Making Peace with Nunchaku
I am not a fan of nunchaku. I bought a wooden pair last year and I keep them by my bedside. Not because I know how to use them properly and could do any damage, more because I figure if someone breaks in my house, I can at least throw them at the attacker and have a chance of knocking them out. My nunchaku are heavy, and when used in proper nunchaku fashion, they hurt. O.k. I guess that wouldn’t really be proper nunchaku fashion/technique if they hurt while using them, but you get the idea.
Nunchaku is a weapon for men. Guys just like these contraptions. Girls. . . (at least the ones I know), not so much. After my test for 3rd kyu, nunchaku will become my life. The test for 2nd kyu has two weapons kata’s: a bo kata that is complicated, and a nunchaku kata that just plain scares me. Without foam nunchaku to practice with at home, I realize that it’s only a matter of time before I’ve got some serious bruising (and a possible knock-out).
In the advanced class tonight, it was just me and a 3rd kyu. She is young. I think she’s maybe 10, and she is a joy to watch. She takes her karate very seriously and you just know that she’s practicing at home and living and breathing her kata’s. Because she needs the nunchaku kata for her test in two weeks, we practiced the kata several times. I found a nice thick foam nunchaku and my instructor and the 3rd kyu picked up the bruise-inducing kind.
Before we started the kata, my instructor demonstrated proper swinging techniques. Who knew that the faster you go with the nunchaku, the less you beat the living daylights out of yourself? Certainly not me. He also revealed a trick of the trade: moving the hips along with the nunchaku. If you just stand there and swing them, they’re going to hit you and even when they’re foam, the hit they deliver is an unpleasant reminder that, "Hey, idiot, you’re not doing this right."
The nunchaku kata itself is confusing. I don’t see the pattern in it yet and until you do, it makes going through the motions that much harder. The beginning was surprisingly lacking the back pounding hits I’m used to delivering to myself. But once you start kneeling and swinging and changing things up, I was sending my hair whipping through the air and just hoping I could keep up. I’m not worried about the test for 3rd kyu, but what comes after is going to be brutal.
Brutal is also how bedtime went tonight with Big I. Tomorrow she starts Kindergarten. For a bedtime story she asked me to read the book, "When I was a baby." This book is one that comes blank. You put in a picture on the last page of your baby and the picture shows through to all the other pages. The book starts out by telling about your baby’s birth, then the firsts, then the favorites, etc. I felt like I was choking the entire time I read the story. Big I sort of giggled at me. It was a very appropriate book for Kindergarten Eve as we’ve been calling it all day, but appropriate doesn’t make it any easier.
Tonight we plugged in Big I’s new Cinderella alarm clock, and kissed her goodnight. Tomorrow is going to be exciting, but brutal on the emotions. It’s the equivalent of mental nunchaku for me. I have a feeling that dropping her off at school is going to feel a lot like a big old slap on the back from my wooden friends. Say a little prayer that I can hold it together until she’s out of sight. I’m going to need all the help I can get.
In the Beginning
Big I and I attended a different class than our usual one this week due to some scheduling conflicts. I was very pleasantly surprised to see two brand new students who were attending their first class together. The most exciting part is that the two new students were a father and his son who couldn’t have been more than five years old.
Our dojo used to be filled with parent/child duo’s or trio’s. That doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. I’m usually the oldest one by a good ten years or so, and I can’t tell you how refreshing it is to see a new ADULT in the dojo. I wanted to go and hug him, but I thought that might be a bit awkward. It might scare him away, and I certainly DO NOT want that. It’s nice to not be the only one throwing punches and kicks at a 5-year old.
In the intermediate class, I was high rank. The next closest rank to me were some very little yellow belts. Because it was the new duo’s first class, our instructor kept the lesson plan pretty basic. We did lots of punches, kicks, and bag work. We also did some basic self defense, wrist grabs to be exact. Along with the honor of being high rank in class, also comes the responsibility of becoming a human pretzel on command. I’m getting pretty good at the whole human pretzel thing.
