"Here karate is a way to relax"

Vitaly Ivanov (the name was changed at the request of the hero) with his wife and children went to America, to Texas, to start living again and developing a hard karate-Kekusinkai . To do this, Vitaly needs to get a visa of talents

Cowboys and ITishnikov

Previously, it seemed to me that Texas is a place where cowboys on horses are chasing bulls or on pickups rushing along the prairie. In fact, the capital of Austin, where we live, is a very democratic European city. There are many universities, youth, it. Ilon Musk even moved here. But it is worth going out of town, and you really see that everyone loves large cars with an open body. There are shops where you can buy cowboy hats and boots. Cows with big horns graze.

We read a lot with my wife, studied the question before deciding what staff to go, talked with friends who live in the USA. They did not want to move to a poppy place, where everything is more expensive because of the influx of people. In Texas, one of the lowest gasoline prices in the country, relatively inexpensive housing, is always warm. We moved here in July the whole family on a tourist visa and are now preparing to apply for the so -called talent visa . It gives the right to work in the USA.

Austin, Texasfoto: Tomek Baginski / Unsplash

The talent visa is given to those people who in their field achieved certain successes in their country. That is, roughly speaking, if the Olympic champion will submit documents for such a visa, he will be approved by 100 percent, because he will move here and will develop sports here - with his achievements, coaching activities or management, for example. According to a lawyer with whom we are working together to collect all the documents, I have good chances to get such a visa.

Karate in the Far Eastern outback

I was born in the Urals, but I lived all my conscious life from the sixth grade in the Far East. Dad was a military man, and in 2000 he and his family were sent to a closed town near the Svobodny Cosmodrome in the Amur Region. Then there was built by the Vostochny cosmodrome. Now it is the city of Tsiolkovsky. You can still get there only by passes. Mostly employees of the cosmodrome and their families live in the city. The population is seven thousand people.

When I was thirteen, my first karate coach came to our small town with indicative performances. The coolest was when the athletes broke the boards with bare arms and legs, as in films. We had a lot of films with Chuck Norris, Bruce Lee, Schwarzenegger, Dolph Lundgren. And then the Russian guys from the Far Eastern outback calmly repeated the same thing! So I started to study.

Already in the class of the tenth and oneenth, I helped the coach conduct classes. After school, he went to study as a teacher of adaptive physical education in Blagoveshchensk and, when he received a diploma, returned to work in the town, where he grew up. I thought that there are many children, there are many opportunities, there are sports halls, and no competition, because young people are leaving.

Photo: Mats sommervold/UNSPLASH

I went to the Children's Center for Arts. I was taken by a karate coach, first for some half-time. And since then it has fallen off, I just failed in karate, lived in the halls. When he already worked as a coach at a sports school, he conducted classes in four different groups a day. This is about 100 students per day.

The main difficulty was that my children were very closed. They are used to the fact that in the town everyone is familiar to a friend, they know who is the strongest, who needs to be afraid. And when they went to competitions in a big city, then, like mice, they sat in a corner and clamped, because there were unfamiliar fighters around.

I liberated them for a long time. Suppose we come to the hotel, I tell them: "We need to go to the hall, sing a song." Or we go to the reserved seat car: "Get up in the middle of the car and loudly tell the poem." And, of course, constant competitive practice: we leave, leave, leave. And at all competitions you tell them that you should not be afraid, like a chicken-nastenka is always there.

Gradually, students began to take places in regional, Far Eastern, federal, and international tournaments. In 2015, two people from our small town became prize -winners of the European Championship. Unfortunately, we did not reach the World Cup. Sunned Kovid. We had to fly to the World Cup in Japan, already bought tickets, but the pandemic began, and we did not fly.

Tsiolkovsky - Bali - Bryansk - Austin

Until a certain point, I liked to live in Tsiolkovsky. My wife Irina (the name was changed at the request of the heroine) is also from there, we studied at school together. After the institute they got married, two children appeared, and in such small closed towns it is very convenient to grow them. Grumber at the side, work at the side. There, as far as in the Soviet Union, children of four to five years go out into the courtyard without parents. Such a safe territory, because no one can call a stranger.

In 2019, I became a deputy-master of the local city council, in 2020 I received a badge of “Honorary Worker of Education and Education of the Russian Federation”. At that time, I was already the director of the sports school, simultaneously coached children, tried to initiate some reforms in the city, but to no avail. I realized that I touched the ceiling - financial, sports. Wife - she has a culinary blog - also in her business. Children began to grow up. So the idea appeared to move to another country.

Photo: Matthew Lejune/Unsplash

We consulted with a lawyer, and she suggested that with my specialty and experience a visa of talents in the United States is suitable for me. We also read about the country and decided that the mentality, the atmosphere are suitable for us. We want to open a karate hall here and create our own small company for this. This is a small business, it is respected here, supported. An important factor was that immigration with children in the United States is easier than in European countries. Here, schools who are in the country as tourists are accepted to schools. Consideration of cases on obtaining a visa of talents can last months, but children will not suffer from this.

