Weight of the belt

Teacher asks me last night, "so how does that belt feel?"

My first thought was "heavy."

When I put it on it doesn't feel right. I'm sure most of that is I'm so used to seeing the green belt that this seems out of place. The other part is that whenever I get to say Brown Belt in relation to myself I have dichotomous moment in which I say to myself, "that doesn't sound right," and "wow, I actually know something." I starting to think that a large part of the path is to come to believe in oneself and the skills you have. Colin mentioned something along the line about having the skill of a Black belt and coming to terms with the other portions of the path. I can feel myself getting comfortable with the role slowly. I can feel others giving me more respect - perhaps I'm accepting it more...

I noticed last night that everyone has heavy bruises on their arms. No one is complaining so that's nice. We still look like a bunch of abused husbands.

Bumps and Bruises

Oh how I ache. I'm used to seeing these types of pictures on Striking Thoughts because Bob does TKD. Those bruises are just from knife hand blocks.

Brown Day 1

I think I felt different. Kinda like, "Am I good enough for this?" and "Oh hell yeah, I went through the gauntlet!" The gang was giving me a lot of respect though, which was nice.

The brown belt against my red gi looked gross. Oh well, at least the little kids won't be calling me Santa Claus anymore.

Class had six last night and we worked very hard. I'm still drained from Tuesday so class felt very difficult, but I swear everyone was working harder than usual. Lots of knife hand blocks and spinning back kicks. Got some great pointers that I was able to immediately work on.

Still tired, still sore today. Not much to write about..

New Brown!!!

I thought it lasted an hour, but I was told it was only 40 minutes.

I thought I was going to puke about halfway, but I didn't.

I thought I was going to remember some strategy, but I couldn't remember how to spell Tang Soo Do.

Teacher called me earlier in the day and told me the basic format of the test, but I can honestly say that it didn't prepare me for what was coming up. We had a standard class for the first hour which I found exhausting anyway. My notorious bad breathing (breath holding) exhibiting itself right away. We broke for a fairly long time (20 minutes) which I didn't realize I should have been appreciating a bit more, then it was test time. Teacher, Teacher Slim and Teacher G sat in chairs at the head of the room. Teacher ran me through every kick, block and strike, sometimes mixing them with movement or not and then I did our first kata/hyung, Kecho hyung Ill Boo and our seventh, Pyung Ahn Sa Dan. Might I add that I was incredible.

Teacher then passed the exam to Teacher G. This was the unknown element. I've only seen Teacher G about three times in the last five years and his background is incredibly hard style. He ran me through multiple exercises with pads and movement and then threw in push-ups and back up again. I was pretty much going to puke and keep thinking to myself, "Can I do this?" or "This is got to end soon" unfortunately it didn't. He kept going to point where I was going to drop. It was precisely the feeling I had on a cardiac stress test, but there I could stop. Here I could not.

Next was Teacher Slim. With a silly grin he asked me to spell Tang Soo Do. Mentally, I was, "no problem, and I love you for giving me a break," but we I tried to speak there wasn't enough blood or O2 in my brain to carry it off. I gather it was t-a-n long pause s-o really long pause d-o. He couldn't stop giggling I couldn't figure out what I'd missed.

Teacher was the final portion of the of evening's festivities. Sparring. I wasn't even really sure if we were going to spar since I was so exhausted, but that's what happened. First it was Nilon, the man that loves to scrap. In his credit I will say that he didn't try any of his normal "invent a move" crap and stuck to the program. Second was Lux. During the first hour we had been doing minimal impact work, so this was a big change and I thought he did really great for a new guy. Then Beard. I knew he wasn't going to pull any punches when he palm heeled my cheek. Well I honestly didn't mind at that point and gave as good as I got. My last bout was with Teacher who came onto me quickly, but the irony was that I was ready for that. I laid into him as hard as I could manage and the worse thing that came from that was him popping my ear with a flat hand. Ouch = ringing.

They had me bow, gave me a belt and then we went down the street for a beer. I had to drive down the block because I could barely walk.

My favorite line from the evening was from Teacher, "I told you to fight them, not beat them!"

Test Prep Interlude

I met with New Guy yesterday for a test tune up. He's got a great eye for detail. We went over my kata and refined as much as we could. We also discussed kumite strategy. I feel a lot better. I think just talking about it with an informed party reduced a lot of my anxiety.

I asked about his background. He has five Brown Belts! He's been studying since his early teens and never got to stay in one place long enough to get his black belt. Dang.

Test Prep

The test is in two weeks.

I totally wasn't feeling any anxiety about it until I started writing about it. Thankfully Teacher appears to be constructing class to address my weak points in order to prepare me. We worked on a deceptively simple/complex forward chained attack. If I didn't come out of the kick properly balanced then the rest of the chain fell apart due to bad distancing.

We worked on Pyung Ahn Sa Dan, which is the kata he wants me to perform. Super critical eye time. He pointed out a few things that cleaned up some moves, but I found even more that needs to be addressed in the next week. Yikes. I tried it this morning and I totally fell apart. I need to warm up more maybe...

The last part of class was dedicated to Rondori and he partnered me with New, new guy. I may have mentioned before that his presence is about the most awesome thing to happen in class for a long time. He brings in a vitality and energy that is incredibly refreshing.

