Flying Chiro

I have one year and eight months to go before I test again.  I'm very concerned about it because I know only too well how fast it goes.  I remember this from Shudokan and how much time we don't have to get the material down to the level where we are really sharp for presentation.  Especially developing the skills to the point where we look like we should be there.  The next thing you know, it'll be fall and we'll be pushing into one year left zone.  

That's neither here nor there, but if we do warmups class content just disappears.  My forty-minute class is suddenly fifteen minutes.  Frustrating, but let me tell you; it's very focusing.  

Notes from the last week or so.

- Cary is back after Covid.  She still looks a bit gray and has to sit down periodically, but yesterday she did her first break with a front kick.  Just smashed it.  Yeahh.  When I was working with her a while back, she and I got talking about cramps.  We spent five minutes talking about menstrual cramps.  Hah.  I have to say I'm glad not to be a female.  Sounds horrid.  

- I had a little accident with a wheelbarrow about a month ago.  One of the handles rammed me in the lower abdomen when it fell to one side.  I have a chronic pain there that would appear to be a torn fascia.  Takes forever to heal.  crap.  Jump kicks seem to agitate now and then.  I skipped box jumps today.  I can still do sit-ups, so I have that going for me.

- Andy uses me as his shu/uke when he needs to demo a complicated move since he knows I'll take the fall.  Our gang is pretty old and sometimes less flexible, so the default is me.   The other day he was working with Mr. Moore and trying to demo an attack.  Basically, a baseball bat to the head.  It's a complicated move, but you end up choking the attacker with his own bat and then throwing them.  I didn't realize that, so I went flying.  I could see the concern in the other students faces but I got up laughing.  No harm, no foul.  I'm clearly more accepting of that kind of thing.  I assume they fear that they are going to have to learn that at some point.  Nope.  

- Andy was doing a demo on Wednesday for Mr. Moore again.  This time it was an arm bar and submission.  The submission was a head twist.  I wasn't really ready since I didn't know what was going on.  I was compliant for the arm take and lock, but Andy pulled me down and grabbed me by the jaw and pulled my head around.  As my feet left the ground and my body spun in the air my neck made three distinct popping noises.  

Did I mention that during the beginning of the plague I damaged my C4/5?  I'm extremely carefully about certain things.  This is one of those things.  After I got my balance, I slowly moved my neck around and found that it actually felt better!  Even hours later, where I normally would see swelling or pain, there was no issues.  Talk about luck or maybe I need to work on more flexibility.  

  

Short and High

I think I'm going to keep my posts to a minimum for a bit.  My progress is minimal so writing about it can be a bit of a labor and I should be concentrating on my work a bit more.  So, if something cool comes up I'll write about it.

But with two feet in the air on two targets

Today I was the lead which was weird.  I worked with the two green belts on their seventh form (not really sure).  Sam Bu.  I was trying to think of when I last did it.  Maybe fifteen years?  With the book we were able to pull it together.  And it definitely wasn't the way I learned it.  That being said it burned the whole class.  I did a few forms for them in the end, and they were appreciative because they could take a quick break.  

I started class with box jumps.  I'm increasing the height and doing that successfully.  I brought out the dummies again and used the soft one for my rigid toe.  I definitely can do the height, which is pretty awesome, but breaking is something else.  I'll have to figure out a way to test that at some point.  Maybe putting one in the static rack and the other a dummy?  Feel free to give me ideas in the comments.

Further Testing My Limits

Not me, but the belt in the face certainly seems like something I would have happen.

I got up way too early, but it meant that I got some work done before I started warming up.  I got to the school and unlocked the joint and instead of jumping drills I had to find the roomba.  Andy and Colette have a two high end roombas.  One that vacuums and one that mops.  I'm not sure how good they are because my feet are always dirty after class, but I keep that to myself.  

When I turned on the lights, I noticed how nice the floor looked, but the vacuum was missing.  Hmm, I smelled a mystery!  I checked in the office and the whole main floor and nothing.  There is a ramp up to Andy and Colette's house so up I went.  I didn't think the thing could do that, but halfway down the hall I found the incident.  The roomba had partially consumed a dobok top and died not realizing that its eyes were bigger than its stomach.

Once I extracted the top, I took the roomba back to its charging cradle.  Mystery resolved.  Now it was time to start jumping.  After doing my box jumps, I went to grab some focus mitts thinking that they would be good targets.  I couldn't get them to stand, so I felt like I was wasting time.  I decided to move over to our two target dummies.    

I still don't have instruction about this jump so I'm doing all this in the blind.  I find that it's easier for me to kick with my legs apart in about a 45% angle.  The guy in the picture is doing his feet in an extreme position which I can neither do nor is it good for me to hit to targets in front of me.  I set the height of the dummies and adjusted it to my belt line.  I was able to jump and kick above the waistline!  Height is going well, and way better than I thought.  I'm not going to push that anymore unless I hear different.  

My current list of work for this kick:

1. distance.  I'm not as close as I think.  This kick is done standing right next to the targets.

2. my right big toe can't go back so I have to be angled in such a way that foot can be in position to do the break.  Super hard.

Number two was a problem immediately.  As soon as I started making contact my toe would let me know I wasn't in a good position.  Ugh.  

Still happy though.  I love the challenge.

Headless Style New Heights

I'd forgotten that I was supposed to put a little effort into writing these entries.  It's usually time that prevents me from really thinking about what was going on in class.  Honestly, it's a fertile ground for all kinds of writing nuggets, but it takes time for something to come up.  

I took a run this afternoon and chatting about class with my running buddy made something surface.  But first the setup.

I'd forgotten that class wasn't going to have a leader for a week and half.  Andy and Colette are out of town for a couple weeks, so we were left to our own devices.  When this happens, the senior student runs the class.  Mr. Moore is still recovering from his knee surgery, so I thought Mr. Rome would take over, but he wasn't here today.  In the end our most senior was Mr. Jacot who has his third and is working on his fourth.  He's so focused on learning forms that we just went about business as usual.  

Business on Thursday is partner drills.  Since we did three-step sparring yesterday we did sleeve grabs today.  Mr. Amigud, Bill and I got through about six of them with varying degrees of success.  

Before class I was working on my double kicks again and I had a slight revelation.  To improve my jump height, I've been doing box jumps when I get to class early and now, I'm setting up targets to kick around that height.  

There is a slight flashback here.  

When I was in Tang Soo Do, fifteen years ago or more there was a guy from the high school.  When he jump kicked he would appear to float in the air.  I'm not sure what the dynamic was that made it look like his hang time was so long, but I stopped what I was doing whenever he did that.  I wish we had cell phones more prevalent back then, because I would have got as much video as I could.  

Back to the present.

I warm up at home so my legs are flexible and have plenty of blood in them.  When I get to the school, I stretch a tiny bit and then do about three to six jumps.  After that I jump in front of the "box" (stacked mats) and try the double kick.  So I know I can clear that height and some.  At best, it's about three feet.  Definitely not what I'm shooting for, but small steps and all that.  

While I'm doing just the jumps, I noticed that a few of them seem to put me into the state where I feel like I'm floating for just a second.  I say to myself, "wait a sec..." I immediately think of the floating kid.  Have I tapped into something here?  It definitely has something to do with bending my legs deeper than usual, but that additional half second allows me to target better.  So I set up pads and used those as targets and built a bit more.  I'm terrible at hitting both but I was comfortable with the height.  Now I have to work on more height.  I'm hoping forty inches will be enough in the end, but that's still a long way off.

