The Making of a Black Belt Karate Champion

About the Book

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About the Author

This is a true story about an African American by the name of Charles Henry Pointer, myself, who dared to dream of being successful in karate competition at the age of 41 in 1991 when I came into the gym at the St. Louis Job Corps Center located at 4300 Goodfellow in St. Louis, MO and became one of the counselors who took part in the karate classes to have fun and get a good workout under Terril Williams who we called Sensie. Most of the boys in the karate class were in their teens up to the age of 21. In his class, I was just like the other boys and given no special treatment which I never wanted. This book will be very easy to read but will describe what obstacles I overcame to achieve success in life’s pursuits for happiness rather they be large or small. The book will illustrate how I trained with men twenty years younger and the teamwork we showed towards each other during our practice sessions. The excitement of fighting in local and world championships at the US.Open held at Disney Land in Orlando, Florida will be written about too and how this experience encouraged me to keep my interest in the martial arts. One evening, I got off of work at 4 p.m. working as a counselor for the St. Louis Job Corps Center located at 4300 Goodfellow in St. Louis, MO and Kelyan Bell a job corp student joined me and we both came into the gym and started our long journey to the practice of martial arts called karate the art of the open hand technique. There are many stories in the book and it brings out events which will show much humor, teamwork, excitement, and the love our teammates showed for each other in victory and defeat. A profile of the people who I practiced with and the ones who had a major influence on me as I worked hard to get my black belt will be included in the book. Those people helped me win over 60 trophies in competition,6 Missouri state titles from the Missouri Show Me State Games ,placement in the world championships in Orlando, Florida at Disney World and a national championship Budweiser tournament held at Meramec Community College in Kirkwood, Missouri. I hope this book will be an inspiration to many people who aspire to achieve success in whatever they attempt to do in their lifetimes. It will include a journal showing the training it took to pass the belt test and the constant practice to win in tournaments and the morals Sensie taught us like always keeping a humble attitude. Sensie Williams influenced many boys at the St. Louis Job Corps to turn their lives around from drugs by getting them into karate and at the same time 3 teaching them social skills and to avoid the world of drugs and a life of crime.Sensei Williams was a father figure to many of the boys who were raised without fathers. With me being a counselor, I was able to get to know my students much better by practicing with and participating in tournaments with them too. Sensei Williams was later honored by Sensei Jefferson Davis who later gave him a trophy at one of his tournaments for his work with the job corp students who mostly came from disadvantaged homes. Sensei Williams was a good friend of mine and treated his students as family. Sometimes he would pay for his students to enter the tournaments who could not afford it. If his students had personal problems, Sensei always was there to help in any way that he could. After I was rejected by so many law schools ,Sensei kept encouraging me to keep trying and to form businesses with the six degrees I earned and I now I am a first year law student at Concord Law School which is on line but certified by the California Bar Examiners which also led to me doing prose work in court representing myself . Karate training and strict discipline gave me the ability to endure and accept defeat and victory and to keep on trying and keep a never give up attitude when it seemed I could not achieve my goals and this is what my book is about and I hope it will inspire many people. The man can be stopped but the dream lives on.