I learned to swim as a eight year old in the YMCA indoor pool in Paterson New Jersey. As a teenager in Oakland, California I went regularly to the YMCA to swim, socialize and play basketball and other sports. As an adult in the military I would stay over night at a YMCA instead of a hotel when traveling. Despite my high regard for the YMCA I never was or became a committed Christian.
In my teens I join the YMCA with a friend of mine, we used it to workout & play basketball. I took a course there to learn jiu jitsu, I was doing very well until the instructor ask me to show the class how to do the "roll", seems I was the only one that could get it right. After doing it three or four times I'm watching the class flopping to the side, or landing incorrectly, so I decided to show them the role in slow motion, big mistake, this knock my timing off, I landed wrong and threw out my shoulder ending my attending class. My YMCA days were over.