Swamp Style

The humidity this morning is 95%.  I started warming up at six am and soaked my uniform through.  The rain just seems like it was going to start at any minute, but it never comes.  You can see your breath and it's almost 60 degrees out.  Gag.

After taking several days off it was great to be at class.  I showed early to work on box jumps and ended up being the only person there for about ten minutes.  I love being in the school when no one is around.  I can make as much noise as I want.

Or so I thought.  My jumps brought Andy around so setting up targets didn't happen.  I'm anxious to try my kicks out, but I can't do it at home in the morning due to the noise and then I'm at class and the same thing brings Andy out of his house.  I must sound like a pack of elephants.  

Today was partner work and I worked with Bill doing the five Sam Soo Sik (three step sparring).  I'm still learning the patterns but getting about five turns on each of the five helps towards learning them.  

Notes --

Mr. Moore is still out after knee replacement.  Apparently doing well.

Ms. Cary is still out after Covid.  She'd just passed her test and Andy is waiting to give her the next belt.  Orange I think?

Chicken Style Kung Fu

As I sit here watching my pet chicken dolefully pick at my blood pressure cuff while occasionally preening a feather or two, I can't help but think about the life I'm providing for her.  As a flock animal my wife, me and the cats are her flock, and it doesn't always go well.

Wait.  This is a martial arts blog.  Where was I going with this?  

Anyhoo, class was all Sam So Sik (three step sparring).  We got through the first three of five technique groups before I had to duck out.  

The repetition is great for me.  Andy had us stand in a line and attacked us one at a time.  While one person was getting attacked the rest of us would practice the moves.  That way it would finally sink in.  Then we could work on our technique.  

One of the kicks that we use is the yup huri gi.  I would say that it's a wheel kick in the start and then turns into a flat kick.  They call it the table cleaner.  It's aimed at the waste level and designed to hit the kidneys/liver/pancreas depending on your orientation to the attacker.  

It's good to be back to be honest.  My last class was Monday and that seemed like a million years ago.  And thankfully consistent negative covid test.

Cranked

There is a movie with Jason Statham, called Crank, where he is poisoned.  The only way he can stay alive is continuously give himself jolts of adrenaline to keep his heart pumping. He gets into fights, shocks himself, etc.  He should have gone to a karate school.  On wrist lock day.  Oh the pain.  

Wednesday and Thursday are partner days.  Since we did 3 step work yesterday, we went to wrist locks today.  It normally doesn't bother me, but today was a clinic in pain management.  To get your partner to stop the lock (and pain), you tap your free hand again your thigh. The idea is before you get a broken joint you tap.  Easy enough.  Pain dials up and when you think you'd like the other person to stop you tap.  

Somewhere along the way we are taught that you want the person who is applying the pressure to understand how much force to use without causing damage.  After years of doing this kind of thing it's all automatic.  As soon as you see the wince, or other tells, you let off and continue the technique.  However, there is always a moment where you don't get it just right and you end up grimacing in pain a bit longer than you'd like.  I was way into that today.  I couldn't tap fast enough for all the demonstrations we did.  Bill and I just couldn't hit the correct grips and positions so Andy would come over and show us.  By that, I mean we'd be tapping pretty quick!

I think we got through four cross and four same side sleeve grabs.  I'm not sure how much I learned though.  Pain has a way of doing that.  Either you learn or you don't.  Nothing in between.

Confusion With No Contusion

I'm getting up early because of the summer light which is slowly chewing away at the hours of sleep I'm getting.  My average is seven and half hours which is probably a lot for some, but I'm not quite clear as I'd like to be. It's not always restful sleep either.  I'd like to see more deep sleep, but four hours is about the best I can pull.  The rest tends to be more toss and turn.  

What does all that complaining mean?  My ability to focus is limited and retention is less.  But I'm getting exercise and possibly learning a bit.  

Today's example was when Bill and I were working on three step sparring.  I was trying to remember when I had worked on them last (no idea). And then while we were doing them, I realized I'd possibly never done them as the attacker.  I'd been the attacker for Bill while he worked on them for the last several months and it felt like I'd been the defender, but never did it.  Was today my first day as defender?  Things get muddy with the overlap.

Maybe a better night of sleep will fix that.  

I did ten box jumps this morning at mid-thigh height.  I tried a few kicks, but I'm not impressing myself at all.  

        

Basics Review

Friday Andy let me know that we would spend some extra attention on the more advanced basics.  We do basics off and on during the week to warm up and hit stuff that shows up in our forms more often now.  

One of the techniques, Hwak Kuk Jang Kap Kwon, isn't necessarily hard, but getting my feet and shoulders to work together is proving very difficult to me.

It's a weird technique in that the front is a punch and the rear swings around to clock anyone in your back 120 degrees. This is followed by your torso twisting while your feet are still planted.  I guess it would be a clean sweep of the area around you. And you can keep doing it across the floor, but that part stills confuses me.  I'll get there, but it's going to take a bit.

For the rest of the class, I worked on Jin Do.  I've adopted a slower learning curve with the new forms.  I'm used to the patterns that resemble he capital "I" or other standard formats, but Jindo doesn't feel that way at all.  No primary orientation and weighted towards one position over others.  

In other news, we got a new guy, Mr. Rome, who apparently got his Midnight Blue years ago and has taken a very extended break.  He's in the same boat/level as me so that's nice.  He could be another possible training partner.

Weekly Wrap Up

I don't know what it was, but today was full of Joy.  We started with basics and due to the level diversity of the group, Andy was trying to consolidate technique groups. He made it equally tough and confusing for everyone.  In my case one out of three techniques would end up incorrectly footed.  For whatever reason that made Andy laugh and it became infectious.  Everyone started giggling.  

Before class started, I worked on box jumps.  I wanted to get working on height.  The idea is that I need to work on my height and then add the double kick.  It feels good, but the kick looks crap from my perspective.  Definitely not above waist level.  So, I'll keep working on that.

Stolen from interwebz and not me.  

I asked Andy if he was aware of anyone executing this kick for their test who happened to be around my age group.  The answer - none.  I'll give it a year to see if this going to happen.  If it's not happening, I'll do the kick/punch breaks.  I hate embracing aging.

I have an old Karate gi that I wear during the morning classes.  This was my most expensive purchase for my martial arts to date.  Super heavy canvas.  It makes sounds every time you move.  Kicks and punches crack!  The only problem is that it's very heavy.  It's like ten pounds.  So jumping is very challenging.  Doing the same jumps later without the gi make me feel like I'm being shot into the air.   

Belt report - The last guy finally completed the jump kick breaks so we can all move forward with the belting process.  However, a new problem came up. We have our new numbers and certificates, but we can't have them until we get the belts in and embroidered. The problem is supply chain.  Apparently, martial art clothes and such are stuck overseas.  Of course.     

Knives Out

 It's hard to predict how things are going to go in class.  Content by the day is pretty much dead on.  After that things can get a bit shaky depending on who's there. 

Today Bill and I got to partner which is pleasing because we are about the same height and weight.  It's a bonus for me because he's ahead of my by six months and can show me all kinds of stuff.  The downside is that we both forget all the things at the same time.  

Today was knife attacks and Bill had brought in his cheat sheet.  We had four of the five and and managed to mangle each one of the techniques some form or fashion.  Nothing to brag about. When we got introduced to number five both of us realized that neither of us had seen this one.  