At the end of class I mentioned to Teacher that NNG likes working with kids! He had heard that and I think he was quite enthusiastic about it as well. Finally we have someone who loves teaching and loves teaching kids.

Holy crap update! I just got off the phone with Teacher. He wants to move the test up to next Tuesday so Teacher Slim can watch/particpate. Where's my 02!!!

Snap

That was a break.

You know when it happens, but you deny it because in only hurts for a few seconds.

We were practicing roundhouses with focus mitts as the target. Teacher was holding it at whatever distance he saw fit and it was a bit too close for me so my foot went under the mitt and my pinky toe did not. Crack.

I feel like I'm walking with a eggplant in my shoe.

The news - we got a new guy whom I'll call NNG (new new guy) until a name surfaces for him. He's got a Brown Belt in Kenwa-kai karate. I'd forgotten how nice it was to have someone to do stuff with who actually knows what to do. Insanely pleasurable.

At the end of class Teacher says that testing will occur in the next couple of weeks - gulp. That actually sounded specific.

Ah hah

When I got my green belt, Teacher pulled me aside and said that all the "ah-hah" moments I'd been experiencing were going to become less and less frequent. Sure enough the plateau of experience vs. refinement set in and over the last year or so things have slowed down significantly enough to allow me to focus on improving all the small things.

Last night I got a new version of the "ah-hah." We were do a move that looks simple and is very effective, but the execution took two hours to learn. As usual anything with taking someone's balance and keeping your own is something I find very challenging. Last night was no exception, but Teacher was able to break down everything I wasn't doing and give me a metaphor or some correction to constantly refine the work. But the end of the night it was if I had 20 little ah-hahs. Nice feeling to see and feel such quick progress.

The move was to block a straight punch, move in a bit and get the blocking arm to grab the punching arm elbow. While Uki is still in forward movement continue to pull them off balance and give them an uppercut to the floating ribs. We then did three variations of follow up, but they all a foot movement, elbow lock and a shoulder guide. One throws the person. One drives them to the floor and one retains the locked arm and requires us to shoot our feet out and ride the person down to the floor. Hard work! Sore knees! Excitement!

I also added a few pictures to the slideshow of last weeks show off for my Dad.

Bruise Randori

On Tuesday I could only attend half the class as my parents were coming in that evening so I came early to the kids class to help out/participate. After enduring that for awhile (you have to really take the long view on their progress) the class finished and I was doing jumping jacks when Nilon came in and, I swear to you, only did two stretches before he came up me all bug-eyed.

He was ready to go and I figured it would be a nice warm up, so on to Randori. However, this wasn't our regular slow, light impact kind. His first two strikes were pretty powerful and after that I knew I had to be careful as well as pay sharp attention. Nilon is hyper-aggressive and almost half my age so his advantages lay in his ability to produce a continuous attack and excellent fitness. His weakness is a lack of skill and virtually no kicking. I've never seen anyone so allergic to stretching their legs, but it's to my benefit in this case.

So we started and I have to say in all fairness it was really fun. As much as it can be painful it reminds me of how much I have learned and how I might do in a real-life situation. A kind of verification and feedback on how I've progressed in my own eyes. Well, I got cocky right off and didn't bother to protect my head and caught a spinning back fist across the chops. Again I was thankful that he doesn't look first or aim because if that caught me across the eye or brow I would have been out like a light. Thankfully, it didn't do anything, but he actually was concerned about his shot.

I shook my head and it was back on. Since I'm about 5 or 6 inches taller I have a nice reach, but he doesn't mind moving in and using elbows. I backed out and circled and used my legs for some head kicks. Round house to the noggin - point to me. I figured I'd do that for a bit and set up a pattern, but I was too slow. He moved in on a midsection roundhouse and used both arms elbow down to stop my kick. I think we all know this is a horrible block because he had to take all the shock in the shoulders in an upward motion, but I really came out bad because it felt like I had slammed leg into two pointy bits of metal. A little bit later Nilon stopped the action on his own!

Although I felt like I had taken the worst of it, he was dripping sweat from every pore. I guess he felt he got what he needed and was done. I turned to Teacher and asked how long we'd been at it. I asked this because I can never guess how long the action is - it could be 30 seconds or five minutes - when I'm in the mix I can never tell. 3 minutes he replied. Not bad. I wasn't huffing and puffing, but the elbows on the leg were starting to make my leg puff up.

We ended up doing Katas for the next hour to continue to knock the rust off and I could really feel that leg groaning. I took the ibuprofen when I got home. It's still sensitive two days later. Ouch.

Wrist Lock

Never in my life have I had so much difficulty describing moves. Beard says, "how to do explain something felt?" In my last entry I was really unable to describe a lock, but Meg asked for a bit more so I took the camera and tried to get some shots of our basic lock. Thankfully we didn't do anymore in class because my wrists are still a bit tender.

Let me just say that their are a million ways to do this and we practice as many as we can, but this is about the easiest one I could describe.

First you take the striking hand on the outside with your same side hand. This could be from a block or just a straight up grab if you are fast and accurate.

We traditionally block farther up the arm and then slide down to the hand, but you get the idea.

