The Truth about Sparring
After promotions this week, my instructor asked if I’d like to start learning my new material or if I’d like to do something else entirely. After spending the past few weeks doing almost nothing but testing material at the dojo and at home, I was ready for a break.
We worked on self defense against kicks for a little while. I paired up with the teenage black belt and we took turn throwing kicks at each other and defending against them. My advanced class was only me, the teenage black belt and our instructor. After we worked on kicks for a while, we geared up to spar.
We sparred against each other round robin style for three minute rounds, and here’s the thing. . .
Promotions
I’ve been a little blog lazy this week. Rockstar is over now and I can relax on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, sort of. There’s something about becoming a brown belt that is both satisfying and equally terrifying. There’s so much to know and so much to prepare. It’s a little daunting. Not that I’m not looking forward to it because I am. . . but for tonight, I bring you the promotions for me and Big I. Tomorrow I’ll write about the sparring that followed promotions. . .
Big I getting her second green stripe (The next belt is YELLOW! Yeah!).
3rd kyu
Testing was this morning. Big I and I both passed. I need a shower.
I was the highest rank at testing today which means that as the others tested and bowed off of the training floor, I stayed and stayed and stayed. The person doing our testing today was the head of the dojo. He’s a 5th degree black belt. He started doing karate in 1976.
We went by rank and it went relatively fast since there were four sets of ranks testing. There were people testing for 9th kyu (white with one stripe), 8th kyu (white with two stripes), 6th kyu (green belt one stripe), and I was the lone one going for 3rd kyu (brown belt one stripe). I went into this testing feeling very confident. I’ve been practicing on a regular basis, running through all of the kata’s and waza’s at home. I’ve been working with Big I every day on her material as well. I’ve been working on my self-defense with my husband and figuring out what works for me and what doesn’t. There’s nothing like walking into the dojo with confidence on testing day. It feels great. . .
. . .right up until the point where your sensei makes you freeze mid-kata so he can evaluate your stance. You know it’s going downhill from there. During my one kata, Pinan Sandan, I was supposed to be in a seisan position (one leg forward, front knee bent), but instead of keeping my back leg mostly straight, I was bending it a bit too much. You would think that the gi pants would disguise this, but as my instructor pointed out, they actually draw more attention to the fact that you have a bend in your leg.
*Note to self-Starch gi pants heavily before next testing.
I was also asked to freeze while demonstrating my side kick. I wasn’t turning my foot on the ground at a great enough angle. It was a minor adjustment, but still, I get disappointed in myself when I don’t have it perfect.
My weapons kata, Kyan No Sai, was the one I felt the most confident with, but the beginning moves of this one were also not exactly right. One instructor at our school teaches you to just bring the sai out in front of you; the other teaches to bring the sai up over your head and out. I was doing the former and needed to be doing the latter. It was also a minor adjustment, but disappointing none-the-less.
During a moving Nai Hanchi 10-step blocking drill with foot shift and punch, I was not getting into a deep enough nai hanchi stance (knees bent and legs out as if riding a horse).
I felt lousy. I had walked in with all the confidence in the world, and was afraid I wasn’t even going to pass. My instructor quickly put that fear to rest. He told me that what I was doing things right, but that there were just some minor adjustments. Now’s the time to fix them.
I agree. I’d rather know now what I need to work on so that when I’m getting ready for black belt testing, I’m not panicking and trying to relearn things that I was doing incorrectly.
So, I’ve passed and am moving up in the ranks. I’m proud of my accomplishments thus far, but know there’s a long way to go. I also know that with a brown belt comes greater scrutiny and higher expectations.
Big I and I will be promoted this week, so look for a new picture later this week, sporting the must have color for fall: brown. It’s time to say goodbye to the green. . .
If you are not familiar with Karl of Secondhand Tryptophan, you should really make yourself familiar now. You’re missing out on a lot of fun. Karl is getting famous for lip syncing and very interesting performances. For Karl’s 40th birthday, he decided to solicit dares from his readers. He chose five and is doing one on each day leading up to his birthday. Today he posted Dare #4, a challenge from me which was to sing, "Buttons" by The Pussycat Dolls. Instead of doing so in the comfort of his own home, I dared him to do so in public. He is a trooper. You can check it out here, and you might want to scroll back through the other birthday dares and singing/dancing performances because they are nothing short of hysterical. Make sure you tell him "Happy Birthday" while you’re there.
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.