The attacker is "gut the fish".  The knife is supposed to come up and hit gut and move upward.  We side step that arm make a "rainbow" with our other arm and the attackers are until we can get into position to lock the wrist and take away the knife.  We follow everything with a kick.  Weeee.  

We reviewed the other four with barely enough time for me to get out the door.  I might have mentioned that the school near by is started at that point and the traffic gets me in some trouble. I have to be at work by eight for my first meeting.  

Alas the city has decided to put in a traffic circle right in my driving route.  So I have to remember to get my act together before I leave so I won't get stuck.  Again.

Latest Belt News - I found out Monday night the hold up is one of our 2nd degree testees.  He needs to his double kick before we can get our belts.  Sigh.  Who knows how long that'll be.       

Red Heat

My wife took a look at my blog a few days ago and gave me an editorial review.  It would appear that I need to make things a bit more interesting than what I've been doing. 

I got the feeling that my extemporaneous comments about my classes have a very limited audience.  I tried to explain that it was just like a diary that I happen to share. I think she said I could probably still try to write better.  

I'll try to punch up the writing.  

---

There is a scene in the movie, "Red Sonja" (1985) where Ernie Reyes Jr., a very young man, copies the actions of Arnold Schwarzenegger while he is in a fight with Red Sonja.  

Fast forward to 3:30 to see reference.

I got a taste of this while going over the basics with my classmate.  He's ten years old and it way more physically adept than I am.  However once in a while we get in sync and it's glorious.  

I referenced the new basics a few times and I want to point out that the level of complexity has gone way up.  For instance, the first one is three moves (block, punch, kick).  The idea being that even at the very start, the new basics are more physically demanding.  The one-time Jack and me were in sync were a shay-han move.  

This the lowest of low blocks.  It's a signature move for Soo Bahk Do.  

Knees screaming on me.

We do this and then do a jumping front kick. Please remember I'm twice his height and possibly one and half times his weight.  So, when we do something with the same timing and with the same force we look like a ballet.  This happens about three times during our fifteen techniques.  

The other highlight from the evening was our box jumps.  To prep for the double kick, which will be our next break, I need to be able to jump from one spot and kick out with both legs and break two boards with each foot.  Not easy.

The highlight was in the practice.  Usually when I jump up on the stack it's very nerve racking because I can barely make it.  Last night I had no trouble hitting leap on the first try.  Whoop!

Chilly Song

I finally got all the way through Chil Sung Il Ro.  This is a standard form from the seven stars group.  I'm going to need to practice that several times today to make sure I have it somewhat memorized.  

Friday is Forms!  I look forward to each day for the content but learning the first of my four forms has been a bit of a challenge.  I get pieces, but never the whole thing.  We'll see how that goes for me.

I just gave it a test run to see if I could remember it.  Two possible areas of mistake, but I generally have it all down.  Whoop!  There is hope afterall.

Partner Triangle

With my Mother-in-law in town and the summer finally arriving in the far North I can finally leave the house in just my Gi/Dobok.  That's a sure sign summer is here.  Unfortunately, we are doing a lot of activities, so beatings got put to the side on Monday.  It was also a holiday, so I erroneously thought we wouldn't have class.  Wrong.  

I find that one week off means that I can't remember crap.  Of course, I'm not practicing every day so it's not like I'm helping myself.  I usually wake up before the alarm and get warmed up at home.  Class has a tendency to jump into things, so I want a little time to get blood flowing.  It's then when I try to go through the basics at least.  I definitely don't have those down (memorized), but I could see if I practiced more, it'd be easier to bring up without a cheat sheet.  

Wednesday is partner day, so the warmup was probably a bit overkill, but at least I was awake.  Bill was working on a new form, but I not allowed to learn that one until I get my belt.  That's going to be a bit since the other folks in our cohort haven't completed their breaks yet.  I hadn't realized that we were all lumped together.  I assumed it was cho dan then ee dan, etc.  Nope.  Until the cool kids finish their double kicks nothing gets sent to headquarters.  Sigh.  

I got through the first four of the sleeve grabs before I had to go.  I was partnered with Mr. Moore and Ms. Chambers.  With three people of varying skills things slow way down.  Hah!  

Note to self:  Don't kick Mr. Moore in the head.  Hah!  

Pull-start Mower

It feels like a good day to type.  I missed Monday evening due to visitors, but back at it today.  Partner drills were on the schedule, so Bill and I got to it.  

We decided to work on Sam Soo Sik (three step sparring).  I can't think of much that I retained from last week, but after one example with me being the attacker I was relatively good to go.

The attacker does three straight punches with a step each time.  As the defender, we step back with a block in different patterns with each attacker punch.  On the third block we do some cool stuff usually followed by a kick or punch combo.

As I mentioned before there has been a greater focus on my basics, so the constant retooling effort slows down my new skills acquisition.  I'm not really complaining, just recognizing the change in class.  I'm glad for the attention, but four techniques took the whole class.  Sometimes that the way it goes.  

The big change today was the downward block we use start an exchange.  I'm supposed to act as if I'm starting a pull start mower.  So, the body is doing all the work and seemingly removing the arm strike/block.  I still have more to learn on this, but it changes my balance a bit.  

Made it through the first four, but I'm not sure of my retention.  We'll see how that goes next time.  

Formulaic

Awwww Yeaahhh! It's Friday and that means forms day.  It's been like three weeks since I've attempted any of the new forms.  I mean I only got introduced to Chil Sung Il Ro for a hot second before I left for vacation.  So, I remember zilch.

We started class with basics which I was kinda of stoked about.  I've been practicing them in the morning as an early warm up.  But I have questions about a few of them due to some odd placements of techniques.  Andy answered those before class, but we'd have to see how it all goes.

We got through about eight of the basics before he called a stop so we could move to forms. Since Bill took the day off, I ended up working with Amigud.  He's been working on the forms since October, so he started me off on Chil sung. We went through it as many times as I could before I had to take off for work.  The pattern is the stand capital "I" type of form.  Of course, it's way more complicated though.  It uses a lot of those Chinese based moves which slow things down periodically.  I'll have to get some video of the progress.  Right now, I can't get through the whole thing by myself.       

White Belt Brain

Regular Thursday work is partner drills.  I thought we'd pick up from yesterday and work on knife take-aways.  I'd forgotten all about Sam Soo Sik.  This is the one step sparring that has been updated into three step sparring.  In this case the attacker now takes three steps with three punches.

I'm not sure how many of these techniques there are, but Bill has five under his belt.  We went up to three for me, but I was happy just to have the first two more or less learned.  That took the whole class.  

Just like Monday when I found that I'd been doing one of the major kicks incorrectly, I had a similar experience today.  What I consider a hook kick is not really a hook kick in SBD.  The kick is called the table clearer for a reason.  That heel is supposed to be coming around in a flat arc and the knee only bends just before you're starting to put your leg down.  This means I have yet another retooling to go through.  

Truly, when you get your black belt (blue in my case) you start all over again.  I notice that ten-year-old jack doesn't have these problems.  The advantage of youth and skill.  

Vague Memories

Good to be back in the saddle.  I got to class too early and probably should have stayed home warming up longer.  It wasn't that I was going to pull anything (since it was partner drilling), but I wasn't quite awake.  I'd woke at 5 and then fell back asleep and directly went to dreaming and then woke up asleep.  Blurrgh.