Next is the hand placement. The fingers go around the ball of the thumb into the palm and your thumb on the back of the hand.

I usually do the next part with two hands, but this is really designed to be a single hand take. You are supposed to role the person's fist/hand up toward their body.

Note: You've got do this starting very relaxed or the person will tense up and if you've little hands like me then you are doomed. Away to assist into moving into this position is to dig your thumb between the two tendons - ouch!

This is first part of the pain. A person can be dropped to their knees in this position if the curling towards them is continued while close in. Not very descriptive - sorry.

And finally the twist. It's not a great shot of what's going on, but let's say that not only am I pushing his knuckles towards him, but I'm rotating his hand so that the ball of his palm is now going towards his body. You'll notice that his elbow is moving in towards his body to create relief. The only escape is take a fall or other counters that take to long to describe.

I usually have to do this with two hands. It reduces slippage.

And, in other news, Nilon is absolutely obsessed about testing for his next rank. He constantly asks Teacher about it during breaks and after class. I find this repulsive because it goes against my whole gut feeling about why we are there, but at the same time I'm absolutely drawn in because I want to know too! So Teacher says, "we are absolutely testing before the end of the summer." He pointedly looked at me...

Educational Differences

Inside my body I think I heard/felt a prolonged, "creeaaakk."  To the best of my knowledge I think that could be bad.  

However, I'm typing this without a problem.  It always seems to be that way though.  During the evening I'm positive the wrist locks we are preforming are absolutely spraining or breaking my wrist, but I wake up with only minimal discomfort.  

Teacher took a new tack on the start up.  We did a traditional kicking series and I was partnered with new guy, LG.  Front kick, forward stance, back-fist, step behind into side kick.  Nice but you have to have a partner that remembered to back up so when you chambered for the side kick you'd be pressed up against them.  

At first I was working with Nilon - who was apparently asleep on his feet.  After a couple of runs up and down the length of the room he couldn't even manage to concentrate long enough to make an impact on the pads and definitely wasn't keeping up pace with my kicks.  He finally bowed out and took off.  

I was making polite conversation after he left  - essentially that Nilon was tired because he worked construction all day.  Teachers response - "If he's that tired how's he going to defend himself?"  Basically, I think he disrespected the Teacher by showing and doing a half-ass job.  I guess he should have stayed home and took care of himself.  Shrug.

So off to wrist locks and throws.  I got partnered with LG and it was back to the basics of the grab, hand position, the lock and then the throw.  I've completely forgotten all the things that can be addressed in teaching the kotegashi.  After awhile I was getting frustrated and Teacher came to the rescue.  He has a very good sense of what to focus on and what to let go for later.  I kept thinking of all the things he has told me in the past over and over until the sunk in.  Poor guy; at least he has some new folks that show earlier promise.  

That's where the crack and creak came in.  Something I never really appreciated before as it relates to the fold wrist lock.  To take someone down in the kotegashi the way we do it (ignoring all other body mechanics and foot work) is to fold wrist up as if you are waving someone over to you and then twisting that exterior.    When the person is down we have a variety of locks to utilize, but one that has escaped me is just the folding lock.  I never seen to cause anyone anxiety in that position and knew that it wasn't correct.  I was missing that the arm has to come up to allow a greater circle to be created, thus putting more umph into the wrist lock.  I had been basically stopping to soon in two or three axis.  

So LG learned quick from my realization and took me to task.  I'm glad that my audible body noises and arched back made him back off!

It's all in the hips

I don't think I'm at the point in which I can say that I fully utilize my hips in kicks and strikes. Every time I get lower in stance I have to completely retool the hip rotation. So if I'm in a deep zenkutzu stance I don't feel like I can twist my hips at all, so I'll raise up only to receive admonition from Teacher for a poor stance. Hmmm. Since I'm going up and down in stance heights, I don't have a consistent spot in which to practice and lock down what I'm doing.

My best kick for utilizing the hip snap/whip is the outside crescent using my right leg. It remains loose and my hip leads the whipping movement beautifully, but my left side just won't move smoothly. I'm having some lower back problems and some bursitis in my hip so I'm guessing that could be the problem. That, or it's the old saw - you're better on one side that than the other.

I was working with one of the new guys on those kicks and he was awesome. He kept his balance and could generate a lot of energy. New people make me sick. To compensate I took all the credit in teaching him his new skills.

This month in questions

Now I realize why Uchi Deshi only posts once in a while. When I started I figured it would be efficacious to keep a log of what I've learned to help me out in the future, but I find that at this point in my career the new things that I'm learning are far and few between or so subtle that it takes a few hours to write it all out. Also, the dramas of past classes have also seemed to died down to nothing as I've matured or, at least gotten used to the folks I saw as the source.

So I'll post if I can remember or if something profound comes up. Today I'm writing because of two subtle things. The first was that doing blocks that use the fore-arms has always been something that made me wince. What made it worse was that if we did not do a lot of blocking any "build up" was soon lost and the sensitivity would return. I noticed after a pounding last night I didn't feel a darn thing. I'm covered with some deep bruises, but nothing hurts. I guess the sensitivity to blunt trauma has receded. This is not to say that when Teacher uses a technique on me at full force that I don't often groan inwardly, but by and large I felt a little pride that I've been doing this long enough that blocks on the forearm aren't something that I have to dread.

