The IWK team would like to introduce you to Mary Rita who was just promoted to 1st Degree Black Belt at the very young age of 65 this weekend at Sandra Dee’s school, Santa Clara Kenpo Academy. Mary graciously offered to share her Black Belt Thesis with the IWK community.
We want to congratulate Mary again on this amazing accomplishment!!
I began searching for such a martial arts discipline in High School in my sophomore year. I tried Judo but during the first class I broke my collar bone. I tried again when I mended attending a Taekwondo school for about a year but couldn’t afford to continue. I attempted again when my children were teenagers and attended West Coast Taekwondo (before cardio kickboxing was a thing). My boys Michael and Jose attended with me and it was great. Again I could not afford to continue.
In 2004, through a co-worker, I was introduced to Mr. Cung Le’s Kickboxing school in Santa Clara and in December 2005, I passed the Level II test with Mr. Cung Le as one of the judges. I passed with 17 out of 20 possible points and was much older than most of the students testing. There were very few women; we were about 20 or 25 total testing and only about 3 women. The test was hard core physical conditioning in addition to fighting drills. I was so glad to be done with the last part of the test, I ran across the room passing the judges and then heard, “Where do you think you are going?! Come back here! I should fail you right now!” It was Mr. Cung Le! I failed to bow before the judges before exiting the floor! I was so happy the judges did not fail me!