Dakarai

In the book Lost in Place Mark quits kung fu because he seen that his Sensei was getting out of control. Sensei O’Keefe put Michael (Mark's friend and kung fu partner) to sleep then woke him up. He basically put him in a sleeper hold with his arms around the neck. Mark felt that everyone already knew how to do that and Sensei O’Keefe just wanted to harm somebody. So mark quit. He thought that by himself he could work out and practice kung fu by his self. That was not the case. Every punch and kick was getting slower and he also was getting tired very easily. He just started to get lazy and all his Chinese painting also stopped as well. He stayed on top of his Chinese lessons only because he liked his teacher and didn’t want to let him down like he let the other ones down. I think Mark will find something to occupy his time but I don’t think it’s going to be good for him.

I could relate to Mark’s situation with him quitting because I also did the same thing. I was on the T.F.North wrestling team. It was consuming a lot of my time and I didn’t really have time for my studies so I had to stop. I was only in it so I could lose weight and stay in shape. So when I quit I thought that I would still be able to work out but I was lying to myself. After I quit I started to work out but it wasn’t the same. I had no coach behind me pushing me to the best. When I would work out and get tired I would just stop working out. When I would work out with my coach he wouldn’t let me stop no matter how tired I got. So I started lying around doing nothing. Watching TV and eating was a big thing for me. When I was on the wrestling team I weighed 245; now I'm at 290. My plans are to get to the UC and work out every night before I go to sleep. I think this will be a success. Well we would see.