Striped and looking ahead
Tonight I finally got striped/promoted. It was supposed to happen last week; but I would have needed a boat to get to class after the flooding that happened in this area. It’s not that I didn’t try, which meant that Big I and I sat in traffic for a good two hours before off-roading it through a grassy median and heading home because I couldn’t take listening to Big I saying "This is the worst day of my life," and "Why are we still sitting in line?". Class was canceled anyway and my instructor had to wade through 4 feet of water to even get home, but that’s a different story. . .
4th kyu. It feels good. Now it’s time to get serious. The next test will be for 3rd kyu, brown belt. Once a brown belt, it’s time to sit down and make an action plan for when I’ll test for black belt. It’s looking like it will be December 2007 if everything goes as planned. But, before I get there, I need to get to 3rd kyu and here is what’s required:
Basics:
- Ten step blocking drill moving in nai hanchi with stationary shift and punch (not a problem)
Kicks:
- Yoko Geri-side kick (I’m pretty good with these already.)
- Standing
- Step Behind
Self Defense:
- Rear double wrist grab (not a problem)
- Full Nelson (Are you kidding me? Please! Isn’t this a total junior high guy thing?)
- Held against the wall (Should be fun.)
- Pinned on ground (Oh fun. I am not looking forward to learning that. Actually, knowing it will be great. Practicing it will probably not be so great.)
Waza 7: This shouldn’t be too bad. Waza’s as they go are short, and therefore easy to commit to memory.
Kata:
- Pinan Sandan
- Nai Hanchi Sandan
Um, wait a second. . . is that two? Two open hand kata’s? We did both of these tonight. Neither are that hard. They’ll just take practice. Actually, nai hanchi sandan is really cool. It’s all punches, grabs, and strikes. No kicks. My hip bones are liking that part of it.
Weapons:
- Kyan No Sai
I don’t know this one at all. I do know how to handle the sai which will be a good starting point. Now I just have to wait until my sai come in. I ordered a pair last week that look like this: Black octagonal chrome with wrapped leather handles.
Cool, huh?
I also ordered one of these for Lil C:
What? I couldn’t resist. In case you’re wondering, it says "Future Little Dragon." Lil C took first steps last week, which is entirely TOO EARLY if you ask me, especially considering she only turned 9 months old yesterday. SLOW DOWN ALREADY! But, if she’s going to be walking, then she might as well be learning kata right?
And speaking of which, I better get learning mine too. . .
Before I go though, some minor housekeeping issues:
PSU Mommy’s baby has arrived! He is an absolute doll; and she had another completely natural, drug free labor. Go on over there and congratulate her. You know you want to!
RockStar SuperNova started tonight! I loved this show last summer when INXS was searching for a lead singer. Marty was ROBBED by the way. Deep breath, deep breath. . . Anyway, I think I’m going with Mr. Australia, Toby, from this early preliminary viewing of the potential rockers. If you haven’t seen this show and like to hear good music, you need to tune in. It rocks, literally.
Also, if you’re interested in reading some great writing about family life, check out the latest Carnival of Family Life. Yours truly is listed there as well. Anyone can participate and you might win a box of chocolates for your efforts.
I again want to express my sincere thank you to all of you who commented and emailed with condolences and kind words regarding the loss of our friend Sheree. To be honest, I feel silly accepting such condolences though. For me and my family it’s sad; for Sheree’s family it’s been devastating. Please direct your prayers and positive thoughts towards her family. They are the ones who need it the most. Once again I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Who would have thought that friends made through the blogging world could be such wonderful people and such great friends.
4th kyu
I will officially be "striped" next week, but I have passed my 4th kyu test. My belt will look like this next week:
Oh yeah! This is the last of the green belts. Next time I test it will be for brown belt with one black stripe, then two stripes, then three, and then black belt. This testing felt GREAT! I did everything without a mistake. It was a welcome change from the last time I tested.
I should have remembered that the week following testing is sparring week. I completely forgot; so I showed up at class all excited to start learning my new open hand kata and sai kata. I was sorely disappointed to hear that we were supposed to gear up. In two weeks, our dojo will have six brown belts testing for black belt and two black belts testing for the next dan. This is the most we’ve had in a long time.
Before the official IKKF testing, all brown belts test internally at our dojo. For our IKKF test, sparring is not required. For internal testing, it is (silently sobs while thinking about my future.) Tonight sort of reminded me of fraternity hell week. All brown belts were required to be there for both the early and late class. They sparred, three minute rounds, for two hours straight. Because this was their testing, me and the other lower ranks were put into the sparring rings intermittently with them.
