On April 18th at 7:36 in the afternoon I lost someone that influenced my life a great deal. My second father passed away after a long battle with dementia after having battled and beat back heart disease that he inherited from his father. Philip Dingman Sensei was not just a influence for me, he taught me the core fundamentals of everything I know about Karate and most of what I know about life.
When I was young, I was obsessed with Bruce Lee and
Chuck Norris (of which Dingman Sensei had a striking resemblance too). I remember walking into his Dojo on Albert
Street as a kid and falling in love, like head over heals, with the Karate he
taught. I remember the smell of the Dojo
in the old days, the way the air was saturated with the efforts of everyone on
the Dojo floor. The etiquette and culture of the club was infectious! You were more indoctrinated into the life
style opposed to being signed up for classes.
The Albert Dojo had an Aura of intensity and dedication
that seeped into the club from Dingman Sensei himself. He showed up early,
worked out and pushed himself then took the reins of the class and squeeze the
very best you had out of you. One of his
favorite sayings was “the pressure you are under in the class makes diamonds
out of you through your own efforts”. Students
did their best for him out of a insane level of admiration and the knowledge
that the man himself had put out even more effort than the whole class could in
unison just before class even started.
You would drive yourself so hard that you were sure your heart would pop
out of your chest and you could hear the frantic Allegro pace its efforts were
creating in your ears. You did not
simply perspire, rivers of sweat ran down your body, captured only the thick
canvas uniform you had donned with pride!
Dingman Sensei was a force of nature but he was also
a Maestro when it came to running classes. Never in my near 40 years of
training have I ever trained under a more natural and effective instructor. His
classes were seamless with a start, pure rhythm and flow through the onslaught
of drills, repetitions, dynamic Kumite and poetically aesthetic Kata he taught.
When he reached the crescendo of the class and you were convinced your body
could not move any further, you need to lay down for a month to recover…he got
you to do more.
I can recall on more than one occasion thinking that
I was not going to make it through class. I was going to vomit or actually Die!
And yet I felt like it was my duty to push past that fear, to move beyond the self-imposed
limitations and see what He saw, the boundless possibilities we have as human
beings. He often told me how much he marvelled at us as humans. The magic we
could do and the love we were capable of, I know, not very Karate like but he
was talking about the kindness and power over ourselves that we had.
I got into the habit of showing up an hour early for
class, even then that was EARLY, and I would stay late. Eventually Sensei and
his wife took me under their wing and I had lots of time to talk about things
other than Karate. Dingman Sensei was super funny and he had that Irish wit
that often made you wonder if he was screwing around and trying to get a laugh,
never at your expense but often because of you. He talked about his family a
great deal. He loved his kids and often wen ton for the full hour about how gifted
Natalie was or how skilled Tammy was, how incredibly spirited Tara was or how
much he loved his son and how gifted he was. He later moved on to include, not
replacing his reverence for his children but adding to his braggadocios moments
his grand children. He loved all of them and would go on and on about their
school marks, how beautiful the girls were and talented and smart his grand son
was.
When it came to Karate he was naturally intelligent
and also taught me that you have to study hard and dig deep to learn. The knowledge is in the Kata he would say! And
make me do Enpi and Hangestu back to back for a half hour. Or he would say
learn the “art of human movement” when you train, meaning pay attention to your
body. I swear to God he gave me permission
to use this line and actually insisted I take most of his tag lines.
Sensei was incredibly private and often told me that
its better for someone to think they have your favor than to create drama by
letting someone know how you felt about them. The last decade or so Sensei had come
to terms with a lot of the old rivalries and even seen his way to publicly state
that it was mostly water under the bridge. He cautioned me to not hold onto old
wounds, “Let them heal, that’s what they are supposed to do” he said. However, he also was acutely aware that some
people were coopting his “approval” by stating that he was their Sensei, when
in fact he was one of many that taught them and they had left him years ago for
“greener pastures”. This bothered him, he would say “those people are fake,
people will see through it…if they have a brain”.
Sensei was very pleased that near the end of his life
he had mended a few fences and ensured no bridges were burnt. His efforts were not in vain he said. He had
a lot of hurdles in his life that wore on him and you could see profound
sadness when he spoke of them, but he also instinctively turned back to his
many victories to highlight that his life was good. A simple man, with simple
needs he would say, Dingman Sensei was NOT a simple man. Hero, pioneer, father
and patriarch of one of the greatest Karate families of in Manitoba (Natural
and Dojo family) he only wanted that his memory be kept and we remember him for
his love, his efforts and his incredible contributions to Karate in our province
and most of Canada.
Over the next few months, I am going to share some more stories, mainly because this one blog entry is actually a very difficult one for me, I never ever thought that I would outlive him, but also because each story really deserves a highlight blog of its own. I will greatly miss my Sensei, my second father and the man who jokingly called me the “Adopted Dingman” and his “consiglieri of the Dingman Clan”.
Due to COVID my interactions with him the last two
years were limited, however I got a call on the week end prior to his passing
and went to his bedside to visit, that will be my first story…because it was,
as most stories about Sensei…it was weird in how it occurred. We held hands and shared stories, while it
was mostly a one way conversation you could see in is eyes that he was paying
attention and while he was in obvious discomfort I enjoyed our visit. A day later I found out he was in the
hospital and I went and said my good bye to him, knowing this time it was for
ever…in this place. He looked calm and peaceful.
Like I said, Tuesday night I got a text from his
daughter saying simple, “we lost dad at 7:36”.
Appropriately I was in the middle of a Zoom class with Don Sharp Sensei
in BC and in my full Gi. I stopped, the wind knocked out of me and gave a formal
bow to my instructor. I took a minute or
two and the finished class, with a bit more effort admittedly as I was trying
to show respect to not just Don Sensei, but also the memory of My Sensei. My
whole world turned upside down in one short text, I regained my equilibrium the
way Sensei had taught me, a bit of hard work to settle the uneasy soul.
I remember 15
years ago being sent down to Phoenix for a meeting. I was INCREDIBLY nervous,
first time representing Dingman Sensei and I got to meet some of my hero’s some
for the second or third time. Takashina,
Mikami and Koyama Sensei. At first they
only knew me as “Canada” as I had been in classes with two of them, but one of
hundreds training….and they did not remember my name. Then Mikami Sensei (the
one man I actually was nervous around) said “oh, you Phils student” and slapped
me on the back. One of the greatest
Karate Masters Alive on the Continent knew my instructor….by NAME. It happened every place I went too. And it happened often on line as well. I have been blessed to have been his student
and I will strive to maintain his memory.