The 2nd is that I believe that I have become a little bit smoother with my techniques. For years anytime I had to do any of our Aikido based techniques I would use a huge amount of muscle to force the issue - leading to poor execution and often a failure to get the desired effect. Of late we've been doing a lot of multiple attacker exercises and it's been pointed out that I'm not hunching my shoulders in effort and the take downs are a lot easier. However, after about 10 minutes of that I notice that my technique fails and I fall back on muscle - naughty.

Belt news - None! After Teacher and seemingly everyone in town seemed to know it was right around the corner, discussion and preparation have completely dried up. Is it me? Or is it Teacher? I don't think about it most of the time, but last night before class I was perseverating over it for some time. Asking myself a lot of questions with no particular answers or reasons to have them.

A little blood...

Arms of Steel is back in town for semester break. He was doing some arm work with Lux and punched him in the nose. There was a little blood flow. Lux has never had a bloody nose in his life! He kept commenting about it and I think Teacher got a little tired and said, "do you need a tampon?" to which Lux responded, "why, do you have one in your purse?" Everyone fell down laughing. Teacher said, "I guess I deserved that."

Since we had a new guy I was placed with him to work on the basics. He's very athletic so he took physical correction extremely well. The 2nd half of the class AOS, Beard and I worked on grabs and locks. Beard deferred to me to pick the techniques (kotegaeshi and shihonage!) and it went very well. The three of us had a grand time throwing and slapping to our hearts content. Teacher worked with the new folks for the whole time and would only visit for a second or two to see what we were up to or to answer questions.

After class I told Teacher that I should have offered to work with the new folks on kicking techniques. He said it was no problem, but we did have a good conversation about how good it is to do the education portion as it covers the gaps in my own knowledge.

Just Another...

I didn't post last week because I'm not really sure I had anything to say! Will wonders never cease. I didn' t have anything to rant about for once, no one to complain about and class is really pretty wonderful.

Having a class of eight folks is really fantastic. I'd long forgotten what it was like to have a constant rotation of different body types to work with. No longer stuck with one person and falling into a frustrating repetition. I hadn't realized the pure delight of seeing other folks. All of us doing the same techniques differently.

Of the influx we've had two for sure that appear as though they are going to stay around. Philly and Lux. At least they appear as though they will. Tonight was six folks when Beard showed up, but it was still great. I thought it was going to be repetitive, but Teacher managed to have a fun class that jumped through the time window again and made it feel like it was only a few minutes. Very engaging and great timing.

Endurance done?

I ran into Nilon at the store and he told me that we have two new people in class! It was like the clouds opened and sun shined right down on me. It meant that I didn't have to experience two hours of Nilon's supercilious attitude. With new people we have a little time to focus on basics and he can't get out of line too much.

Then it strikes me - and I don't think I'm being self-centered - he doesn't like to be there if I'm not there! He honestly wants me to be there so he can have fun. How painful. I find that I like him in real life (outside of class) where he is subdued and prefers to observe life. In class he becomes obnoxious in his excitement - at least to me.

So I changed my thinking as I went to class last night. We were getting new folks and Nilon's behavior took on a new face.

Of course when such things happen in the mind the reflection appears in reality. We had eight people show, not including teacher. Holy cow! We haven't had eight folks for as long as I can remember (maybe two year...). So Teacher had his hands full with absolute beginners and salty veterans mixed up doing the basics. We also had a visitor from another school in town. I didn't even know this one existed. The local native association had a class for a short time and it was taught by a co-worker of mine! I'm going to talk to him today about that.

Oh, and my knees are killing me.

Endurance Round 2

"What happened?" I'm not sure where my body went, but Nilon's body fell on me and I heard and felt a sickening crunch. Why does it have to be the bad knee? There is probably another rule in there, but I don't have the wherewithal to figure it out now.

It was the class I dread. Me and Nilon for the whole two hours. To his credit he was perfectly fine and we worked well together. The only time was on the mats when we were trying to figure out a circular defense on a shoot type attack. Always one to modify what we were trying to learn, he tried something exotic after going under my arm and knifing my throat. As if that wasn't enough he tried a throw well beyond his ability and we went down in a pile. Both he and Teacher heard the bad noise and were honestly concerned.

It's an hour later and it doesn't look any worse for wear, but it aches more than usual. I'll count myself lucky for the moment.

Endurance Round

When I went to class last night I assumed that it would begin a period of several months of toleration, frustration and teeth grindation. I actually thought to myself how ironic it was that I was looking forward to Beard coming back to class next week. I even thought about skipping class, but realized Teacher probably wasn't thrilled, so I put on my big boy gi and went to class.

Irony - I spent a whole day preoccupied about class and it ended up being Little Sister and myself. Teacher asked what we wanted to work on. I wanted to go back to Roundhouse kicks and LS wanted kata. I wanted to continue on the roundhouse kicks, which in retrospect, was not a good idea. I wanted to refine something that was starting to feel good, but instead everything seemed to be firing poorly. My back started knotting up after about 10 minutes. Thankfully the kata wasn't too bad - for once.