I tested at the beginning of class and was sort of whining about having to spar. My instructor said he was "very interested to see how I would do." After all, the last time I sparred it was with him and he was trying to teach me some tricks and help me with technique. As soon as he said that, my first thought was, "I’m going to disappoint him." My next thought was, "I am going to walk into this ring with confidence (real or make-believe, whatever I have to do.) and try my best."
So I did. My instructor put me opposite a young teenage boy who is very good at sparring. He’s good at watching you and picking you apart. He’s good at waiting for you to make a mistake. Before it was my turn, I watched the other brown belts and took notes as to what worked and what didn’t. I was prepared to try new things, so I did.
Instead of using my back leg for front snap kicks, I instead turned to the side when facing my opponent, cutting off possible strike areas. Instead of snap kicks, I used round house kicks. They seemed to work much better for me. At one point, I followed a round house kick with a punch and a backfist to the head. It probably looked pretty sloppy, but it worked. Of course, I apologized to my sparring partner for hitting him in the head. I’m silly like that. If someone hits me, I have to bite my tongue in order not to apologize for being hit. My instructor interrupted the match to tell me that it was a good strike and that I had nothing to apologize for. I can’t tell you how good that made me feel. So what if the kid is like 13 years old.
I got a bit of a break and then was put in a ring with a 10-year old. He’s a little guy but he’s a feisty one. Here’s the dilemma. With the teenager, I can mentally deal with it. He’s a teenager after all and he looks older. With a 10-year old? Not so much. It’s hard for a Mommy to hit or kick a little boy, even if he’s testing for black belt in two weeks. Also, his Mom was in the dojo watching. I’m sure she just loved watching a 30-something year old woman kicking her kid.
So, there I am feeling all silly fighting this little guy, when he throws a high round house kick at me that NAILS me right in the chest. This chest is currently functioning to provide sustenance to my baby daughter so it did not feel good. Not at all. The next time he nailed me I walked right into yet another round house kick, but to the gut this time. It hurt. He hit my floating ribs and I decided I wasn’t getting kicked anymore. I blocked the majority of the rest of the kicks he threw at me. At one point, I came up under his kick (by accident, but still people, this is good) and sort of moved my arm around so that he was thrown off balance. If I would have kept going, he would have been on the floor. I didn’t continue with the rotation. I probably should have.
I am happy to report that he was unable to make contact with my head. This could be because I had him by almost two feet; but I’m going with the whole I did a good job blocking thing. I made some controlled contact with him, and that felt really good. I think he saw this tall woman coming out and just decided that he could use whatever force he wanted to. I mean, really, what grown person is going to complain about a 10-year old using too much force? Not me! At least not in the dojo anyway. I save it for here.
I think I made some good progress with my sparring and demonstrated it tonight. It wasn’t perfect. I have a long way to go. Even though I am one step closer to black belt tonight, it couldn’t seem further away with all that I know I need to accomplish before I am even able to test for it. Tonight, I suggested to my husband that we buy sparring gear and spend some time each night after the girls go to bed beating the crap out of each other. It would be great exercise and good practice for me. He was sort of receptive to the idea; but to be honest. . . I think he’s scared. I fight dirty after all.
As predicted. . .
Lil C has a fever of 102.5. That’s with the Tylenol. She is cranky, miserable, and I can’t blame her. I was there on Tuesday. It wasn’t fun. I am feeling much better as of this afternoon. In fact, I was feeling so much better that when the head instructor of my karate school emailed to say he could meet me at the dojo for some private review. . . I knew I had to get there tonight.
Lil C was only slightly warm when I left at 5 p.m. I gave her some Tylenol, fed her, and went on my way. The plan was to get there by 5:30, work out for a half hour, and then be home by 6:30. Two of my instructors were there, so we started talking. We talked for a while and then got down to business. We went through all of the material for my 4th kyu test. . . all of it several times. I got home around 8:00 p.m. Oops.
My husband was thrilled with me. He had made dinner while holding a screaming inconsolable baby. At one point he had to turn dinner off so he could hold our screaming inconsolable daughter. Lil C finally passed out in protest after screaming her head off looking for me. My husband said he’s never heard her cry like that. I felt horrible about it. Really, I did.
At the same time, I haven’t been to karate in three weeks. I needed to go and have some one-on-one time; and it was glorious. I savored every second, even when my instructor was contorting my arms into extremely uncomfortable positions to demonstrate yet another way to get out of a choke hold.