We had a full class!  Eight whole people!  This is the largest group I've seen in the morning before.  But I was mostly wondering how much I could remember.  I'd done some partner stuff before I left for vacation, but I couldn't recall anything, but vague memories of some of the moves.  

I was partnered with Bill again and we started our sleeve grabs.  Much like our wrist grabs, the moves are predicated on an attacker holding on to us so we can then so cool stuff to torture them.

We have four cross grab and four same side.  So it's not tons to remember, but they are different enough from the wrist grabs that we have to pay attention.  I don't have them remembered but I can do them in an unrefined manner.  

After grabs we went to knife work.  Due to time running out I only got to work on the first one; which is a forward stab.  There are four attacks and four defenses.  Not to exciting and I'm not to sure if I'd use any of it in the real world, but you never know.

Broken By Basics

After getting back from visiting my Dad I was exhausted.  The visit is emotional, the downtimes caused me stress, and the travel was beyond tiring and frustrating.  I got home late by a day and missed beatings for that day.  I ended up missing the next day due to jetlag.

I was back at it on Monday night, but not enthusiastic like usual.  I was excited to be working on new material, but I felt so fractured and tired.  

I got to class just as we were ready to start.  The theme of week is contraction and expansion, a regular theme in all our moves.  However, we were supposed to pay special attention to it today.  This posed a problem as we were working on basics.  That's a challenge as we were learning them for the first time so adding finesse didn't really happen.  

Basics for the 2nd degree level (Ee Dan) are all combos and some challenging ones at that. I immediately began to struggle with the Korean, but Colette took easy on us and let us sort them out and only corrected as needed.

By the fifth set of techniques, I was getting pressed hard.  Blocking in insanely low stances and then popping up in a jumping kick.  It just got harder after that.  The tenth technique is an inside crescent kick followed by a jumping turning crescent kick.  When done well it looks great, but that wasn't me.  Colette was free with her corrections.  She realized that I wasn't doing the kick as per instruction.  I'm supposed to jump from one side and turn in the air.  I hadn't been doing that at all.  I can't believe they let me get away with that at the test.  

I practiced that today and realize I've got a lot of work to do there.  But I feel better knowing what I should be doing.  

The last five are traditional techniques that are super Chinese.  Hugging a barrel, painting, etc.  They are crazy hard to do after all the jumping around.  I got home completely soaked and exhausted.  I think I pulled every muscle there was but woke up in one piece.  Just sore.

Hopefully tomorrow will be less painful.    

New Stuff v.3

I was able to get a copy of the new basics I need to learn.  There are fifteen which is in line with my previous group, but these are all three move sequences.  The first ones aren't necessarily difficult now that I've done them a few times, but the last five are a consolidated technique.  They are from Northern China and have colorful English translations, like "smeared paint technique" or "shaking hands technique".  It's a fun romp through martial arts history, but not sure about overall practicality.  Pulling the one good move out is fairly easy though, but the technique can be challenging.  

However, like the rest of the week I got more new stuff!  Today we learned/practiced knife drills.  I knew it wasn't going to be new stuff since it built off our other techniques, but there is always a challenge with the finesses of the style.  In this case the capture was more thought out than TSD and there were subtleties that made a lot of sense.  The knife being kept away from the thighs for instance.  I get so used to rubber knives that I really didn't think about closeness to my thighs.  However, in TSD we never grabbed the knife or tried to take it away.  SBD always removes it.  I kept thinking cut hands and so forth.

We got through the first two of five that I'm supposed to know.  TSD was less rigid and really encouraged experimentation while SBD really wants you to focus on the technique without getting imaginative.  However, when I mentioned to Andy that TSD had a full take down he totally went there with me.  And then when I mentioned that we had a shoulder lock after the take down he did his version which included a unique leg brace to hold me in place.  Super cool!  Of course, now my shoulder is aching like is used to.  I think I'll keep my mouth shut when it's fun time.  

New Stuff v.2

Excitement was in the air today.  I wasn't very awake, but I was stoked to get to class and see if I could remember the first form and maybe some basics.  No luck there because as soon as we bowed in it was time for partner drills.  

Ho shin sul is the Soo Bahk Do version of self-defense.  It's predicated on someone grabbing you and giving you a way to control the outcome.  Lots of wrist locks and such.  My exam had nineteen.  Now that I'm in the next group I only have ten to learn.  And this time they are based on sleeve grabs.  I don't see the immediate application, but I can see it's just a way to get us to think about various ways to deal with grabs anywhere.  

Today we went through the first four, but I'd pressed to remember anything beyond the first one.  They seemed to be expansions of our previous ones so that's pretty cool, but with the nuances I got lost fairly quickly.  Before I knew it, I was already past due to leave.  I barely made it on time to my first meeting of the day.  

Progress report - 

Four hand techniques

14 basics

1 form

- Actual knowledge - 5% of that.  hah.

Let Him Hang For A Minute

I got into a class a few minutes early, but before I drove over, I took a look at my wife's video from the test.  I'm aware that we are our own worst critics and I'm usually objective, but this was the night where I was going to find out if I had a lot of corrections on the test or not and video showed me all my errors.  I walked in there dreading what they were going to say.  I was worried that I would have to do a complete do over in October.  

I stand to the side when I get there because they aren't going bow me in for the last five minutes.  Colette was lining everyone up and giving notes.  She was asking how folks liked the tournament and pointed out people that did very well.  She then says, "should we give Mr. Tater his list of corrections now?"

I turned bright red.  I think I could take a pretty large list, but why bring it up with the kids?  Ugh, so embarrassing.  She let that hang in the air for five seconds and looks at me and says, "none".

You could have knocked me down with a feather though.  I was positive that it was going to be a lot more than none.  Hah.

The Ee dan folks had to redo kicks.  Pretty good for all of us!  yeah!  I won't get my new belt for a month because they need to do all the certification printing first.  Then they assign us numbers and that goes off to the embroiderers.  So complicated!

Post Exam Reivew

Where to start?  The exam (or presentation to be precise) takes two days.  In reality it could be done one day, but they were putting a tournament together with the testing, so it took a lot get things squared away.  

The oral exam, which is usually held after the final part of the test, was moved to Friday evening.  I'm not sure why, but at least we wouldn't be huffing and puffing and trying to think straight.  

I got there around three pm and we had a mass bow in.  I think there was between a hundred and a hundred thirty participants.  And from several regions as well.  Friday had two big seminar sessions.  The first was using a rear, cross stance while blocking to set up for an attack, which took an hour and was actually pretty fun. We built on it and got up to the point of using it practically with partners.  Very fun.  

The second session was different options for each level.  My group was Dan test prep.  We had a crash course in protocol in exams.  My co-hort was me and three kids.  I was at the end of the line as the "youngest" in rank.  The co-hort was expected to act as a group.  In the case of the forms, we were supposed to act in concert.  Anyone who has seen group kata at a championship understands the time and effort to have everybody hit their timing correctly.  Let's just say that all that practice I put into to having the correct time went out the window in a hot second.  We were slave to the timing of the senior student.  In the end we moved way faster with little or no pauses.  

After learning to stand up and sit down and where to run to, we ran to our next session which was the oral exam.  The eight of us (the other four were the Ee Dan candidates) got into line, where I was the tail-end charlie, and faced thirteen of the high-level belts from the region. They started at the other end which bummed me out.  I wanted to get it over with but found the questions interesting.  The Ee Dan folks got very hard questions.  I knew a fraction of the information they were talking about and start getting nervous.  When they started on the Cho Dan folks the questions throttled down quite a bit, but they were challenging enough. I was wondering what they were going to ask me to be honest.  They get to me and say, "We were all reading your essay and were fascinated about what you wrote.  Can you elaborate on some of the main themes?"