Thankfully, this weeks demonstration did not involve me hitting the ground with force. Instead, this week was all about twisting my arm behind my back and using different joint locks to make me instantly sink to the ground. I’ve always suspected it, but this week it was revealed for sure. I think my instructor (who now reads AND commented on this blog) takes a certain type of pleasure in making people drop like flies. It’s never done in a malicious way, just a matter-of-fact, this-is-how-its-done, "you’re going down" type of way. I can’t wait until I can make someone drop like that without even thinking about it. Right now, my brain just completely interferes. It’s like I have a little gi-wearing master sitting on my shoulder saying, "Not like that Stupid!", "You know bad guys aren’t going to give you a second chance," etc. etc. I can’t wait until I get better and can just shut down the little gi-wearing conscience that chips away at my confidence.
I remember my first week at karate, now over two years ago. I learned a simple way to get out of a wrist grab and a couple punches and kicks. I left the dojo ready to take on the WORLD. I felt downright bad. I oozed a "Don’t mess with me" demeanor. At the time I was taking class with my neighbors and their daughter as well. After class, we would usually go out to eat or pick up pizza. I remember walking into restaurants wearing my gi thinking I was so damn cool, thinking that people must be afraid of me, of us, our little gang of white belts. Of course, we never wore our white belts anywhere. We’d let them all wonder. Were we black belts? Brown? Green? And then I found out what everyone was really wondering. . .
"Do you work in nursing?"
What a way to blow a perfectly healthy ego!
I found myself thinking about the journey so far as I drove home this week. It seems funny to me that I think I had more confidence back when I was a lower rank. It seems that the more you learn, the more inadequate you can start to feel.
It also doesn’t help that in my advanced class, we did a black belt kata that the new black belts need for 2nd degree black belt. I believe it was called "Chinto" but a more appropriate name would have been something like "In San Ity". It’s a kata that is done in a straight line, back and forth. Our instructor said to imagine you are fighting on a narrow bridge over a waterway, or on the narrow patch of land between rice paddies. To me, it seemed more like log rolling or something. It was really difficult. At one point, all three black belts did what I think they called a "knee kick" which simply put is just a throw-yourself-in-the-air-with-both-legs-eloquently-flailing-at-ridiculous-heights-and-land-ready-to-attack. All three black belts defied gravity as I watched in awe, sort of hopped a few steps and said, "Yeah, I’ll meet you on the other side." They would have waited I think, but that’s a move I’ll need some private time with before revealing in a public forum.
Our instructor told me and "thatblackbeltchic" (who is also reading and commenting on my blog) that we need to quit saying things like "That wasn’t very good" and other self-deprecating phrases that we both use on a regular basis. Although it will be hard, especially considering I’m the gal who apologizes during sparring for actually landing a hit, I’m going to work on that. Maybe if I act the part, I’ll start to feel it and my karate will improve. I’m going to try to stop putting myself down and start acting like I know what I’m doing (even if I don’t). It may be an issue of the chicken and the egg. What comes first? Being good at karate, or thinking you are good which turns into a self-fulfilling prophecy?
I’ll let you know how it works out.
They Found Me Out
I’m going to go backwards in my karate recap this week, because it was the end of class tonight that was so mind-blowing. It all started with a simple statement by one of the new black belts:
"By the way, I like your blog," she said.
"You read my BLOG," I blurted out in surprise. "Which one?" I asked her. "Both," she responded. "I like your writing style," she said. Oh, Good GOD! I don’t know how I expected to remain anonymous. My hometown newspaper publishes a stripped down version of my blog on their website. It’s easily accessible to people who want to read the newspaper online. I just kind of figured that people in my hometown didn’t read blogs. I guess I was wrong. Then she says:
"Mrs. "D" told me about it." ACK! "Mrs. D" is the mother of two new junior black belts at our dojo. One of her students is the 10-year old who completely kicked my butt while sparring, AND I WROTE ABOUT IT!
My instructor seemed excited that I was writing about karate and thrust a notebook and pen at me to write down the website. While I was writing, my reader says, "Yeah, she writes about you," to my instructor. He gave me a look like he didn’t know if that was a good thing or not. I assured him it was totally fine. I’m an honest person and I speak the truth on this site. The good thing is that the truth about what happens at my dojo is usually a good thing, and I am totally NOT just saying that because I fully realize that my instructor will probably print out my blog for the entire dojo to read. ACK! Did I just say that? Please Mr. Instructor Man- no printing of the blog. Yeah, it’s. . . um. . . copyrighted or something.