Little Sister left at the hour mark, so Teacher and I ended up sparring for 45 minutes! I'm not going to say this was non-stop because it was filled me grabbing a body part that was injured in an exchange and jumping away to groan or shout. The important thing here was that it was 45 minutes! That meant that I was able to control my breathing and keep fairly relaxed.

The next morning I could barely get out of bed. So stiff and sore I ended up walking around like the proverbial old man for most of the day. A good night sleep and a lot of Ibuprofen took care of most of that.

Rule 3

Rule 3 - You can do the technique perfectly over and over and soon as Teacher is watching you do it wrong. Or rather you might be aware of every bit of the technique that was wrong. Down to the angle of your hand, or just plan falling over after kicking.

There are two guys in class who are not bad, but they require me to be constantly on my guard. They are the kind of guy that constantly takes a poke at you when you aren't paying attention. I feel like the focal point because I never see them do it to other people. Am I permissive to this behavior? I can't tell. It reminds me of children that can't stop grabassing.

It can be argued that they are excellent for me to practice my situational awareness, but I find that it takes away from my ability to concentrate on the learning. One of these is Beard. Tuesday he says that he won't be in class for three weeks and was silently pleased because it meant that I didn't have to watch my back so much. Of course when I walk in Nilon shows up! I thought he was long gone. Now with a pot belly and long hair, he claims that he needs to get in shape. Still the same guy who explosively warms up and never appears to be listening. To add insult to injury Cook with be gone for 3 months, so it'll be me, Nilon, and Teacher. I hope Little Sister shows every once in awhile.

The highlight was working on roundhouse kicks tonight. Never a favorite because we warm up without having a target so it's all balance and finding the proper spot for chamber. For once in my life I was able to do it with no problem. Will miracles never cease! So he moved on to the water dummies for a target and I never received one critique. Granted I suppose I'm not supposed to be showing signs of incompetence at my "level" but I like having the correction. I guess a step up for me.

I believe I will endure the next three months with silent stoicism and if I can make my way through this I will be a better man.

Just another...

No rules tonight, but it sure was a great class. Teacher was at his best with building blocks on skills. From basic hands and one legged balancing to side kicks for multiple attackers to reaction timing drills. Exhausting and thrilling.

Beard brought a guy in from way in the past. He's been off to Iraq and been through a horrible divorce. He doesn't have a lot going on so we might see him a bit more in class. Great guy.

Teacher has us practice our basic locks and I end up teaching new guy. I'm starting to think he's really getting me into the space to teach a few techniques very well, because each time I end up teaching the first new lesson. I'd like to eventually try to teach the technique to the same person a couple of times in a row if they were consistent.

I got kicked in the lower ribs and had to bow out for a second. I had terrible breathing again. I swear I'm breathing regularly and it seems very clear that I'm holding my breath. I have to force myself to keep my mouth open. I feel like mouth breathing doesn't make me look very intelligent.

Potatoe's rule 2

Colin told me several months ago that the secret to giving the side kick authority was by giving the last few angles of moment a bit of snap. I have to admit that this puzzled me because I just couldn't picture it. I was so proud that my foot was hitting the proper angle the moment of impact that I wasn't able to see another layer in the onion that is the sidekick.

so

Rule number 2 - Teacher will tell you over and over the same words, but until you are ready to receive the substance of what they are saying it doesn't work and doesn't mean anything.

Rule 2a - You will have a moment in which the same crap everyone tells you suddenly makes sense and you can change your form or behavior or mind enough to modify on command.

Teacher asked Cook and I what we wanted to work on. He got identical blank looks. This means side kicks and lots of them. That's when I had my epiphany (or rule 2a). I'm not even sure I can describe this accurately, but let's say that you are 9/10s complete with the kick. You've got your foot moving out - and this is the crucial bit -you are supposed to role your hip over so that the completion of this part of the kick has you looking over your shoulder, a slight crick your lower back and a perfect view of your kicking foot on target. To get this snap, just before you roll your hip over (if you don't know what I mean I'll have to go into that some other time), and you knee is still fairly bent, you have to recruit you glute and ham in a contraction that actually forces the hip over and leg shoots out.

I've heard this (thanks Colin) and it never sunk in until tonight. Now that I understand, I have to get the timing right. No easy feat for someone trying to maintain their balance and aim at the same time.

The rest of the class was a review of forward rolls, rolls into breakfall, and back breakfall. I rang my bell on those because I wasn't watching my own neck very well. I have to keep my chin down a bit on those. I had good time though. Then it was on to wrist locks. Kotegoeshi? So painful, but surprisingly less than usual. A good night.

Potatoe's rule 1

There are exceptions to every rule.

However, exceptions are rare.

Tonight I was filled with dread and excitement about returning to class. It was Teacher, Little Sister and Cook. Thankfully it went slow and easy, but I bruised easily. It's going to take a long time to develop the bruise layer again.

Here is the first rule - whatever body part is hurting and you want to protect; it will focused upon and abused during class.

Case in point - my knees apparently both have tendinitis in them. Or at least it feels like it. In the second hour we practice a grab with a kick in the back of the leading knee. Perfect.

After about 20 or 30 0f these it's my turn to kick. I can barely pick my leg up to do the kick. So I have to do more to get it right. It was one of those nights where no matter how much time and effort went in to tell me how to do it, nothing was going to work. I could do it on short folks, but anyone my height was a whole different situation. Painful.

