Nunchaku Conquered
It felt almost ceremonial tonight when I arrived at the dojo. There was a brief moment of hesitation, a deep breath, and then I reached into my karate bag, pulled out the foam nunchaku that I’ve been borrowing from my instructor, and with only a bit of reluctance handed them back to my instructor. I’ve graduated to wood.
Last week, I decided that it was time. Concussion, bloody nose, bruised face, back, whatever. . . it was time. So with no one as a witness, I gave Odo No Nunchaku a whirl with my wooden nunchaku and the whirl worked. I went through the kata slowly, making sure I had each transition right or at least slow enough that if I messed it up, I wouldn’t be paying for it. And I did it.
I was even able to make the little whooshing noises that the black belts make when swinging their nunchaku through the air. It felt really good.
I figured that I might as well start working with the wooden nunchaku now. I need to get used to them. I needed to step up to the challenge. If green belts can use wooden nunchaku, then so can I.
Although my advanced class has been rather crowded as of late, tonight it was only me. We ran through the nunchaku kata several times, and then we moved on to my insane bo kata, Chounokun.
Just like with the nunchaku kata, my instructor broke the kata up into somewhat manageable parts and just drilled it into my brain. I know I probably won’t retain it all until next week, but enough of it is in there that it will come back without too much trouble.
Three difficult kata’s to learn for 2nd kyu. . . three kata’s down. It feels really good.
One of these things. . .
I’ve been watching a lot of Sesame Street lately, and it’s a good thing. Because tonight during karate class, I had a certain song in my head. . .
One of these things is not like the others,
One of these things just doesn’t belong,
Can you tell which thing is not like the others
By the time I finish my song?
Here’s another version of the song, and this one works too. . .
Three of these kids belong together
Three of these kids are kind of the same
But one of these kids is doing his (her) own thing
Now it’s time to play our game
It’s time to play our game.
Can you guess? Do you know what I’m talking about. In the above song, substitute "four" for three. In the third line, substitute "people" for "kids" because I’m obviously not one of those and this is the PERFECT song for tonight.
Hello nunchaku, my old friend. Nunchaku is one of those friends. You know the kind. The idea of the friend is great. You sort of build them up in your head. But then, when you’re around said friend. . . it’s not so much fun after all. In fact, your friend? Kind of annoying. It’s not that fun hanging out with your friend after all.
My advanced class is growing rapidly. It now consists of three black belts (in addition to our instructor), me, and two young green belts. I say young like they’re so different from everyone else in the class. Let’s put it this way. All attendee’s other than me and the instructor have yet to graduate from school (some from elementary school). So, when we did the nunchaku kata the first time around, we went slowly. The green belts were new to it. My instructor then asked the greenies to have a seat so that the higher ranks could run through it quickly. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to go hang with the green belts. I may have taken a step or two back towards then in an attempt to just sort of sit without drawing attention to myself.
Doing a nunchaku kata with four black belts is just a tad bit intimidating. There they are, whipping around wooden nunchaku; and there I am, trying to avoid smacking myself in the face with a foam set. So we ran through the kata. . . the black belts sent their nunchaku slicing through the air making the dojo sound like a Star Wars set. I just tried to keep up. I did a lot of "hmph"ing to myself and tried to make light of the fact that I am slow as molasses with those suckers.
Maybe I should watch some Star Wars movies or something to get inspired. Wait, did I just say that? That statement alone is enough to show you what type of detrimental effects this nunchaku kata is having on me. I’m typing something with the words "Star" and "Wars" in it and I just know it’s only a matter of time before my husband my husband read this and is whipping out the DVD’s and calling for a weekend marathon. . .
and then?
I’m going to get out the wooden nunchaku and knock myself out on purpose.
Song lyrics are from this site.
Not Me
I don’t want to be that person. Sometimes I wonder if I am. Starting out in the martial arts at 29 seems to be ancient. I wonder if the parents who watch their children from the comfort of the waiting area are thinking I should give it up; karate is for kids, not their parents. I wonder what other people think about how I do my kata, how I spar. Do they think I’m a joke? Do they think I’m good? Do they think I’m silly for starting so late?
It’s easy to doubt yourself when it took a good ten years to start on the path that you wanted to all along but were too afraid to try. It’s easy to wonder, when you see your reflection at the dojo, wearing that brown belt, if you’ve really earned it, if you really know your stuff as well as you should.
After studying karate for a few years, I can look at others and know which ones are really nailing their kata, and which ones are sort of going through the motions. Am I going through the motions or do I look like I know what I’m doing?
If you ask my Mom about me and my karate she will tell you how great I am at it. She will say about my karate skills, "She’s a natural. It just comes so easily for her. She’s really great at it." She brags about me to her friends, and although I’m flattered and happy that she thinks I’m so great, I know that she is, after all, my Mom. That’s what Mom’s do. They praise and brag. It’s in the Mom wiring.
Recently several students at our dojo competed in a tournament. I didn’t go. I wouldn’t have been able to anyway, seeing as how sick I was; but even if well, I doubt I would have gone. I haven’t ever really considered going to tournaments. The martial arts journey has been personal for me. The idea of putting it out there in a public arena is a little unsettling. Trophies are nice and all, but who knows if I’d even get one. Wouldn’t that be embarrassing? The 31-year old brown belt who is there and is a complete joke. Who let her in here anyway?
In the safety and comfort of the dojo, where the environment is so supportive, you can start to let yourself believe that what you’re doing is right, that others see what you’re doing and think that you know what you’re doing. At a tournament? You might become one of people that everyone sort of laughs at, the joke.
When it all boils down, it shouldn’t really matter what other people think about me, my kata, my karate. It should really only matter what I think of myself. But getting to that point is going to be the hard part.
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.
Beating Nunchaku into Submission
I was trying to make peace with nunchaku a few weeks ago. Then I gave up and figured nunchaku and I would agree to disagree. That was until a very wise new black belt made a suggestion. She said I needed to quit trying to make peace with them and instead beat them into submission. Since my "making peace" post, I’ve done a couple things.
- I decided that no one, not even an Okinawan Kenpo and Kobudo master, should use the nunchaku that I initially bought for myself, back when I was a very naive white belt. They are made out of red oak. They are 14" long. They weigh 50 lbs. O.k., that last part is a lie, but they are very heavy.
- I bought a new much lighter pair of nunchaku. They weigh at least half of what my original nunchaku weight. They are 12" long. Both of these things make a huge difference.
- I’ve decided that there is no way you can go into "battle" assuming that you won’t obtain any battle scars. I’ve become willing to accept the fact that I will continually thump myself on the back with them for a while. I may occasionally send my hair flying when I don’t swing them right. It’s possible that I will bang myself in the face with them . . . often. I will probably continue to elicit a screaming response (ask my instructor if you don’t believe me) when I send the nunchaku flying alarmingly close to my face. This will continue until I have this kata mastered.
- There’s no time like the present to learn Odo No Nunchaku.
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