September 14, 2006

Countdown to Testing

Pre-testing was this week. At pre-testing, you do exactly what you would do at testing. After you pre-test, your instructor lets you know if you are allowed to test at the official testing.

Big I and I are both testing this weekend. I am excited. Passing this test brings with it a brown belt, 3rd kyu, and for whatever reason it makes me feel official. Big I will be testing for 8th kyu and that means that at the next test, she’ll see some color in the form of a yellow belt. I’m hoping that provides more motivation for her to continue learning.

When I started karate over two years ago, I honestly didn’t think I’d get to this point. I wanted to, but I thought if I can just make it to green belt, that would truly be awesome. Third kyu also marks the beginning of the countdown to black belt testing which still seems eons away for me, but it will be here before I know it.

After we got the pre-testing out of the way, we did some one-step sparring drills. We were doing basic punches (hook and straight in) and were using inside, outside and knife hand blocks to deal with them. We rotated back and forth, right and left. Big I worked with a little yellow belt about her size and I worked with my instructor. For the last drill, my instructor threw random punches at me to defend. And, I am now able to add another thing to the "what not to do" list.

Do NOT make assumptions about where your next attack is coming from. When you commit to doing a certain type of block based on your assumption that your attacker is going to throw a left punch and the punch comes from the right arm. . . the results are not good.

I walked right into the punch and my instructor hit me in the jaw. It wasn’t a hard hit. It really was no big deal. But my teeth made that little pinging sound that was a warning not to ever do that again. I was so sure the next punch was coming from the left that when it came from the right, I was right in the way.

The way I see it, the jaw punch was payback for me bopping my instructor on the head once again. He came in with a punch from the right and I moved in and blocked and moved my blocking arm up to back fist him and instead of just getting close, I gave him a little bop. I have a feeling that by the time I’m testing for black belt, my instructor and I will have knocked each other around quite a bit.

For the advanced class, it was just me and my instructor (and Big I running around the waiting area playing Twister by herself). I asked him to help me with some self defense issues. Last week I came home and practiced getting out of a full nelson and had some mixed results until I did my own thing. Instead of trying to break the hold, I simply lifted my arms straight up in the air and dropped down. I made sure to drop and aim an elbow at a certain sensitive area of the male anatomy and the move really worked. I described it to my instructor and then demonstrated with him as my attacker. It was a relief to know that I can use whatever type of self defense that works for me for testing. My little drop move totally works.

We also talked about the "gland rubbing" that I did to my husband’s neck last week. My instructor told me that it worked because I hit a sensitive pressure point on the neck. He then showed me a pressure point on the foot that is awesome for if you’re being held against a wall with your arms unavailable for use. I feel like I’m progressing with the self defense because I’m finally starting to throw out things that aren’t working for me and find things that do work. There’s still a lot to learn though.

I’ve been telling my husband for a while now that I’d like to find some good books on pressure points and little self defense moves that really work. My instructor told me that he has a bunch of books and is going to let me borrow some. I am so excited, because there are tons of martial arts books out there but knowing which ones are worth buying is difficult. Now I won’t have to waste money on books that won’t help me.

I am very happy that I am fortunate enough to have instructors who go beyond learning a kata and making it look good. The whole reason I started taking karate was so that I could defend myself and protect my children properly if necessary. I like that I am learning how to fight back in real life situations and that I’ll be expanding on what I am already learning at the dojo. I’m also anxious to spar some more and will do so after testing is over (I want to make sure I’m "healthy" going into testing).

At the end of the night, my instructor said that everything with my pre-testing looked good and that the formal testing is more of a formality than anything else. That definitely helps to take some of the pressure off for Saturday, knowing that in my teacher’s eyes, I’ve already passed.

My latest post is up at Save the Soldiers. It’s been a week full of letter writing so I thought it only appropriate that I would write some "love letters" to my fantasy football team players. And in case you’re wondering, we lost our first game 85-81.