PU review

Since there isn't much going on in terms of class until next week I'm just working on kata and pushups. I got to 40 pushups on knuckles this morning and switched to half height for 20 more! I think I'm still too sore to do more.

O Dan, Bassei, Neihanshi, repeat. I'm up to move 20 on Neihanshi. Tough to remember.

Fake out

I was so excited. Last night was the big night to return to class. I had my bag packed two hours before it was time to go. Everything was in order. I left early to participate in the kid's class.

I get there and the sign on the door says, "no Karate till April 8th."

I went home somewhat dumbfounded. I practiced Neihanshi Chodan for a bit.

Wow, Teacher went on vacation. I thought that was only me!

Back from Vacation

I haven't been to class yet, but my wife and I are a study in how jet lag completely discombobulates someone. Neither of us can stay asleep for more than four hours because our clocks are so far off. It's waking up at 4 or 3 in the morning and not being able to get back to sleep.

In an attempt to stay in some kind of shape I tried to keep up with Pat's challenge of 100 push ups just to see if I could do it. Bob at Striking Thoughts has broken it up to 50, rest, 25, rest and 25. I figured since Bob and I are roughly the same age I could do the same. I thought wrong! I guess heavy lifting doesn't translate to quantity. My best on the trip was 42, rest, and 10. I was too fried after that to do more. Yesterday at the gym I was able to do 50 in one shot, but nothing more.

I'll continue to try more in my morning warm ups and see how far I get.

Empty Class

I'm getting ready to leave for the big city and then out of the country so prepping the house and packing has taken a huge priority. I've also got a cold and I'm pretty shaky at best, but I didn't want to miss my first regular class after 10 weeks.

I get to class there's only me! It's like a private lesson again. Thankfully Little Sister came in and we spend the hour doing katas. I was turning kind of grey by the end and sweating profusely so I packed up at half time. I felt bad for teacher - where was everyone? When I asked him he shrugged non-commitally. "They come and go," he replied.

I guess it seems disrespectful after all the energy I've been putting in try to keep up during my off time, but he didn't seem to mind. It's always been that way - the class will wax and wane as time moves on. Selfishly I keep thinking how this is going to make learning tougher when we don't have more people, but I loved the individual attention.

Private Lesson 5

Each refinement knocks a piece away from the bad form or bad balance. For a moment I felt like a sculpture and Teacher was the artist slowly chiseling away the imperfections. That is until my legs got too tired to hold me up anymore. When the legs tire I tend to stand up and and then my balance goes to hell. So we had great progress while I was fresh, but as I got tired we had to move on to the next thing more frequently.

In O Dan there is a transition that requires me to switch to the hind leg and then come around with a crescent kick which is complimented with a downward block. This is challenging to me because if I don't do it correctly, my body spins past the desired end point. So today we worked on where I'm looking and keeping my head up. Two simple things that erased a lot of problems.

After that we went to knife attacks. I realized as he got the bowie knife out how I really dislike these exercises. I mean I know why I don't like them - I'm not great at the defense and these are the most likely to occur in our town which adds an aspect of unwanted realism.

To my surprise I was able to go through about six that really worked well and a few that are really fantastic. These attacks are based on a straight forward thrust and slashing. Nothing to do with someone who knows how to really fight with a knife. So my confidence got a boost, but I had to take a lot of shots in the belly before I really started moving my torso.

Private lesson 4

"This is what Teacher Slim looks for....", "This is what Teacher Slim looks for...."

The third time I heard this I started getting mildly panicky. Teacher keeps referring to what Teacher Slim is going to be looking for - as in my Brown Belt Test. I can't believe I'm experiencing panic over this. I know the source - the fine tuning we are going through is bringing up all kinds of things I feel I should have had down pat by now. The angle of a foot in a kick, the placement of the leg in chamber, the accuracy of a punch, the creativity of a counter-attack, balance in a particularly difficult Kata, etc.

I have an additional concern. Sunday I started having some problem breathing. It felt like I couldn't get any air and passed in about 20 seconds, but it happened three or four times. It was as though I had sprinted up steps and needed an extra breath to get a little more air. This agitated my wife so she called the doctor. The next day I got for every damn test in the world. Needless to say after all that they find out I have a virus of some sort. Since we are on the end of the world the results won't get here for two weeks at the most. Great. In the mean time it lethargy and occasional shortness of breath - which sounds like me anyway!

For whatever macho reason I couldn't bring myself to tell Teacher. I feel like I've given him so many reasons for poor performance that this would adding insult to injury. So I huffed and puffed during our lesson and looked generally out of breath most of the time. Thankfully his back is bothering him so we didn't get to far into throws or take downs. I was rusty!

My poor knee groaned through one take down. I've been nursing this damn thing for three weeks now and the one time I have to do a quick drop it shrieks like tore it open. No pain today so I count that as a blessing. I was worried that I would be paying a price this morning.

I starting to fear the test - not for it's difficulty, but that I won't do my best.

Private lesson 3 (Toes, turns and twists)

With my quad/knee slowly on the mend I thought I'd give beatings a try this weekend. We both skipped last week due to prior engagments and that was fine for me. Apparently more rest for my knee is better.

