January 4, 2007
People Change
Something changes when people become black belts. Maybe it’s a new found confidence that greets you when the belt is finally earned. Maybe it’s a deeper understanding of everything that you’ve been learning through the years. Maybe it’s a combination of the two or something else entirely, but something definitely changes.
I used to partner up frequently with a high school girl, back when she was a brown belt and I was a pregnant yellow and then green belt with what appeared to be a basketball under my gi. She’s now in college and I had the opportunity to partner up with her again while she’s on winter break. Sometimes when practicing self defense techniques, you’ll have a partner who takes it sort of easy on you. I tend to do this, probably because I’m most used to having my 5-year old daughter as my partner. Applying lots of force would be counterproductive to say the least. It’s good to go about it this way when someone is first learning a technique. But once you know the basics, as higher ranks should, it’s good to have someone who will hang on the way an attacker would, someone who won’t take it so easy on you.
I don’t know if it’s the absence of the belly for me, or the black belt and intimidating black gi for her, but her techniques were beyond being effective. They were intense and even though I knew what she was going to do, her speed made the techniques come as a surprise. I pity the poor fool who tries to grab her arm at college. He’s a goner, for sure.
Whether it’s the confidence, the experience, or both, I hope that I find that intensity in my techniques at some point. By the time I make it to black belt would be great. Heck, tomorrow would be cool too. In fact, anytime in the future would be just fabulous.
January 4, 2007
Blogalicious
There are apparently awards for bloggers. Who knew? Anyway, if you want to make some nominations, like I did for all my favorites, you can go here. Nominations are accepted until 1/10 and voting takes place on 1/22. Where’s the category for favorite martial arts blog anyway?
And speaking of "blogalicious". . . (because I have that ridiculous Fergie song stuck in my head for all eternity), if you are a reader and commenter here and I haven’t added you to my blogroll, please let me know. Updating my blogroll is a royal pain in the derriere because of the way I have it formatted but I realize it may be time for some additions/edits. And, if you’ve emailed me in the last month and asked for a link, it’s been a crazy month. I’ll get back to you soon!
January 3, 2007
How To Win at Wii Boxing
As promised, here is the video of Big I busting her Wii boxing moves. Just so you know, I did not film this in fast-forward. That’s her actual speed. If only I could get her to move that fast on school mornings.
Can you imagine if she would move like that for sparring at the dojo???
If you have trouble watching this from my site, you can view it here as well: http://one.revver.com/watch/132361/flv/affiliate/17724
December 29, 2006
Just Don’t Ask Me To Lift My Arms
If I told you that it was difficult to get out of bed this morning because my back hurts so badly, and if I told you that lifting my arms above elbow level hurts immensely, you would probably assume that I had a rough night at karate.
You would be wrong.
The only thing rough about karate this week, was the fact that I am so insanely sore from playing the Wii. How is that possible? I am not in bad shape, but apparently the body motions required for playing Wii Sports are not ones that a body does on a regular basis and I am hurting proof of that. Either that or I am just getting old. I prefer the first reason.
I considered asking my instructor if we could do only things requiring feet and legs because my arms are seriously killing me. However, being sore from playing a video game is not exactly an excuse I’d like to share with everyone at the dojo so I didn’t.
At karate this week, it became apparent that I’m going to need to learn how to breathe properly through my kata’s. Since I already know my material for 2nd kyu, I am working on learning the things I’ll need to know for 1st kyu. Last week I worked on the second tunfa kata, Odo No Tunfa Ni. This week I worked on learning Pinan Godan, which is the shortest kata ever. The short thing is cool, but the breathing thing is not. I asked the black belt who was teaching me Pinan Godan to help me with it, and what he said makes sense. You breathe in your nose and you breathe out through your mouth. I never got the whole breathing in your nose part, so I’d end up breathing out when there was not much to breathe out and would start feeling short of breath. Then I’d start feeling light-headed and well, you try concentrating on doing kata when you’re feeling dizzy.
Last night, my instructor let me videotape him doing all of the material for 1st kyu and I am psyched. I love having them on video. We burn them onto our Tivo and then I can practice whenever I want, which makes learning new material so much easier. I wish I would have thought of doing this much earlier in my karate career. Not only does it make learning kata a breeze, but it’s also fabulous blackmail material having your instructor on videotape (just kidding Mr. M!). I told him last night that he just might end up on You Tube.
I might also put up a video of Big I playing Wii Boxing. She is fabulous and has yet to be beat! She knocks out her opponents in the first round almost every single time. Her technique is somewhat. . . haphazard and could probably really help some people. It might also be worth a laugh or two.
When I can lift my arms again, I’ll get right on it.
December 25, 2006
Mer”wii” Christmas
It’s 11:00 p.m. All the presents have been opened. We’re suffering from multiple paper cuts and injuries due to the plastic ties that hold toys in boxes. We’ve decided that we’ll need to move to a bigger house; and the Wii was a HUGE hit.
Big I and Lil C were angels today. Big I loved her Leapster L-Max and Lil C loved her Little People and clothing. Big I thought the festivities were over from Santa and Mommy and Daddy and then we read her the letter Santa left for her. Santa told her that on his way out of the house, he noticed that Mommy and Daddy left a special surprise for her under the downstairs Christmas tree.
She ran down the stairs, ripped open the box and gasped. She was so excited to see the Wii and learn that it wasn’t a CD player for her uncle.
Since the first time she played the boxing game, she mastered it. First she knocked out her Daddy, then my sister’s boyfriend, then me, then her Daddy again. She’s unstoppable, and the Wii is so much fun.
Merry Christmas to those of you who celebrate it. Happy Holidays to those of you who don’t.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check out real estate listings and/or storage facilities.
For those of you who’ve been inquiring. . . My Dad came home from the hospital on Saturday. . . finally.
Copyright
© Copyright 2006-2019 blackbeltmama dot com ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Follow Me
Blog Designed By
My Creations
Things You Could Care Less About
