“My dad is the reason that I got into karate in the first place. Some things that I learned in karate have come from other life experiences during that time. Such as when I first joined the tournament team, that had basically taught me how to be more confident and of course, be loud, and leadership skills. When I started getting higher in belt level, and I actually started mentoring, that taught me about mentoring other people, especially younger kids like five, seven, even three years old. The main thing that we’ve always encouraged and had basically said is that you are not going to advance if you don’t practice.  

Challenges that I’ve met were my own ‘introverted-ness’. I do not like talking to people but of course, you kind of have to talk to people in order to mentor them. You must have the confidence to do that, and originally that was really challenging because I did not want to talk at all. In one of the tournaments that I have done, I think a couple of years ago, I had gotten a grand champion award. When you get first place in a karate tournament, they qualify you to participate and compete in a grand champion tournament against everybody that won first place in the division and age group. So, you’re competing against beginners, intermediates, advanced, and even black belts.  

The main thing that I like about karate is the people there. I like how challenging it is and how rigorous it can be, and I love being able to mentor other people and instruct them. Basically, in order to help them as well and push them to keep going as everybody else had done around me when I was at that level as well. I loved being able to compete as well and I met plenty of new people from that that I never would have met otherwise,” junior Rhea Pallares said.