So, from now on if my entries seem a little more detailed, like not just "the tall teenage black belt", but instead "the tall dashingly handsome and always so helpful and one heck of a kata-er black belt", well you know why; And if his sister isn’t simply described as "his sister and fellow black belt" but instead as "a loyal and faithful reader o’ mine who happens to have a command over her weapons kata’s like the Okinawan Master’s themselves". . . Well, it’s just me, a 4th kyu, trying to kiss some black belt bum. And while we’re addressing my fellow dojo-goer’s, "Hi guys!" and "Please don’t hurt me."
Everyone likes to see their name in lights or in blog writing for this example, but rest assured that your names will not be used and I will ALWAYS (from this point forward) be absent on sparring days just in case you’re not flattered by my description of one of you totally kicking me in the mammaries or something. Moving right along. . .
I’ve been accused on my hometown blog of being "self-absorbed" to which I would respond, "Dude, it’s a blog which means web log or ‘journal’, which means it’s my personal experiences, thoughts, and is therefore untouchable to the accusation of being self-absorbed. So, in the nature of being self-absorbed, I’m just going to come out and say it: Karate tonight was ALL ABOUT ME! That’s right. ME!
And thanks to this occurrence during both the intermediate and advanced classes, I know ALL of my kata’s for 3rd kyu. They are by no means perfect and I have to continue to work at committing them to memory and hope that by testing they flow the way they should. I now know them well enough to practice them at home.
I bragged tonight by making my husband watch me perform all three of my kata’s (including the sai kata thanks to a generous loan from my instructor because my ordered sai are apparently being molded out of liquid magma or something and apparently this takes time). When I caught my husband’s attention waning and his eyes drifting towards the Seinfeld episode behind me, I called him on it. His response, to his 4th kyu wife? "Well, you’re like talking to yourself." UM, YEAH! I need to talk myself through them until I know them well enough to just do them. He needs to remember there are SAI in the house. SAI, you know with points and very dagger like. Yeah. I like undivided attention, lending credence to the whole self-absorbed thing. Seriously, some of my rude commenter’s over there say that like it’s a bad thing. Geesh.
But getting back to me. . . during the intermediate class, we worked almost exclusively on Nai Hanchi Sandan. It is a cool kata that moves on a straight line like the other Nai Hanchi kata’s, and it is all arms. When you know this one really well, it looks awesome. During the past few years at the dojo, I always enjoyed seeing the higher ranks perform this kata. They just look so wicked when they’re doing it. We’ll see how good I can get it by next week. I don’t know if I can pull off "wicked" quite yet, especially since the breathing I’m supposed to start doing during kata’s makes me feel like I’m going to hyperventilate. That would be wicked looking alright.
During the advanced class, we worked almost exclusively on Pinan Sandan. I am not a Pinan fan. This one seems particularly strange and during one part Big I almost always laughs. With your fists on your hips you step through and block with your fists still on your hips, followed by a back fist. You do this three times. It feels more like "I’m a Little Teapot" than a kata and I think that’s why Big I gets such a kick out of it.
I plan on spending a lot of time working on kata this week. (I also plan on spending a lot of time going through old entries and editing out "spicing up" descriptions of my fellow dojo mates.) This is the crucial week. If I work on it, it will get cemented in the brain. If I don’t, I just might lose it and THAT is not an option with testing just a few short weeks away.
Why do I have the feeling that returning to the dojo next week is going to feel like going back to school after puking in the classroom the previous day?
Oh, and one last thing. For testing, we usually have a list of karate vocabulary that we need to know. Here is this week’s vocabulary list for one of my favorite new blogger finds, Mr. SecondHand Karl himself. I "rented" a spot on his illustrious site last week and his descriptions of me and my site were nothing short of hysterical. So, to thank him for all the free promo, here is a list of vocabulary words for you Karl. Feel free to use them however you choose:
- pinan
- sandan
- nai
- hanchi
- sai
- magma
- humiliation
- embarrassment
- witness protection program (I really hope it doesn’t come to this. . . )
Did you make it this far? Seriously!?! If you did, please say "Hi" so that I can at least email you back the last 20 minutes of your life.
Got it!
I was elated after karate class last week because I had my waza (small series of moves) down. (I’m trying to explain myself a little better for non karate-ka’s. It was pointed out to me that the terms "waza" and "bunkai" can be a bit confusing for the gi-less.) It felt good to have one of the many things I need for brown belt testing committed to knowledge. I am happy to announce the second. . . Kyan No Sai. I know my weapons kata and I know it well. There are lots of little intricacies that I’m missing I’m sure; but for now, the pattern is there and that’s the first step.