We moved for a long time. First in 2020 we went to Bali for three months. We decided to try to winter the whole family abroad. I took unpaid vacation. My wife had the opportunity to earn online on his culinary blog, and we existed there with this money. Returning with Bali, I realized that I no longer want to return to the budget, to the education system. We left for Bryansk. There are friends, a city near Moscow. In addition, in Bryansk there is a good center for children with disabilities. For first education, I am a teacher of adaptive physical education, and in this center I passed an internship in sensory integration therapy and worked with “special” children for six months.

And then the “special military operation” began. It was already the extreme point. We collected things and just left the country to apply for a visa of talents directly from the United States.

The hardest style

I am engaged in karate-kukusinkai-this species is considered the toughest and most traumatic. In competitions, both men and women fight without protection. The task is not to score a larger number of points thanks to the blows hit by the target, but to knock out the opponent. You must cause him maximum damage.

The Russian Karate-Kekusinkai school is considered very strong. A lot of our fighters enters the podium of the honor of absolute championships, European championships. Perhaps the fact is that karate became popular in the country in the 1990s, when it was necessary to be able to stand up for itself. Severe time is a harsh sport.

Photo: Timothy Eberly/Unsplash

In the United States, American karate is more popular, not so orthodox. If we talk about martial arts, then there are a lot of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. This is also a rather strict style, in injuries is not inferior to karate-kukusinkai, but in each quarter there is a coach. The guys were able to unwind. If everything works out, then I plan to rent a premises in Austin and work as a karate-kekusinkai coach, so now I go to classes in different halls: both kikboxing and other karate styles-it is Kekusinkai. I watch how everything works.

Here, karate is more than a hobby. A way to relax in the evening, so to speak, to let off steam. We have this lifestyle. And in the USA, of course, there are orthodox, tough guys, but this is rather an exception.

Children in competitions, so that there are no injuries, do not fight much, and the tasks for obtaining belts are more light. Classes are shorter than ours. If in Russia a coach can shout at children, then here with this is strictly. They can complain to the police, say that this is psychological violence. In general, the training is more relaxed, students can speak with each other. If someone begins to talk in training, he will push up. This is visible between our countries. Everywhere - at school, on the street, in the gym - it is clear that children are given more freedom, less strict discipline. And it seems to me that this is good, because they grow without psychological injuries.

Photo: Samuel Castro / Unsplash

Among the coaches here, rather, it is not customary to receive a special education. Apparently, the post -Soviet hardening affected us: Russian people should always be on the alert and be able to. That is, I have two formations: adaptive physical education and psychology, plus a bunch of courses on medicine, tape, pharmacology, nutrition. Although, of course, I cannot speak for all American coaches. Perhaps just at the level at which those I met with, this is not necessary.

Dawn coaches are also very popular. The dad of some child, who was engaged in his school years, for example, football, gathered a horde of children and trains them in his free time. He has no special knowledge, but they trust him, seeing that the children were drawn to him.

In the USA there are several karate-kekusinkai federations. The hall of one of them is in Texas, in Dallas. When I moved, I immediately went to get acquainted with Sensei. We trained together, exchanged experience. I said that I went to competitions in Japan four times, I was in waterfalls where the ancestor of our school Masutatsu Oyam was tempered. Sensei was also there in his youth. He is: “Wow! It’s cool that you moved to us. Let's develop Kekusinkai together. ” In the next training, I assisted him. It is clear that all this is on a volunteer basis, because I can’t work in the USA, living on a tourist visa.

In the language of karate

Now we live in the United States, rent an apartment, pay gasoline for the car, products thanks to our savings and online projects in Russia. The wife leads culinary courses, I smoke a course on sensory integration therapy.

The eldest daughter will soon be thirteen years old, and eight to her son. Despite the fact that we have tourist visas, the children were accepted to schools as soon as we moved. Of course, at first they had problems with the language. But here the approach to children is very neat. In the lessons, they are allowed to use translators. It seems to me that they do not experience the stress of acute due to the fact that we finally got a permanent place of residence. They have their own rooms, a permanent class, a park where they can walk. This constancy after two years of wandering around the country and the world played into the hands of us.

I give free karate lessons for children in Sunday school. So far, it is rather general developmental classes with karate elements. First you need to strengthen the health of children, and then teach them martial art. This is a Sunday school for Russian -speaking diaspora. Children come, who, for example, have a father - an American, and mother is Russian, and she wants the child to know the language. I do not receive money for such training, but I earn authority so that I have customers in the future.

Photo: Nathan Dumlao/Unsplash

In December, I joined the North American Karate-Kekusinkai Federation. Now I’m preparing a master class for my American colleagues for March, in April I will judge in an international tournament. It is difficult to conduct classes in English, but I go here to train the Americans and remember the phrases that they say, and then use them in my classes. Fortunately, many teams in karate surrender to Japanese. Therefore, we have a common language for communication. Plus, you show what to do, yourself.

With the membership in the Federation I can not only train, but also assigning belts, hold competitions and judge them. We discussed this moment with Sensei. If I can open my hall in Austin, then the geography of Karate-Kekusinkai will expand, competition will appear between students from Austin and Dallas, which means that there will be development.

I want to become the first emigrant from Russia who will gain many students and build a strong school here.