I stood there and thought to myself, "what the hell did I write?"  I pulled myself together and talked about espoused philosophy versus whatever the teacher wanted to talk about.  My old schools really never got into tons of details about what the school believes.  Reed did talk about what was appropriate, nothing in stone.

We finished around 7 pm.  I was wiped out.  

The next morning, I had to be there at 7:30 to practice protocol and then warm up a bit.  I couldn't see that we'd have the protocol part down, but when we got started, we were golden.  I think we might have a few hiccups, but I surprised how well we did as a group.

Here's the test break down:

1. Basics - 13 techniques that everybody should know.  From simple blocks to jumping kicks tied to a hand attack.  I messed up three times on basic turning.  I suspect I'm going to hear about that.

2. Forms - 3 of these with my gang.  Bassai, Nihanji and Chil Sung Ee Ro.

3. Il So Sik - Normally I'd do sixteen of these, but they cut it in half because it was running so long.  That was an adjustment.  I got a bit slow at one point because I was trying to remove moves from my normal process.  Some kid whispered what I was supposed to do.  Bless his heart.

4. Ho Shin Sul - Self-defense.  I did that on automatic.  I don't even remember other than I was worried that I was hurting Bill on wrist submissions.

5. Sparring - two one-minute rounds.  So fun, but I was worried about gassing myself.  The advanced students were doing two on one.  That looked so fun!  At this point I was huffing and puffing when we stopped.  I gather it was noticeable across the hall.  Nice.  

6. In Neh - Endurance.  I have to do 120 straight punches in thirty seconds.  Not as bad as you'd think, but the counter said 92.  I was blinking in disbelief.  I knew I was tired, but was I that slow?  The region head said, "does anyone want to go again?" I said yes.  We started over and I realize about 30 punches in that I don't have any gas in the tank.  I reach down and get going again and when they call time the guy says 94.  I didn't hear it, but a few people in the audience were audibly upset and a few stood up.  Colette said I was fine and later told me I was in the 130s for each round.  The guy couldn't count or something.  Weird.

7. Breaking.  I had to do a jumping spinning side kick.  I don't normally have a problem with this, the first shot knocked me back.  Hunh.  The second, I kicked the living crap out of the guy's hands.  Ooops.  The third went well.  Nice clean break.  Boring ass kick though.  See below.  

I swear I don't have a pot belly

We all gathered afterwards and bowed out.  I'm now waiting to see what the results are.  Hopefully I won't have too many corrections and I'll see the Midnight Blue belt fairly soon.  

Masked And Massive

Last day before the start of the testing weekend.  I'm practicing my Il soo sik and Ho shin sul twice a day at this point and stretching my back three to five times a day.  I woke up this morning pain free and practically sprang out of bed.  Whoop!

I have to get out of bed once my mind starts to turn to beatings.  It means that I'm awake enough that the topical stuff of the day is coming through. I ended up getting up around 5:45.  I figured that was enough.  I got a little work done, warmed up a little and went into class a little early.  

I decided to wear my mask to class today because two folks traveled by plane and probably chose not to wear masks.  I'll stick to wearing them at the test as well due to the amount of people gathering.  I'll take it off for the actual test though.  I was huffing and puffing when we were doing the partner exercises though.  I was dying when we got to kicking drills.  I had to turn and get some fresh air at one point.  It went very well for me.  I was pretty stoked.  I hope to keep up this level of things.

Tomorrow I have a class in the morning and then I'm not sure what to do for the day.  I hope I don't drive myself nuts.  

Two Days To Go

It seemed like months to go and now it's just a few days. I have a few more classes to squeeze in under my belt, but the adrenaline is coursing through my veins now and makes it hard to relax and just breath.  

I got up a bit early and warmed up by practicing.  It wasn't stellar due to me forgetting pieces and parts.  A sure sign of stress.  I know that so I wasn't beating myself up, but when I got to class I wasn't super thrilled by the making a lot of errors on our two mans drills.  Nothing was too horrible to be honest, but I wasn't sharp and had to think a lot about my next move.  

The good news was that Heather and Joseph showed up and that means we can pepper them with procedural questions for the next two days if we can.  Since I have to leave early I was a bit frustrated. 

Friday will be a long day for sure though.  I'll go to early class and be able to stay the whole hour since I took the day off from work.  Then I'll hang out and possibly ask questions if I'm allowed.  Then it's just waiting time till it's time to head to the next town where the Shim sa is being held at a Best Western.  

At least my back is holding up fairly well.  I wasn't really warmed up all the way until a little before I left class. Saturday morning will be a small challenge to get enough time to get ready before the test starts.  And not over do it.

Modern Miracle

At first I thought I was going to have cancel the test and wait till October to try again.  Then by Monday morning I was thinking I could do a modified test based on what Andy suggested.  After last nights class I guess I'm just back to regular.  I have some lower back pain, but once we were warmed up I didn't feel a thing.  I was able to do the kick that knocked me flat with no problem.  I did have a few issues turning, but that might have been there before and Colette just caught it.  Or I was tentative about twisting.

The class was just me and Jack.  Colette asked if we wanted to do anything specific and ran us through a couple verbal tests.  We ran through pieces of the test and she took some time picking at small things, which is questionable a few days before the test.  But it was honestly good.  My eye gaze tends to point down so she videoed us and it was startling.  So that was a quick, easy change.  

Jack and I did the one - step sparring.  That was hilarious as you imagine.  Four foot Jack against six foot me.  We should have video of that.  I forgot that he only does one side of the one-steps.  That threw me off, but we got through it and finished up with In neh (endurance punching).  

Another class that went way too quick, but built up my confidence significantly.  

 

Back Breaker

Possibly the most cliché thing in martial arts is to accidently harm yourself on the run up to a belt test.  I've been lucky for all my other tests, but guess what?  This was my time.  

Bill and me were working out on Saturday by running through the test.  This has been our usual schedule for a couple of months now.  Near the end of Ill soo sik, during the spinning, jumping crescent kick my floor foot slipped and I slammed down on the floor before I new it.  It knocked the breath out of me and the pain was unbelievable.  My lower back was telling me it was time to have a spasm.  

We went through a few more things gamely and my back never spasmed, but the pain was continuing.  When I got home I was starting to panic that I'd thrown my whole test away.  This is my last week!  I could barely move without serious pain.  That night I took a muscle relaxer and slept 11 hours.  My back was doing great the next morning, but as the day progressed it kept creeping back.  

Bill let Colette and Andy know that I had an accident and we talked about the test weekend.  Apparently we can tell the proctor and the board that I'm messed up and it's still a go!  Talk about a less exciting test.  But it's given me hope.  

Then last night my buddy, who is a PT, ran me through an eval.  So my problem doesn't have anything related to a disk injury, but a small muscle that stabilizes the spine in the lumbar!  This is good and bad news.  The good is that at disk isn't injured, but to get the muscle to be happy in such a short time is horrible.  Tons of Ibuprofen, exercises and a TENs unit if we can find one.  He explained to me that we are trying to get that small injured muscle to release it's grip by doing range of motion exercises that tell it that's "fine".  But doing the cat/cow stuff I saw an immediately relief.  