Official testing is in the morning, but unless Lil C has a miraculous recovery, I’m not going to make it. Tonight, while practicing, my instructor told me that I have passed, so if I don’t make official testing tomorrow it’s not a big deal. I will be promoted next week with everyone else. I’m just going to go in before my regular class and run through the kata’s as a formality one more time. 4th kyu. . . three brown stripes on my green belt. When the stripe goes on the belt, I will be over the hump. I will be closer to black belt than I am to white. Next time I test, I will earn my brown belt. So cool.
The best thing about tonight is that after a couple run throughs on my weapons kata, and after coming home and running through it a few more times, I am able to do it well and with confidence. My open hand kata is in great shape as well. The last time I tested, I felt I didn’t deserve the promotion. I felt I passed by the skin of my teeth. I felt like they had given me a gift. I don’t like feeling like that. This time I don’t. I’ve earned it; I know my stuff.
Next week I start looking forward towards 3rd kyu and the material I need to learn. . .
Tonight I’m just going to take care of my baby (who will be up every hour on the hour I’m sure), and pray that Big I is spared this crazy summer flu.
A Lesson in Restraint
In karate, everyone is always talking about control. [Mat] recently learned what happens when the person you are sparring with lacks control. His opponent also lacked decorum and respect. Lirian Fae has also found out about control, or the lack thereof, recently. Higher ranks are supposed to have control over their punches and kicks during sparring or bag work. In other words, you don’t have to knock someone on to the ground to prove you’re effective. The people who have the most control over their moves are the ones who know their distance and timing as well.
I’ve got a lesson for you in control. Tonight at karate class, we did bag work. We haven’t done bag work in a while because our classes have been pretty small. Tonight, our class was filled with little people. (I felt so old it wasn’t even funny.) The closest person in age to me? He’s in high school. Most of the students tonight were closer to Big I’s age then to mine. So, when we were told to get in pairs, I was hoping that Big I would want to pair up with someone more her size and rank. Not a chance. "I want to be your partner, o.k.? O.k.? O.k?" There were two brown belts in class, one green (me), one yellow and then five little white belts. I was hoping for some brown belt action, but it wasn’t to be. 
So, I held the bag for her first. We started with snap kicks. Instead of holding her fists up in front of her and using them to balance (I don’t expect her to actually move them around yet to block while kicking), she swings her arms up and down with each kick. Each kick ends up looking sort of like an out of control pendulum swinging up and maybe making contact with the bag before it goes crashing down to the floor usually along with the rest of her body. Tonight she made some decent contact with the bag; her kicking technique is another story. She does seem to take a special kind of joy in kicking Mommy though. That can be a little disturbing. So, after Big I gave Mommy (and her own butt) a beating, it was my turn.
After being in a bear of a mood all day long, I was hoping to be able to really nail the bag, maybe do some thrust kicks or something. With Big I, I’m lucky if she’ll hold the bag upright instead of sitting on it and pretending it’s a raft. (Yes, bo’s are ‘horsies’; bags are rafts. We’ll get there people, eventually).
When Big I holds the bag, it goes from her ankles to just under her chin. Instead of holding the handles on the sides of the bag like I do, she loops her one arm through the handles on the back of the bag. Instead of getting into a side ways nai hanchi or a front facing seisan stance for support, she usually teeters on her heels, grinning ear to ear and trying to just hold the bag up. Honestly, all I really hoped for is that she would just hold the bag still.
While partnering with her over the past year or so, I have snap kicked the bag right up into her chin on numerous occasions. This shouldn’t happen if you’re holding the bag correctly. Big I doesn’t seem to mind though. She usually cracks up, and stumbles around the dojo with the heavy bag, her arm firmly looped through the back handles. Sometimes, she thinks that when she has the heavy bag, it’s time for a good old-fashioned game of tag. It can get a little frustrating at times, but her laugh is so intoxicating and funny that it’s hard not to be at least a little bit amused.
So, Big I held the bag like she always does, stumbling around from side to side and back to front, forcing me to constantly reevaluate where I would place my kick and how far away I needed to be from her in order to not send her flying. Each kick, I grazed the bag, moving it enough to let her know I hit it, but not enough to throw her for a loop. I was frustrated in the beginning, but then I started looking at it as a learning experience. When, after all, will a sparring partner or a bad person on the street for that matter, stand still so I can kick them?
They won’t.
So, just as I was adjusting to the constant resetting for snap kicks, my instructor decided to change it up with round house kicks. When doing round house kicks with a partner, the partner turns sideways and holds the bag in front of them. You stand facing the opposite direction, draw you foot up, lean away from the kicking leg, and extend your leg out the side to make contact with the bag with the top of your foot.