Nunchaku, you are DEAD to me
Last week, I made peace with nunchaku. This week, nunchaku decided our agreement was a bunch of crap and bonked me on the head. I thought we had an understanding, nunchaku! I did, however, learn an important lesson tonight (besides the fact that foam nunchaku is a very good thing). When you are using nunchaku, you must commit to a move and not change it, even if the move is wrong. When you are thinking that you’re going to catch the nunchaku behind your back, and then you see your instructor catch it in front of his chest, DO NOT try to change your motion mid-move. If you change your motion, you will have a very rude awakening. If you’re using wooden nunchaku. . . well, the thought of that alone makes me want to cry. Needless to say, I’ll be sticking with the foam nunchaku until I know the moves really well.
It’s a very good thing that I am able to laugh at myself. There are not too many people in the dojo who you hear screaming as the nunchaku they’re using threatens their face. Hi, yeah, that’s me and I’m not ashamed. I’m also not ashamed when my instructor decides to show the white belts the bunkai of their kata, Nai Hanchi Shodan, and decides that he will treat me as a human house of cards.
Tonight, as the white belts stood there watching his every move, my instructor used an on-guard position to trap my neck and send me dropping like a brick onto the floor. I’m a tall girl. At 5’9", when I drop, people know it. There were audible gasps and "Woah’s" and one "That had to hurt." My instructor responded with "She’s a green belt. She can handle it." I reminded him that this green belt happens to be a little older than your average green belt, but I think that’s part of what makes it more fun for the younger lower belts. When you see a mama dropping to the ground, they have visions of doing that to their own. Who wouldn’t like that vision after being asked to clean your room for the 14th time?
I also had the opportunity to work with a little yellow belt who will be testing next week for green. I worked on his kata and waza with him and helped him with kicks and self-defense as well. He’s very good at his kata, so I basically helped him with the little nit-picky stuff. It was so nice to be working with someone who wants to know their kata. I’m really hoping that Big I gets there sometime soon. Self-defense and waza are not a problem for her, but when it comes to kata, I think she gets overwhelmed and shuts down.
I told her that this weekend, we are breaking down the kata into small parts and she’s going to master each part over the course of three days so that she has six days or so to practice it as a whole for testing next week. She hasn’t tested the last few times because she really wasn’t ready. I want her to be ready this time. I really think that once she starts seeing more color on her belt, she’s going to get more motivated. She likes it when we line up at class and she’s not hanging out at the low end by herself. She likes having people below her, but she’s got to start practicing more if she wants to keep moving forward. It can’t be fun to watch others moving forward while you’re stagnant yourself.
With testing only a little over a week away, we worked tonight on weapons kata’s and self-defense. The self-defense I need to know for 3rd kyu is tricky. I need to know how to get out of a full nelson, a rear double wrist grab, and I also need to know how to get out of being held down on the ground or up against a wall. Practicing being held down on the ground doesn’t really happen at class. Unless it’s a women’s self-defense class, it’s just too awkward. So, our instructors usually demonstrate and then I take it home to have my husband sit on top of me while he threatens to tickle me and I threaten to head butt him if he doesn’t knock it the heck off right now, damn it.
He’s got me by a good 60 lbs or so and he’s a bigger guy. At 6’3" he dwarfs me so when I do the technique on him and it works, I know I’m good to go. Tonight I asked him to grab the front of my shirt and hold me against the wall. When my original plan of sending his elbows in wrong directions didn’t work, I grabbed his jaw/neck and twisted him off of me. He immediately let go and stumbled back away from me. "Ouch. Man, I think you just rubbed my gland or something," he said as he rubbed his neck. That was not the technique I was going for, but apparently I discovered something that works. We both erupted in laughter and moved on.
Next, I had him hold me down onto the floor. Whenever I’m trying something fairly new, I’ll sort of contemplate for a minute or two before I do the technique. My husband uses this as an opportunity to start talking trash at me, which usually makes me crack up laughing, which makes performing an unfamiliar technique that much harder. When I couldn’t do the technique right, we switched roles and my husband sent me flying and my elbow popping, literally. It was reminiscent of the whole knee going in a completely wrong direction thing of a few weeks ago. I started a tirade of ouch’s and other "pleasantries" and he cracked up laughing. He continued laughing until we switched places again and I wrapped his neck up pretzel style with my legs and heard him mumbling from the bottom of the pile, "Yeah, that works. No really. That definitely works."
So the injury count tonight is one sore popped elbow and one "rubbed" neck gland. I think my elbow is a bit more serious than a "rubbed" gland but that’s just me. I’ll have to let everyone at my dojo know that gland rubbing is the new joint lock (I swear, he’s still rubbing his neck a good hour after the incident). I’m also patting myself on the back for picking up the foam nunchaku during class tonight, or this post might have been brought to you from the ER. I think the nunchaku and I need to renegotiate our terms.
My new post "Would Dr. Phil Approve?" is up at Save the Soldiers. If you enjoyed reading about my husband and I sparring, this post offers some more analysis.
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