I'll be doing this throughout the day and we'll see I do at class tonight.  Ugh.

7 Days

This time next week I'll be getting fairly antsy about the evening.  I'm electing not to take the day off from work so I can occupy my mind with something else, but I'm going to try to take a half day.  I have to be at the convention center at 3:30, but I'll go early to walk around and get comfortable there.  The oral exam starts right away, but only lasts a half hour.  It'll be challenging because they don't have a format, so the questions can be all over the place.  You have to come with your A game brain.

The rest of the evening is all about seminars and meeting with the test proctor and so on.  I'm not sure what the seminars are about to be honest, but I'll get to meet everyone from around the region.  I've heard so many names for the last year so it'll be nice to make acquaintances and put names to faces.

The test is the first thing on Saturday morning and should finish up by noon.  My wife is going come and take video. Hopefully she can get some good snips here and there.

My proctor is my old instructor's (Keith) wife, Heather.  She's been signing in via Zoom in the morning, but as I was walking out early to get to work today she asked me to come over to the computer.  She asked if Jack was going to be my partner during the test.  I told her about Bill, but got to share a laugh about having Jack as my partner.  He's ten and is half my height.  We've done several things together and it leads to a lot of laughter on everyone's part.  Not particularly good for a serious exam though.  We'll still have to go over some details next weekend just to make sure everybody is on the same page.  

Today's class was add-on basics and forms.  The basics were grueling as none of them seemed to go with the one before.  In the end with did 9 different pieces.  What a mess.  

While we were doing forms Andy watched me and said quietly, "you're ready."  I thought that was very nice.  I feel ready, but I don't want to get cocky.  As I was leaving he asked me if I was nervous.  I said, "I'm fine now, but we'll see how it goes near the end of next week.  Hah!"

Speed Control

Speed Control , or wan gup in Korean, refers to your ability throw your punches and kicks in a controlled fashion.  But after my discussion with Bill the other day about pacing myself I wanted to make sure I timed my work better today.  

It was back to partner drills, but the more advanced students got to do knife attacks and defense.  That was okay for me because it was reminiscent of the stuff we used to do in TSD, but with a few new twists here and there.

Bill and I would work on a few of those and then go back to my stuff.  We hit Ill soo sik and got that done fast, but I made sure I took a few moments to breath in between each set.  It was probably my best attempt so far.  Only one minor bobble.

Then we worked on four more knife attacks.  So fun, I can't wait to work on that stuff again.  Then back to ho shin sul which had no problems.  I only had a few minutes left so I had Bill verbally test me on the basics.  I still make a few errors on these which bothers me.  Thankfully they'll say them twice at the test.  

Eight days to go!

Every Day Is A Test

Each week Andy has a new theme for us to learn.  As the Shim Sa gets near, he likes going over some basic stuff verbally, to see if we all know where we are.  Today, or this week, we are going over the last five of the articles of faith.  I found out that I had them written down incorrectly and so when he asked me for number eight I gave him the wrong one.  I got it correct on the third try, hah!

Bill and I ran through Ill soo sik pretty quickly.  I had only one hiccup on a foot change, so that was pretty great by my standards, but I was going to hard.  He warned me to slow down to conserve my energy.  We flew through ho shin sul and we still had time to do kicking drills and his ISS.  I was on fire!

Nine days to go and I'm back to studying terms.  Hah!

Saturday Soiree

We had to meet up at 7:30 due to our schedules this Saturday.  Andy came out and watched us run through the test.  Since Bill has been approved as my partner I felt like we could really settle in with each other.  And since Andy was there it gave us an air of formality and pressure.  Anything that emulates the pressure of the exam is what I like.  I think it makes the actual test easier.

We ripped through the test in about forty minutes.  I only needed to do hohop (take a deep breath) a few times.  My errors continue to drop so that pleases me, but I have a few mistakes that vex me.  A foot placement here, a pause there, and so on.  Nagging stuff, but obvious to everyone watching.

The error count from Il soo sik was two I believe.  I can't actually remember anything else of note other than a repetitive error I get on one of the forms.  That's the foot placement thing.  I'm assured it minor, but if Andy can see it then others will see it for sure.

Endurance went well (125 punches in 30 seconds) and the break was smooth.  All in all, a good day.  I hope to continue at this level for the next week or so! 

Fast Friday

I'm at the two week mark before the Shim Sa (the belt test) and I'm feeling pretty good.  Mistakes continue to lessen at each practice so that makes me very happy.  I'm told to expect mistakes and just learn how to move on.  That takes a lot of stress out of the work.  

Today is form Friday, so we warmed up with a few basics and then moved on to forms.  It gets a bit boring repeating them, but easy to see errors and then on the next rotation, fix them.  So I walked out feeling pretty good on those.

Good news.  Bill was approved as my test partner.  Just no sweeping him.  He's seventy, so that's right out.  With him as my partner he'll just attack so it's one-sided (so we think). This makes the test go very fast, but it allows for some nice pacing on my part if needed.  I run the test straight through so I'm pretty wiped out.  Bill pointed out that I can probably go slower during partner based portions of the exam because we'll probably be waiting for the other candidates to catch up.  We shall see.

Tomorrow we'll practice at 7:30 am.  Our schedules are a little off due to booster shots for the both of us.

Thirsty Thursday

I quit the booze on April 1st so I could be more focused on beatings.  Sometimes I just didn't feel like I could focus correctly.  Now I'm starting to realize it was probably the allergies that were killing me.  So it's like an April fool's joke on me, hah.  I was just going to dry out until the test was complete.  I'm noticing that I'm still the same no matter what though.  I'm still waking up and trying to wake up more in class.  Is there a gain for not drinking? Hard to quantify.  

My wife joined me to be supportive and just saw an article from the Lancet that not drinking is probably the best route of all for overall health.  So we thought this was pretty awesome.  Until last night.  We had a steak night, the first in months and both of us have a huge connection with a glass of red with with steaks.  I thought it would be nice to have a small glass, but in the end we didn't have any wine and I ended up waking up without at trace of disrupted sleep.  So yeah for us?

Back to class - Bill and I did the partner drills again.  I'm loving this to be honest, because I see it as such a area of needed focus.  I can practice all the moves at home ad nauseum, but without a partner I miss some subtle things.  So the more the merrier.  The only problem is that I miss out on practicing all the other bits and pieces.  That's what Saturday has become.  Run the test and see how things go. 

Bill up and volunteered to be my partner at the Shim sa, but Andy was noncommittal.  Apparently not knowing how things go is part of the test!  Hah, makes sense in the perverted martial arts sense.  The counts of days grows smaller!

Midweek Mangle

There wasn't actually any mangling other than my wrists and shoulders getting twisted pretty hard during ho shin sul.  Today was just a standard partners day.  I got partnered with Bill and we ripped through ho shin sul.  I did mine and he did his and I was able to remember everything.  I got one correction due to happy feet during the chicken wing.  I'm only supposed to be making two steps.  

We got most of the way through ill soo sik.  I ran into a few hiccups but I'm finding myself doing this due an issue with timing.  My practice is very repetitive and when we stop and address something else, or focus on a particular detail, I tend to get derailed.  That happened once today.  Still, improvement is occurring, just at a very small pace.  

No word on whether or not Bill will be my test attacker.  Probably still too many questions, but they told us that there won't be a mask requirement because the state doesn't require it.  So the org can't override that precedence.  