Round house kicks are challenging. You must maintain good balance. You must land your kick and then place your foot back down and reset. I’ve found them to be the most challenging kick, even more so than the back or side kick. I didn’t realize how challenging they would be though, until I had a squirmy kid holding the bag who just didn’t get it. She kept turning and facing me, forcing me to kick the side of the bag, a rather small target of only a few inches, compared to the front of the bag. I had to constantly readjust my position in order to make contact with the bag. It was sort of like a karate merry-go-round.
If there is one thing that Big I just doesn’t get, it’s positioning. After working with the bags for a while, we were divided up into groups. The white and yellow belts went to work on some of the lower kata’s and the brown belt and I went to work on our material with our instructor. I stole a couple glances across the dojo at Big I and instead of facing the mirror while doing kata, she firmly plants herself directly in front of someone who is doing the kata. She does this sort of dance the entire time. My instructor just figured it out a few weeks ago. She learns best if you mirror her. You have to be facing her; standing beside her doesn’t work. I guess this could explain why her positioning with the bags is so off too. She just doesn’t see how the system is supposed to work yet. I have faith though, that eventually she will.
In another few weeks, I am going to start staying for the later class which is all brown belts, mostly ones who will be testing for black belt in the summer. I am hoping for some good bag work then where I can focus on my technique more than on crazy distancing (I’ll save those lessons for sparring.) In the meantime, I’ve got my heavy bag downstairs; and apparently learning better technique is going to have to be a solitary venture.
McNuggets equals Motivation?
Big I is much more interested in her acting class than her karate class lately. In fact, she’s so interested in her acting class, that her karate class is paling in comparison, as in "NOOOOO! I don’t want to go to karate today." My husband made a deal with her; one that I wasn’t particularly crazy about. In fact, I’m still kind of wondering what we should do about this whole anti-karate attitude she’s got going lately. His deal is simple: quit karate-no more McDonald’s. Continue with karate-go to McDonald’s. For the child that walks around this house singing "Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba Bah. . . I’m lovin’ it," this has been quite a conundrum.
Today she asked me about the details of this little arrangement, as in "What do I have to do so I can quit karate and still go to McDonald’s?" I told her the solution is simple: become a black belt, Sensei Big I, and then you can do whatever you want. If you want to quit, quit. You can still go to McDonald’s. Her eyes lit up. She said, "REALLY, MOMMY???? REALLY? You mean IT?" I said, "Yep, all you have to do is get a black belt. The fastest way to do that is to go to class and learn as much as you can, and practice." She was so excited about the idea of not going to karate and still being able to go to McDonald’s that she kissed me, hugged me and squealed "THANK YOU MOMMY!"
Does she think they just hand out black belts; or does she not realize the work involved? I think it’s definitely the latter. Once she does realize what she’s agreed to, I can just see her taking a black permanent marker to that milky white belt of hers. She is quite the little artist.
I know that Big I doesn’t get the big picture yet. I know that she doesn’t understand or appreciate the Martial Arts the way that I do. She started when she was 3.5 years old though and she’s only now 5. Right now, all I want is for her to go and let it sink in slowly. I’m hoping the appreciation part will follow.
For me, I’ve had a respect for it from the beginning. I like the challenge of a new kata and feel empowered when I learn new self defense techniques. Learning karate and kobudo has done wonders for my confidence. I’m in it for the long haul and see the black belt as the first of many promotions I hope to one day attain. I want that black belt, not for the color or for the bragging rights. I want that black belt because I want the knowledge and confidence that (I think) comes along with it. I enjoy going to class when there are students who outrank me. I feel that I really learn from them. Most students are more than happy to help you out regardless of age or rank.
The annoying part about the Martial Arts is that there are definitely people who are only at the dojo for the bragging rights. They are there, not for a personal journey and accomplishment, but for the belt itself. These are the students who memorize the moves but have no power behind their punches, no purpose in their learning. These are the students who get frustrated when going over the first kata for a new student who has joined the class, or for someone who needs or wants to review. They don’t see the value in review. They want to learn their kata, their material. Just like students who cram for tests and quickly forget the material afterwards, these martial arts students are the same. They don’t take each kata and make it their own. They don’t see the bunkai (application) in the kata or care to learn it. They only want to do the bare minimum that it takes to move on, get the next stripe, get the next belt.
Kindergarten orientation proved that karate has had some benefits for Big I. A child who lacked self-confidence would not have dealt so well with a little adversity. My husband and I agree that she should stick it out, at least for now. I sincerely hope that our little McDonald’s deal with Big I doesn’t backfire and make her into one of the types of students that annoy me. I am hoping that she’ll see the meaning in it, that eventually she’ll be intrinsically motivated to learn and want to continue to learn. But for right now, it’s all about the Happy Meals.
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