May 24, 2007

Sparring is Mental and Blood is Cool

I don’t suck at sparring.

One simple statement and it makes a world of difference. I feel like I’ve rounded a corner in my training. I feel like I had a major break last night. When I arrived for class, we were told to gear up. Instead of filling up with dread and doubt, I made a conscious effort to do the opposite. I gave myself a pep talk.

"You are going to go out there and spar. You are not going to apologize while sparring. You are not going to doubt yourself. You are not going to plan your moves. You are going to watch, react, and attack based on what your gut is telling you, not your brain. You are going to spar and you are going to do it well."

And then I went out on the floor and ran through some drills. I had a rare opportunity to work with another brown belt. We worked on some kicking and punching drills. After we were warmed up, we did tournament style sparring with three judges. Since I have never attended a tournament (and probably never will) I asked for clarification on the rules and what constitutes a point. And then, contrary to what I do every other time I spar, I made no action plans. I forced myself to stay open mentally and concentrated on just being there and being in the moment.

I first sparred against the other brown belt. I wanted to be nervous. She has sparred in tournaments and I know she has done well. I forced myself to not think about it.

I used front leg kicks and back fists to the head. At one point I got a kick up to her head. I sort of shocked myself. I got the first point; she got the second and then I got two more. My instructor and another black belt complimented me on my going in high and my front leg kicks. Those compliments felt so good.

At one point my instructor stopped the match and went in to spar with my opponent to give her some tips against my long arms. Both of the black belts told her that she wasn’t going to outreach me, so they gave her some tips on what to do instead. Apparently there are some benefits to having primate arms.

After sparring with her, they asked me to choose another opponent and I chose a second degree black belt who I’ve never sparred before. He gave me some good advice on how to further utilize the front leg kicks and turn them into combination moves.

Later I sparred against my fifth degree black belt instructor. In my early days of karate, I used to follow him around the floor and kick him in the butt. Please don’t read that as "kick his butt" because "kicking someone’s butt" and "kicking someone in the butt" are two very different things. His stance is completely sideways and there are no openings to be easily found. So, I would throw kicks up and just kick his butt because that’s all he gave me. It’s a pretty ineffective way of sparring. Last night I was better than the early days, but still not great. I definitely need to work on strategy for sparring against someone whose stance is sideways.

Mr. BBM tends to spar straight on and so I’ve come up with techniques to work against that. Sideways is more difficult because trying to open a person up tends to get me side-kicked. I’ll have to work on that.

What I don’t need to work on is my new attitude towards sparring. I was able to talk the nerves down enough to just go with it. I kept repeating "sparring is mental" to myself. And if my performance last night is any indication, I think my new mantra is dead on.

I’m not the only person who made progress this week. Big I’s progress was astounding to me. She still doesn’t have her kata nailed down yet, but she’s had a bit of an attitude adjustment too; and it’s one that I’m thrilled about.

At the BBM household, there is always a lot of laundry. Big I will get a small water droplet on her shirt and immediately go change. Piece of fuzz that doesn’t come right off? Outfit change. Tiny little dirt spot on her sock after playing outside??? Wardrobe malfunction! New outfit required immediately.

Last week, Big I got a brush burn on her knee. At karate this week, she bumped the healing scrape and a few little droplets of blood appeared on her gi pants. I was fully expecting a meltdown, complete with demands to let her change immediately. She showed me the blood and I shrugged it off with a smile.

"You have blood on your gi!?!" I exclaimed. "Yes," she answered with an unsure look on her face. "Wow! That’s cool. You officially have a cool gi now Big I." She responded with, "Since I have blood on my gi, does that make me tough?"

"Absolutely!" I said. She got the biggest grin on her face and spent the rest of class admiring her blood stains. It was another proud Mommy moment. . . one that didn’t end with an immediate need for laundry detergent. We have obviously both taken a positive turn in our training.

Sparring is mental; and blood is indeed very cool.