Shotokan with Józef Rączka

I joined a local Shotokan karate 松濤館空手しょうとうかんからて 道場どうじょう in Rabka, Poland, when I was about thirteen, sometime in the mid-1980s, though I no longer remember the exact age.

Józef Rączka, my sensei 先生せんせい, was a friend of my father's, who left for the United States around that time.

Sensei Rączka's own surname is either a coincidence or destiny that I only appreciated years later: "rączka" is Polish for "little hand", the same root meaning as te 手て in Japanese.

Coincidentally, my name root "Luca", when spelled in Katakana as ルーカ, reads as "rū-ka", which sounds like the Slavic word ręka/рука for hand, though "Luca" etymologically comes from Greek "Loukas" and the region name Lucania, and is an unrelated root.

Back then, I think Sensei Rączka held the rank of fourth dan, 四段よんだん. I also remember a conversation about a medal at the European-level kata championship, but again, my memories are failing me.

As a boy, I did not know how much of Poland's karate history Sensei Rączka would represent.

Today, Sensei Rączka is recognized as 八段はちだん (eighth dan) and is among Europe's most respected traditional karate judges. He co-founded organized traditional karate in Poland. He was present in 1990 when the movement broke away to form its own national federation, tracing its technical roots through Hidetaka Nishiyama's Shotokan to what became known as Traditional Karate (Karate Tradycyjne). His base has always been my homeland: Rabka, the Podhale highlands, including Nowy Targ and Zakopane, the same Góral country my family hails from.

Our sensei was intense.
His kata 形かた were beautiful and dynamic, and his instruction was thoughtful, precise, and ruthless. We repeated each movement until literal puddles of sweat pooled beneath each of us. The training was true to the "hard" 剛ごう tradition rooted in Okinawan karate; he struck our arms, legs, and stomachs to test whether our muscles were tight and our stances firm; Master Ōyama Masutatsu 大山倍達おおやまますたつ of Kyokushin 極真きょくしん would be proud. We feared and loved his sessions. I remember Heian 平安へいあん (Okinawan Pinan) kata were the core of my training. Even now, forty years later, I have muscle memory of every stance, punch, and block.

During those years, I learned the etiquette and hundreds of Japanese terms, since all nomenclature in the dōjō was used strictly in Japanese. I developed a deep appreciation for the culture, and like most boys my age, I loved samurai 侍さむらい films.

I remember practicing karate with Kyokushin and kung fu (Kenpo) friends, doing kicks for hours on the local park's health path (Park Zdrojowy).
I also remember being knocked out by one of the Kyokushinkai guys during a friendly inter-school sparring session. I definitely lost a few IQ points that day.

At the same time, I was a competitive sprinter, and my birth name (Łukasz Grzeszkowiak) might still be on the old school ("Jedynka w Rabce") gym leaderboard.

All that training made my next chapter, Marine Corps boot camp, feel easy.