During the intermediate class, we went through the sai kata several times, but that’s not what made it click. Last week in class, we used the sai in a mock fight against an attacker with a bo. We used the moves from the kata for this, and there is nothing like bunkai (application of the kata) to make you commit it to memory for good. If someone is going to be swinging a big stick at you and all you have are sai to protect yourself, you’re going to learn how to use them pretty quickly.
I have doubled my karate class load and I am enjoying it greatly. When I did this before I had Lil C, I found that I learned kata’s much faster. It only takes a week or two of doubling the time and you can already see a difference. Kata’s start to sink in so much faster. Even the way you do basics improves, or at least feels like it does.
Speaking of basics, Big I did her new waza last night for our instructor. He took so much time with her, helping her with the pattern during class. After class, he kept her and made her go through it again. And after my advanced class, he pulled her back out on the floor and made her go through it one more time. I’m going to hound her this week to make sure she has it down for good. They say that the younger you are, the faster knowledge sinks in; but I’m not so sure that applies to karate. Another first for Big I? She actually spoke to our instructor. Until this point she has only nodded or placed her cheek on her shoulder while wishing she could disappear when being addressed. This was a big step all on its own!
After the intermediate class, several other students who are currently 4th kyu’s as well came over and asked me how much of the material I knew for brown belt testing. Testing is September 16th. I told them that I knew my waza and the sai kata. They asked me to go through the sai kata with them a few times. Teaching the kata to someone else is really the best way to learn it once you know the basics of the pattern. I am beginning to feel like brown belt testing in September will actually be a reality for me. A few weeks ago I thought there was no way I would be ready. I considered asking about waiting until December to test, but I don’t think that will be necessary now.
I would hope that if I tested and wasn’t ready, that my instructor would tell me so. Sure, it would be disappointing, but it doesn’t feel good to be passed along when you haven’t earned it.
Speaking of moving up the ranks, a few weeks ago our instructor pointed out that lining up goes by rank, but when there are several students of the same rank, the older person is first. I respect others in the dojo for what they have done, and it’s nice to be respected back for the rank that I have earned. It’s also nice to know that at least somewhere there’s a benefit for being older than others. After all the teasing I get from my family about being a "Kramer" and taking karate class with kids, I should get some benefit right?
I have always had a respect for others in the dojo, especially my instructors. Last night in the advanced class, I was the lowest rank once again. There were two other black belts and our instructor. We went through the new open hand kata’s that I need to know for testing: Pinan Sandan and Nai Hanchi Sandan. After running through the kata’s a few times, we moved onto some basic sparring drills applying moves from the kata. And this is where my poor, sad, arms come into the story.
I was paired up with my instructor. I started by throwing two punches at him: first with the right, then the left. He used a move from the Pinan kata where he blocked my arm, grabbed with the other hand and back fisted my face. My instructor is very good at sparring and these sparring drills. Almost every time I came at him with my punches, he changed it up and did something different. I did a lot of flinching.
Then we switched places and I held my own. I got tangled up in his arm a couple times but I got the hang of it by the end of the drill. When my instructor went on and started explaining the next drill, he asked me to throw a right punch as he blocked, followed by a left punch that he blocked and then another back fist. He was trying to show different ways that you could apply these moves and I thought he wanted me to throw two punches rapid fire. So I did. The first one he blocked successfully; the second landed right above his eye. The horror! I felt awful about it and began apologizing profusely. He laughed and told me he’d rather have me making a little bit of contact then finishing my punch and being three inches away. I told him he could punch me back if he wanted to get even. Instead he just blocked my punches as usual, making me flinch along the way, and occasionally inflicting that tingly pain in my arms from his blocks. Ouch.
After my turn was over, he said I did well. He said he was throwing the punches at full speed and I was blocking correctly. With these drills the object is to let your attacker’s punch get as close to making contact as possible. You want them committed to the punch, and that’s when you take advantage of their balance and their commitment and throw them for a loop or two (sometimes literally).