Monday Night Shake Down

I read the book Angry White Pyjamas by Robert Twigger years ago.  It's filled with all kinds of training experience nuggets.  He points out that of that all of his teachers brought something to the table and all of them also bring something frustrating.  In his case Aikido training would contain lots of group patterns.  When everyone is in sync the whole process goes easy and with less effort.  He had one instructor that could break any pattern and make progress frustrating.

Andy has that tendency at times.  Colette will talk to the point where we get anxious to start and Andy will stop things to tell a story when it feels like we are getting going.  Last night was a bit of that, but it mostly due to the fact that it was just Mr. Moore and me.  After basics he would go back and forth between us and attack.  We did both ho shin sul and ill soo sik.  I think I made some errors, but I can't remember anything significant.  I would mess up when he stopped for any period of time.  Clearly I'm used to my schedule, hah.

The question of my partner is still in the air.  I suggested the guy from Camus, but Andy was saying that he's way too high of a rank.  He thought he might ask Bill!  That would be super awesome in my book, but Bill is a bit standoffish due lack of mask mandate.  It would still be cool though.

Proctor

No, it's not the name of a new Marvel superhero movie, it's me! After Bill and me were working out on Saturday, Colette asked me to Proctor the Gup shim sa (lower belt presentation/test). I know absolutely nothing about this roll and had never been to a lower belt test for SBD.  

The story started around the moving of a refrigerator.  Colette and Andy needed a new one and needed some help getting it into the house.  I was in the neighboring town, so I couldn't get there anytime soon.  I ended up showing when they had it in place.  Nice timing!  We chatted a few minutes later and they asked me to be the Proctor on Sunday.  I felt like it would be a good experience and, because I felt a bit guilty not helping a bit more at the school.  We all sign off on helping out when we can, so the work is distributed. I'm usually working on my house so it can be a bit tough.  They have an aggressive schedule of activities there and could use a lot more help, but there isn't a lot of us to go around.  So, I made sure I could get there and try to help.

Help, well, a bit of a hinderance seems a better description. I was given a few instructions from Colette and after getting everyone settled, we were ready for bow in.  There were about fifteen visitors and twelve candidates.  Colette and Andy made up the board and I stood up the whole time.  

My job was to say the moves in Korean and kind of act as a director for all the action.  Holding boards to break, acting as a director for sparring and so on.  Due to the large group the whole thing took several hours.  Afterwards Colette only had a few notes for me.  That seemed pretty good to me.  I totally blanked on the Korean for the sparring stuff. Whoops.  At least she was laughing at that.

All in all, a great experience for me, but I felt bad for many of the students that weren't totally prepared.  When they'd do something on their own for the crowd and it was crap everyone still politely clapped.  I'm not sure if they know, but Colette would follow up with, "I guess we know what we'll be working on next week."  Hah.

Saturday with Bill - we ran through the test again and it was a bit smoother than last week.  I'm taking this as a good sign.  Just a few forgetful spots in ho shin sul of all places.  Everything else went really well and we remember to spar this time.  I was pushing the pace, so we finished in an hour.  Bill pointed out that I don't have to do that since the test will most likely be broken up and I'll have more of an opportunity to rest than I think.  I don't trust our circumstances to line up like that, so I'll stick to a harder pace just in case.           

Formulaic

Friday means forms!  I just assumed I'd be doing my three, ad infinitum.  But Andy switched gears on me.  He started at the very bottom of the forms and started working his way up.  I've haven't done these in over ten years, maybe more.  

The first two or three are pretty easy, but then take a significant turn.  Gads it was horrible.  I had to watch the people around me to get an idea of what the next move was.  Total rookie time.  We did that for about twenty minutes, and then he moved me to my regular three for the test.

I got through the three and it was time to run for the door.  The class went entirely too quick, but I had time to practice at home and was pleased that the four items related to yesterday's work were recalled!   Whoop!

On a side note, our teenage girl appeared to get lippy with Andy and he dressed her down a bit in front of the class.  Things went back to normal right away, but I didn't actually hear what she said.  She was responsive after thought.  Bill and me speculate that Bianca probably doesn't want to come, but her Mother, the dr, might want to be keeping her close.  Hah.

Drama.  For a minute. 

Maybe Not Awake, But Alert

There is finally a little light!  Even though I got woke up a few times by my wife during the night, I woke up refreshed.  Although I was sleepy there was a subtle difference.  I wasn't disoriented.  I could tell my attitude was very positive as I walked out the door.  Whoop!

Today we did partner drills again, but with a slight change.  I was permanently a defender and Bill just attacked each time, instead of a back and forth.  The whole session went by very quickly and then we did it with Ho shin sul.  It was awesome.  However, Andy watched us the whole time and found four items to correct.  Tough stuff since I'm so close to the testing, but they were pretty good to know.      

After those we ran through an In Neh session.  In Neh mean endurance.  For the test I have to do at least 120 punches in 30 seconds.  I've been averaging 120 so I would qualify, but I rather be safer with a high rate.  Today I got a 140!  I thought Bill wasn't watching the clock or something.  Thirty seconds was beginning to feel like a very long time.  Whoop!

We spent the rest of the class working on Bill's version of Ill soo sik.  He's working on Sam soo sik.  I would attack with three strikes and he back up doing various blocks followed by a kick.  Andy kept saying, "you'll get to do these soon...."  I can't wait!  

Notes

• bend front knee deeper in prep for kick
• chicken wing has three steps.  The first breaks the grip
• double chop left is the lower one. Also cast the hands farther back
• left hand scoop gets a hip prep and lift the hands farther up.
• Knee in the guts before the twister.  How could I have forgotten that?

 

Befuddled

I can't understand how exhausted I am.  I slept 8 hours and by rights I should be absolutely golden.  However today I was stumbling around like a drunk on a three bender.  Even after half a day has gone by, I'm finding it hard to think straight.  This morning was a train wreck.  I tried to warm up and couldn't remember anything in order.  I left coffee on the counter and had to go up and down the steps because I would forget keys, then wallet, etc.

I got to class and couldn't warm up well.  Just light stretching was about all I could manage. We were going to work on techniques today and thankfully started with Ho shin sul.  I gather now that I can do that in my sleep.  When we went to Il soo sik my brain ceased functioning all together.  Small details derailed progress almost immediately.  In ISS the first two techniques have a timing pattern.  I'm struggling to remember to do this every time.  After that the timing is just 1-2-3-4.  But I mess up and then I mess up over again.  Grrr.

I thought that things were going well after that, but my mind kept drifting or blanking out to be more specific.  That would throw things off pretty frequently.  After we got through that, Bill and I practiced working on his techniques and then time ran out.  I'm not even sure what happened at this point.  

I hope I wake up some time~

Monday Night Quarterback

Bill is out for a few days, so Colette was looking for help for the class before ours.  I normally show up to try to help, but the chaos of the class doesn't make for it easy for me to help so well.  Colette has goals for each group and I'm not always on the same page.  That happened a bit last night.  I was working with the white belts, and we were doing well I thought.  Between classes she told me not have them practice the first form.  They needed to be better at blocks.  Whoops!

The Dan class consisted of me and Jack, the ten-year-old candidate.  Me and him will be testing at the same time, but he gets an abbreviated test due to his age.  Lucky him.  It'll happen for his second degree as well.  Lucky boy.

