedicated and that’s why we do it.”
She said her son has been active in the martial arts since he was 6, has tried a variety of programs and finally found a home at Madison Combined Martial Arts Association.
“Someone had recommended (MCMAA) to him and, until then, he never found a discipline that had his heart,” she said. “This, though, is a really good fit for him.”
She said he plans to open his own dojo in Columbus and that she’s as proud of him as if he’d just earned an advanced collegiate degree.
“It’s like he’s getting his master’s degree,” she said. “I’m as proud as if her was walking with his PhD.”
Throughout the day June 23, each of the six black-belt candidates were subjected to the rigors of what Fike says has become known as the toughest test in the U.S., possibly the most rigorous of which was the 1,500-plus push-ups each student has to do throughout the day.
When asked how he was feeling around hour 12, Dean said “I’m still here.” And when asked about the toughest part of the day, he replied: “It’s the overwhelming amount of pushups.”
But he still wore a smile and answered this reporter’s questions in a polite, attentive manner.
And that’s what this exam is designed to do: test a student’s mind, body and spirit, Fike said. He added that it’s not just about fighting. It’s not just about physical exercise. It’s more wholistic than that.
Dean seemed to sum it up well.
“I think a lot of people who look at something they don’t understand focus on the movement,” he said of the outward appearance of people practicing a martial art. “But there’s so much more to it than that. When you see a Karate practice guys throwing each other around and using different techniques, etcetera, what you’re not seeing is the is the deep meaning they’re bringing into it.”
He said it’s the training, the self discipline and the mental and physical journey each student makes to get to wherever he or she is within the martial art that makes him or her a better, more well-rounded person. Just ask Michele Caya, Rio’s mom. She said she watched her daughter go from the kid at daycare all the other kids would pick on to a confident, disciplined young woman with her eyes set on the U.S. Naval Academy and “a huge level of confidence.”
Likewise, Tyler Cahill’s mom, Patricia — a MCMAA-trained black-belt, herself — said she’s watched her son change for the better through his involvement there.
“He used to be really hard on himself when he did something wrong,” she said, as Tyler worked on another set of 50 push-ups. “He’s learned to be able to not win and be OK, and to be happy for other people when they win. That’s a huge change — and they teach that here. They all really encourage each other.”
One thing that became apparent as they day wore on is how tightly knit this group is. Besides working out in the dojo, its members see movies, go on camping trips and just go through life together.
“I just enjoy being here,” Montgomery said just after the nearly two-hour Kiba Dachi marathon at the beach. “It’s good camaraderie. We train hard. But that’s just part of it. We do a lot of different stuff together — not just the physical stuff. We attend to the mind, the body and the spirit. We get together for camping trips, movie nights or just to hang out and talk. Some nights, we might not even train. We might just come in and talk about what’s going on in our lives, what we might need help with. It’s like any other family. We help each other out.”