If there’s anything Grandmaster Samuel McGee wants to impart to his students, it’s discipline, discipline, and discipline.
McGee is the chief executive officer of the Harlem Goju Karate Association. He’s been teaching martial arts for almost half a century.
“They can take their martial arts skills to school with them,” McGee said. “And it can give them discipline. Discipline is: do your homework. Discipline is... the teacher says ‘be quiet.’ Be quiet.”
What You Need To Know
- Samuel McGee is the chief executive officer of the Harlem Goju Karate Association. He credits his mentor, Grandmaster Major Leon Wallace, with teaching him the craft
- He continued to practice karate while he served in the army during the Vietnam War
- His organization has now trained more than 10,000 kids to practice karate for free in the last five decades
McGee started practicing karate as a teenager in Central Park in the 1960s with the nonprofit organization. The native Harlemite wanted to learn to protect himself. But he says it was so much more.
“Learn how to make sacrifices,” McGee explained. “And learn how to commit yourself to your decisions and your choices and the hard work it requires.
It’s where McGee met his inspiration, Grandmaster Major Leon Wallace.
“He was the man who laid down the footwork for us not only to kick and punch, but to be better people,” McGee said.
When McGee was drafted and sent to Vietnam as an 18-year-old, he practiced during his spare time.
“It gave me something to hold onto,” he said.
McGee became a welder mechanic when he returned from the war. And when his mentor died, McGee took the reins of the association too. McGee has since trained over ten thousand kids for free and many return to teach with him.
“We are servants of the community and this is to lay the platform down for the children in the community to have a place to go,” he said.
They train twice a week at the Hansborough Recreation Center. They compete in tournaments. And the organization funds college scholarships.
“You come up with the acceptable grades that any school will welcome you in their program,” McGee said. “And that comes about, then we will find the money.”
McGee is 75-years-old. But he’s not quitting any time soon… because of the discipline he learned through martial arts.
“I believe I’m running circles around my peers and it’s not by choice,” he said. “It’s by repetition.”
For helping Harlem’s children to aim high and to stay grounded, Samuel McGee is our New Yorker of the Week.