We started out with first kata to make sure everything I learned was still there since the last two weeks. Thankfully it was, but as this is prepratory to Brown Belt testing (it's not even a secret anymore - hello stress out) everything is picked apart for analysis. So if I set up in a poor stance I corrected immediately to which Teacher responded to with praise. I rather do it right the first time of course.

He had me work on side kicks for a while and taught me a litte trick. When I go into chamber with my foot - making sure it's really high of course - was too make sure I had my kicking foot in the 90 degree with my toes as far up as I can get them and the kick and my balance are almost perfect in execution. He had me watch myself in the mirror when my chamber was low. I had no idea how ineffectual the kick looks. I guess it could be at least somewhat of a shot, but it looks horrible as the line goes from the floor to the full extension.

As we worked through a couple of katas - done at the slowest speed - he pointed out something that's come up a few times. The body as a unit. When we do throws we have to land with the body as a complete unit. When I turn I have to make sure I do it as a complete unit. Not something I've been practicing.

Finally, how is my foot placed in the final part of the kick. It is not supposed to be horizontal, but pointed slightly down to make sure the heel is the striking point.

Practice, practice and to wonder what the test will entail and when.

Book Meme

Pat mentioned this. It'll keep my mind off of things for a bit.

"Pick up the nearest book of 123 pages or more. (No cheating!) Find Page 123. Find the first 5 sentences. Post the next 3 sentences. Tag 5 people."

Be that guide whom love sustains.
Rise above the daily strife: lift on high the good you find.
Help to heal the hurts of life.

-from Signing the Living Tradition

Depressed for no good reason

When I was young I could have sworn we healed overnight. In contrast I'm stronger and much more agile than I was back then, but so easy to break and so long to heal. The lack of activity is eating at me. I'm doing katas standing up just to remember and working out at the gym has taken on a new level of non activity. Walking on the treadmill for 20 minutes just doesn't give me the same umph.

Be patient....

Diagnosis: Pain!

I've noticed a rash on my stomach that has progressively been getting worse over the last week. I assumed it was a group of spider bites, but they haven't gotten any better. So off to the doctor and he tells me I have shingles! I'm old! Nothing to do but wait it out - maybe another week of exquisite discomfort.

Then he goes on to tell me that I have quadriceps tendinitis. Just when I'm showing real progress in my low stances! What are the odds?

Private Class 2

Somewhere between the falling and the pain I had an extended moment of thought. Dread that I injured my knee further, pleasure that the fall itself was nothing in relation to my contact to the ice, and some anxiety that I had ruined my nice pants.

My wife was going over to the big city. Being the gallant gentleman I figured I'd carry her bag and backpack while she navigated the snow and ice. Alas, for the first time in years my balance was stolen from me. Not by any combatant, but a poorly balanced load on my arms and the beautiful sheet of crystal clear ice that was waiting under a half inch dusting of powdery, clean snow.

I felt my feet both going and working under the weight of the bags I figured I'd just bend my knees and regain my balance. Half way down my right knee started to protest mightily and I had to roll to my back to relieve the pressure. Ouch.

That was Thursday and today was my second private session. It was with some trepidation that I showed up concerned that I wouldn't be able to hold a low stance very long. Thankfully the miracle of adrenaline or simply warming up carefully made the workout move smoothly and painlessly.

I demonstrated the progress on my stance and the exercises I've been doing (reading in low horse stance, etc.) so we focused most of the time on doing katas together and fine tuning my ability to stay at one level/height the whole time instead of bobbing up.

The new assignments were meditation and pin-pointing my strikes to the face/neck/head. I've been treating the whole head as more or less one target. Now I have to make sure that I'm aiming for something specifically.

Strangely, I kept giggling and laughing the whole time. Bliss?

After I got home and sat for awhile my leg told me that I had, indeed, been working hard. Ow.

Quick Interlude

Since I don't have class practice has become the regular work out. Now when I go to the gym on off days I try to add as much leg work in as I can. I believe it's helping, but I'm not sure at the moment. It's nice to get the odd looks as I practice my low stance with forward and backward movement in the back of the gym.

I've also started some plyometrics and was pleased that even though I don't jump high I can slam my knees into my chest way easier than I thought. If I wasn't careful my exuberance would have put me on my back.

Very sore today.

Private Class 1

I heard a mountain climber describe a syndrome in which his leg would twitch in an uncontrollable fashion - it was called "sewing machine leg." After so much tension is placed upon the muscle in one position it begins to fail in a spectacular fashion.

I occasionally struggle with what Teacher presents to me to learn, so it was some trepidation that I went to our private session on Sunday. I was a bit concerned with his focus on my stance. Privately I was wishing for something a little more exotic and was thinking that stances were probably the last thing I needed to work on, but always the dutiful student I knuckled down and smiled through the work.

To my surprise he pointed out incredibly helpful stuff pulled from the first kata/hyung. The low stance he demonstrated and I tried to emulate was extremely difficult for me. Over the years I have, as he put so gently, adopted a bent kneed lean. So we did work in the mirrors that had me gritting my teeth, sweating profusely and getting a terrible case of sewing machine legs.

The biggest lesson was as I lower my stance my center of balance shifts. I'm now emulating a new student because, I guess in reality, I am one again.