Colette had a conflict, so Andy took over and Mr. Moore just hung out.  We ran through each of our forms three times in an attempt to sync our movements.  Jack moves a bit faster than me, so I had to hustle a bit.  But by the third run through of each we were mostly on the same page.

We'd started class by running through the basics.  This is usually abbreviated to conserve time, but since it was just us two Andy ran through the whole course.  That was nice and a great warm up.  I also wasn't completed exhausted.  Unlike the kicking drills which followed our forms.  I thought I did well, especially since Jack and me were moving quickly.  But by the time we stopped I was huffing pretty good and fairly soaked. It's nice to see that my cardio appropriate to the work seems to be good.  

We chatted a bit about the test and Jack attempted to do a break but the contraption that holds the board fell apart.  That was pretty awesome.  More than likely due to my bad attempts on Saturday.  Whoops. 

Run Through

I met up with Bill on Saturday and we decided to run through the whole test.  We got through it in about an hour and half.  There were three minor mistakes in ho shin sul and probably the same amount in the ill soo sik.  The kick went terrible though.  I set the target up too high and was not targeting very well.  One too high and one too low.  Boy that stung.  We lowered the target holder a few inches and I was golden.  I definitely have to remember that!

After we finished up, I kept thinking that we missed something.  We sorted out a few things in the forms and we were heading out the door when Colette showed up.  We went through the exam, and she pointed out that we missed sparring!  The stuff we've been working on the whole last week.  Whoops!

The Region still hasn't found me a partner for the exam, but Colette didn't think much of it.  She said they'd grab somebody at the Shim Sa.  I hope that's true, because I don't things are going to work with me and a four-foot kid.  

I got to try on a dobok top to take a look at fit.  It feels like I'm getting closer!  

Teaching And Such

It's Friday!  The week has been long, and my practice seems fractured, but progressing as well as it can be.  The class focus hasn't always been where I want it, but it's good to keep moving and trying to draw what I can from the work at hand. Thankfully I'll get to work out with Bill tomorrow and see how things go.  I'd like to run through my test again and see how it goes.  

Today was fast again.  We started with add-on basics.  There was eight of us and one person at the end of the line picks a move, and for each iteration we add a new move from the next person in the line. At the end of eight additions, it can get quite complicated.  But it does warm me up!

Friday is traditionally forms day, as I'm starting to learn, so I wasn't caught off guard.  I got up astoundingly early and went through all my techniques because I hadn't remembered that Friday was forms.  Either way it was all good.

I ended up working with the Doctor and her daughter.  The daughter is a teen and has a tendency to wonder off when I get too boring.  I must be horrible because I only speak for like two minutes.  Hah!

---

I was notified that I need to take a picture for my files for the test.  They want you in a dobok top (in my case an old karate gi).  I had Mr. Moore take the photo.  I look like an unmade bed.  High-def isn't my friend.  

I was notified that I'm the only adult trying for my Cho Dan at the test.  The rest of the field are kids.  It's bound to look humorous, so Colette is hustling to find me a partner.  I hadn't realized that the kids only have to do odd techniques whereas I do both odd and even.  Hah, doesn't seem fair.  But they can't place me with them during the test because I'm way to bigl  Hopefully one of the other schools will help me out.

Round Robin

We had a sudden drop in temperature last night which meant that I had to spend extra time scraping the windows before I could get out of the driveway.  I hate being off my schedule, but I still showed up early.  

Andy is no longer using his zimmer frame (walker) and is using a cane at the moment.  He still can't do much, so our new warmups were run by Bill.  It was just the basic Moo Do block/evade/move/punch.  

We went right into partner drills.  Because of the odd numbers I was partnered with the Doctor and Bill.  I was working on ho shin sul, bill was working on his version and the Doctor was working on the backend of the techniques.  Apparently lower belts work in reverse order?  Hard to tell.

It was fun to play teacher and Andy helped off and on.  The only part of note was that the Doctor is about a foot shorter than me so techniques where I have to get under the shu's arm are veeerrry difficult.  I'm so used to working with Bill (who is my height) that I'd forgotten I'd have to adjust so dramatically.  Plus, she has very flexible wrists so it's hard to know how much pressure to apply in the wrist locks.  

The class went so fast that it felt like we didn't get very far.  I only got through about ten techniques before I had to sprint out of there.  I was still late to my first meeting, eek.

29 days and trying to pay attention to that

I figured with all the effort yesterday that I'd be ready for a really decent night of sleep.  I got to sleep right away but ended up waking off and on throughout the night.  It always makes the night feel so long and not in a good way.  

It's nice to be back on the schedule though.  Wednesday is the start of my morning classes at the school, and I like the regularity it forces in my life.  All my friends know that I'm going to head out early (at social functions during the week) so I can get to bed early.  I love it.  I can get the coffee ready and set up my gi/dobok and put things in their place.  Sounds like an OCD dream!

When I do my warmup in the morning I like to run through my trouble spots. This morning I had a lot of problems remembering things.  I was concerned because I hadn't been practicing at home due to the work here.  However once we got going at class I when right through Ho Shin Sul and did fairly good with Ill Soo Sik.  I have to areas on the ISS that need work, but I got through both (with Bill) within 25 minutes.  A new record for me.  Whoop!

It's officially 29 days till the exam.  Eek! We received the official schedule for the event yesterday and I found out that the oral exam is on the Friday.  The day before the Shim Sa (the test).  I confirmed that this morning, so I was a bit confused.  I assumed they asked those questions after all the physical stuff to see how you'd do while you're wiped out.  I guess not!  

Sooo Tired

House deconstruction is hitting a fevered pitch.  I'm removing the old floor coverings from the upper floor in our home which desperately needed a refresh.  Tile, mortar, carpets, you name it and I've done the work pulling, scraping, and cutting to remove it.

My wife and I finally settled on a new flooring that's going into the halls, living room and the kitchen.  We've been moving along for the last couple of weeks getting it all taken out.  My wife got the opportunity to go over to Hawaii for a week, so the work was settling on me for the kitchen/dining room.  I have learned that contractors tend to add linoleum on top of old layers instead of pulling old stuff out.  It's simply faster which means less money to the owners.  I'm currently a week and half into the removal and it gets harder and harder.  The kitchen has a sandwich of three layers of linoleum and an 1/4 inch of plywood.  Saws and muscle work forever.  It's exhausting.  

Mixing this in with beatings is a bit of a challenge.  Relaxed practice isn't going on at the moment.  Whenever I have spare time, I'm working on the house and trying to squeeze in daily practice is relegated to class time and a bit here and there during off days.  Mostly I just want to sit down and sleep.  

As I get closer to the exam (which is now thirty days away!) I'd prefer to be working on Ill soo sik, but Colette wants me to be working on other things.  In the last week the focus has been on sparring.  I'm not saying that I don't need to refine it, but because it's such a small part of the exam I would think the focus would be less.  Still fun though.

Last night I got there early and helped out with the all-belt class. This can be exhausting because there are usually fifteen folks of all ages there. They are broken into groups and working on the appropriate forms or skills.  

After they left our Dan level class worked on new warmups and then sparring.  I like what they are saying, but my sparring partner is a ten-year-old who is as big as my leg.  I would aim a kick at him from fairly far away and he would dutifully dodge and come diagonally and punch at my midsection.  Then start giggling at the ridiculousness of it all.  Honestly, it was a lot of fun and fairly helpful for me to get moving in the right direction.  

Stolen from the webz.  Not that much of a difference, but close.

Another night of hard sleep, but never feels like enough.