Lethally Skinny

These first few posts will be an overview of how I got to where I am today. After that I’ll take a deeper dive into specific times and adventures and see what I can unearth. If I’m feeling it, I may even come back and link those to the proper spots in these overview posts.

Demonstration in Loretto, PA, early 1999.



Growing up in the 70s and 80s as I did, I spent most of my time outdoors with friends. We hiked through woods, played street hockey, played football, rode bikes and just generally kept moving. In high school, I slowed down a bit as I became involved in the theater department but still played basketball and rode my bike to my summer job and was first introduced to ultimate.

I went to Ithaca College and as part of our requirements we had to take GIPPE’s. No idea what that stands for, but they were half-semester “gym” classes. I took fencing, billiards, basketball and tennis over my four years. I also walked everywhere - Ithaca is a huge campus and I’m sure students walk 3-4 miles a day with no problem. 

During the summers, I rode my bike to a job at a women’s clothing warehouse where I was the forklift. No, I didn’t drive a forklift because that would imply that we had one. I lifted all the boxes onto the shelves and unloaded trucks and made beeping noises when I backed up. Some days I would move over 4 tons of clothing around. Then hop on my bike and ride the ten miles back home. On Fridays I would often ride several miles to play ultimate with a church group I had met, and then ride home after that in the dark. (Side note: these days I’m terrified to ride my bike that far because I know drivers don’t pay attention to cyclists. Back then I was invulnerable or just blissfully ignorant.)

The upshot of all this is that I was keeping myself in shape without going to a gym or doing any formal exercise. I was just living my life and a lot of movement was part of my routine. Basketball was the sport I played the most - we had a hoop in our driveway and I would also meet up with folks for pickup games throughout the summer. 

And then I graduated and got a job and stopped moving as much. I was on my feet at my job, and still played basketball occasionally on the weekends, but my evenings were becoming much more sedentary. It was nothing I was concerned with, and I certainly wasn’t putting on weight or anything. But for about 2 years I really slowed down my activity.

Then, in 1995, a tae kwon do studio opened near my job and I signed up. I got hooked almost immediately and it wasn’t long before I’d do two classes one after the other and then was tapped to teach the kids class first and on the days I trained, I was there for hours. I became flexible and learned all kinds of fun movements and kicks. I also got really good at pushups for the first time. But here’s the thing, I still wasn’t putting on muscle, and if anything I was losing weight with all the training. I was flexible, fit, lethal and incredibly skinny. 

I even wrote an essay about it for one of my belt tests, contrasting power and strength. I wasn’t particularly strong, but could generate a lot of power through technique. I think at this point I had settled into the mindset that this is who I was, I would always be skinny and non-muscular and that was that. And then I decided to become a priest and some of that self-perception was forced to change.