October 12, 2006

Looking Ahead

I must have scared off the teenage black belt with my mad sparring skills, because he hasn’t been in my advanced class for two weeks now. Either that or he’s sick of listening to me scream when I fling the nunchaku too close to my face. . . probably the latter.

I’m basically getting private lessons now which has been great. In two weeks, I’ve managed to learn two of the three kata’s (Odo No Nunchaku and Pinan Yondan) I’ll need for 2nd kyu and the waza as well. I’ve also learned a lot about the history of Okinawan Kenpo, which has been very interesting.

The other thing I’m learning? Being a brown belt is hard work. There is no such thing as casually letting a kata sink in anymore. Now it’s time to pound the kata’s into your head, relearn all the little things that you were doing incorrectly beforehand and learn how to apply the kata’s to real life situations. Everyone thinks that karate is physically demanding. But lately, I’m finding that it is more mentally trying.

Brown belt kata’s have all these techniques and preps that are unfamiliar. I was joking with my instructor this week that it was going to take me 40 minutes to complete one kata on my own. When parts were sticky, I had to stand there and think so hard it almost hurt, just to get my hands the right way and get into the right position.

The good news though, is that my instructor said that he saw improvement in my nunchaku swinging technique. I’m getting the hip motion down or starting to anyway, and hearing a compliment on that kata made me grin from ear to ear.

Big I won’t be grinning for a while about her kata though. Big I’s new kata is proving to be quite a challenge. Her kata for yellow belt is Wansu. Wansu is unique from the first Nai Hanchi kata’s because it does not move on a straight line. Wansu is all over the place. The best way to teach Big I kata is to mirror her. She does well if you can do the kata backwards. I’ve been able to help her this way with her first two, but Wansu doesn’t allow for such a teaching technique. While the rest of the class is facing the mirror, Big I is standing facing the back of the dojo, watching our instructor and doing all the moves backwards. Wansu is going to be a trying kata for Big I (and for her mama too.)

I am sorry for the lack of updates. I’ve had requests for a fantasy football update, and I have much to tell on the Kindergarten topic. However, along with your baby turning a year old comes a 1 year well visit which means a shot, which means a fussy baby with a fever. It also means that one particular BBM is super busy freaking out and wanting to spend every moment with my kids because MY GOD, they grow up too fast. Plus, we’re all sort of hanging out under the weather with yet another cold brought home from Kindergarten, etc. Things will get back to normal around here soon. I look forward to catching you up on my life and catching up on all of yours as well.