Fist in the Frost

I've been fighting a cold for the last week and now I'm about to step on a plane to go to Mexico for two weeks. If I see anything martial I write about it, but I may not have the energy to type in the heat.

A long time I ago I was listening to a NPR story and I heard this guy talk about his experience playing basketball in a evening. He was short and fat knew he would never play in the NBA, however he related that at one point in his life, for one evening, for every shot he took, it was if the hoop was 12 feet wide. He would take his shots and turn to run without evening looking because he knew they were going in. He described is as to how Micheal Jordan must have felt every time he played.

I felt that way last night in a Karate way. We were practicing a lot of randori and focus drills and I was on fire. Every choice I took was quick, focused and even the others in class were murmuring about how good I looked.

However to every great thing there must be balance so with all my enthusiasm I ended up spraining my thumb (again) and covered myself in some serious bruises. I didn't even feel any of it during the evening. I noticed the thumb on the drive home when I tried to put the k…

A couple of weeks ago we were doing focus mitt drills which required us to strike both of outside mitts in a combination and then kick the holder as the final shot. This went very well so we started changing the combination to kicks to the mitts and then a strike to the holder.

My turn to hold the mitts. Everyone was doing very well with speed and accuracy when Check took her turn. I was very relaxed being the holder and was paying attention to the folks striking to see what I could see. Check took her position and I could see her focusing on the mitt on my left hand. She shifted a bit and went for crescent kick. The arc was beautiful and would have made a resounding impact into the mitt - if it hadn't made a resounding impact into my groin. I was on my knees so fast that Check hadn't even returned to zenkutsu yet.

The beautiful part about all this was when I was able to open my eyes the entire class was clutching their nethers and had bug eyes which, in turn, made me laugh a …

I was so low on calories that I labeled the title in lower case. My wife is dieting for our winter vacation so that means I'm joining her whether I need it or not (I need it). So about an hour into class I realize it's starting to get harder to get up off the mats each time I go down. Teacher asks if I'm okay and I know that I'm perfectly fine, but it seems to be taking more energy to get up. Like wading through water.

So Vet went off to training for military unarmed combat school last week. He came back and shared some of his quality stuff. The best was the escape from full mount and choke. We have basic escapes and practice our holds and blocks from the floor position, but this was great because it moved from the bottom to the top. Very neat. We don't have any jujitsu moves so this was a welcome addition. We normally attempt hand grabs and use an hand/wrist lock to control the situation. The only problem with constant lock practice is that my hands fe…

After class on Thursday Sensei had me and hairdo join him and his wife for a beer at one of the local bars. On the way out I was repeatedly stopped by a fellow. This was the conversation:

Him: Hey, are you in the coast guard?
Me: No.
Him: Oh.
Him: Well, you look like you're in the coast guard.
Me: Okay.
Him: Oh.
Him: Where do you work?
Me: Over there.
Him: Oh.
Him: 'cause you look like you work for the coast guard.
Me: nope
Him: Oh.

I got out the door while he was still shooting belligerent questions. Not a Karate moment, but still makes me giggle. I assume he has something against Coasties.