Although this advanced class is challenging, I am learning things in that class that I wouldn’t otherwise learn until I was a much higher rank. Anyone can learn a kata, but learning how to apply that kata is where your true understanding and self-defense techniques come in. I feel like I’m getting a jump start on learning the more advanced skills and that can only serve to make me a better martial artist.
High Rank, Low Rank
I have doubled my karate intake each week and am loving it. I think I’m learning a lot about myself in the process. During my earlier class, I am usually the high rank in the class. We go over some of my material, but for me it is mostly a review. I’m not complaining. This is a good thing. The last thing I want to do is forget and there is a lot of material to learn, especially considering that we don’t just learn open hand karate at my dojo. We have a whole slew of weapons that we need to know how to use as well.
During the advanced class, I am always the low rank. Last week it was me and another black belt. Tonight we had two black belt instructors, two new black belts and yours truly. We reviewed weapons kata’s and then practiced bunkai (application). Last week, I learned my waza in a 30 minute period by constantly going through the motions and practicing the bunkai (and getting very sore arms in the process). This week we took parts of my sai kata and learned the application. As my instructor stood there swinging the bo at me, I was tentative at first. Because he highly encourages getting our strikes as close as possible, I kept at it. It was by no means perfect, but it felt really good the more I did it. There is nothing like bunkai to help you commit moves to memory (both mental and muscle).
I thought that I would enjoy being the high rank in class over the low rank. Instead, I’m finding the opposite. I enjoy the challenge of being in class with black belts. I like learning the application. It doesn’t matter how crisp your kata is; if you can’t use it when it’s necessary to do so, you’re going to be in trouble.
The other great thing about being in the company of higher ranks is that you get to practice some really cool self defense. Tonight, we learned self defense with a pencil, pen, or other such implement. No pencil or pen? We learned how to use our thumbs to make an attacker drop to the ground.
My issue with self defense is that when I come home to practice it on my husband (who is much bigger than I am) I sometimes run into trouble. He is strong and when he really grabs hold of my arm or wrist, I sometimes have trouble maneuvering. Of course, this is what distractions are for (tail butt kick to the groin, foot stomp, etc.), but what if the attacker continues to hang on or you can’t get one of these distractions off in a timely matter?
I asked my instructors for some help with this. I asked my instructors how to get out of being pinned on the ground with someone much bigger and stronger. We spent an extra 45 minutes after class continuing the techniques. They are exciting to me, because just knowing where certain points are on a body or how to move them turns the threat of someone much bigger than you into a much smaller problem. So much of self defense seems to be understanding angles (I really wish I would have paid more attention in geometry for that reason!) and body mechanics.
Of course, it wouldn’t be karate class without me apologizing for something. Tonight was no exception. My instructor was teaching me what to do if a much larger and stronger person would be attempting to hit me with a hook punch. We talked about where I would need to stop the momentum in order to be successful and then he taught me a move where you step closer to the attacker, using your one arm to grab and block the punching arm while the other hand strikes the throat. By moving in when your attacker expects you to move back or stand still, you avoid the impact of the punch and make a stunning strike. I watched him demonstrate the technique on me and then I gave it a shot. I was excited about the move and because of my excitement, I popped my instructor in his Adam’s Apple when I moved in to do the strike. I promptly began my litany of apologies. He told me I did it exactly right and took it in stride. (This is the same instructor who when teaching me techniques for fending off a knife attack, had something snap in his already injured shoulder because I was a bit overzealous.)
I appreciate the fact that my instructors are so eager for me to learn the proper way to do things that they sort of self-sacrifice. It was the same way with using the pencil as a weapon. I was pretending to strike him, and instead he had me use the eraser side and actually strike him. It helps you to learn because you know what kind of pressure you need to use and where you need to hit exactly. Without that kind of training, you’d be out of luck with a real attacker. An attacker is not going to give you a second chance to hit the right spot. You’re not going to be able to request a do over.
Although it can be a bit intimidating to be in the company of so my black belts, I’ve realized that any good black belt only wants to help others learn what they already know. I have learned so much from the black belts at my dojo. Sparring with them, partnering with them, and watching the way they do things can only make me better.
Injury update: My knee is feeling so much better. During a workout with my heavy bag the other night, I was working on the placement of kicks. Something popped in my knee and since then I have felt a huge improvement. Karate this week felt great. I am so happy it was not anything serious!
If I haven’t lost you by now, there’s a new birth story up. Go and check it out.
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