Day 1

Last night was my first evening in a long time that I wasn't heading off to beatings. I was experiencing some mild guilt as I sat down at my night school desk trying to mentally prepare myself for two months of sit down classwork. However, those feelings passed quickly as I found out the pace that were going to held to. The teacher was going to be married in mid March and had to complete the entire course content in the next 9 weeks. Ugh.

I talked with Teacher yesterday about what I need to be working on. As I expected, but also dreaded - it's time to get low. My poor bummy knee is giving me problems now and doing a low stance where my thigh is parallel to the floor can be difficult. So some trepidation I started Chil Sun Ee Roh it didn't seem bad, but the problem with low stance is that it requires a lot of space which I don't have. So half my stances are nice and low and the others I end up bunched up next to a ficus fending off it's lower branchs with an augmented block. I'm so tough.

Hyung

I might have mentioned before that although we do TSD the class is taught in Japanese, or at least we use Japanese terms for everything. Teacher Slim has his second degree belt in TSD, but all of his other belts were Japanese styles so by default we are Japanese as it were.

So the kata in Korean is a Hyung. In review of some new manuals from a grandmaster I hadn't heard of before (we aren't affiliated with any federation or society) I noticed a couple I hadn't seen before. They both start with Chil Sun. They don't look particularly difficult so I asked Teacher if I could go ahead and attempt to learn them. No problem.

After our discussion about what I need to be focused on to move toward my Brown belt Teacher pointed out that a few things I do that need to be addressed. One of them was the depth of stance. He said that anyone near this belt class needs to be doing a low, low horse. So tonight it was low, low stances. Oh how my legs protest.

I wonder what other pleasures are in store. He mentioned poor blocking and a few other things, but I was too excited about the possibility of Brown belt to concentrate. I'm going to pay for that.

Big Question

So maybe I've seen too many movies about how you are supposed to be all respectful to your Master and that any changes to how things are done should be treated with the upmost significance.

It was at the break that I finally got up the nerve to approach Teacher about a change in schedule. I needed to take some evening classes and I'm getting the point in class that it's become exceedingly hard for me to let go in fear that I'm missing something or I'm backsliding. So I haltingly tell him how I need to take these classes, but I didn't think I could afford to miss beatings.

As my wife guessed Teacher was more than open to helping me out with some face time during the weekend or whenever he had a break in his schedule. Awesome!

Kid Speed returned after I don't know how long and a new guy has returned a couple of times so I'll call him Lee Majors because he looks so much like him. I accidently called him that a few times tonight!

Circle Work

Following the break we were standing in a circle reviewing our respective holiday adventures. Teacher thought this was a great idea for close quarter drills. Attack to the right (two strikes); the defender defends and then returns two strikes and immediately goes to their right to attack. Ideally it would look like a continuous stream of attacks resembling a "wave."

Ironically we started standing farther apart, but as we progressed around the circle a few times we got closer and closer. I felt that was good because we all seemed to be developing comfort in an area in which we need a lot of work. A moment in which the group strength helped us grow individually.

Once, long ago, we were taught the benefit of the "eyes down." I think the story was that monks used to keep their eyes down as a sign of respect, but in actuality it gives you awesome peripheral vision. So I used that to my advantage in the circle and was able to see everything coming from Teacher and Nilon. I walked out with a big head and slept very well. A good way to come back from vacation.

Back from Vacation

So I've found that two weeks of diving isn't very conducive to cardio fitness. The focus is so focused on breathing in a relaxed manner so that you can conserve your air that when I ran up two flights of stairs I almost had a heart attack.

So it's back to the grindstone for fitness. It's dark here and rainy so I might as well get on the stick.

New Pix and vacation

I've added a couple more photos on the slide show. Just Cook and Teacher doing some floor work.

I'm on vacation for the next couple of weeks. Sunny Mexico here I come.

Two weeks of healing!

Kick High

I leaned over and whispered into Arm's Of Steel's little sister's ear during sparring.

"Do I kick as well as Cook?"
"Well, you do kick high" she replied.

Ouch.

To include Little Sister in sparring we moved it to the first hour since she leaves at the break. For whatever reason this meant that we went into action with a diligence. I had to spar with Teacher and Cook in succession. Thankfully I was given a rest break between sessions. Wheezing and gasping let me know that we don't practice that nearly enough.

Since I'm no longer a newbie I don't normally get the "speech." Teacher usually says, "since your new to this you need to remember to control your strikes." Which instantly filled me with concern. My diet I'm sharing with my wife doesn't include a lot of carbs so I was feeling washed out as it is, and now someone I needed to move quick and wasn't feeling it.

So after four matches I was sat down and took a short inventory of myself. I was pretty pumped since I didn't get pummeled too much but had a nice golf ball growing out of my forearm. Ouch. What was strange was that we didn't do any wrist locks and both of wrists feel lightly sprained. Did I really block that hard?

Fallwell

And, no, I don't mean a certain clergyman.

Years ago I was watching "Kung Fu" with David Carradine and he was fighting a rather large fellow (possibly professor Tanaka) and he does, what my mind recalls, a tomoe nage (thanks for the proper spelling Silverstar). The professor doesn't get up and David says rather shyly, "he didn't fall well."

This has been a concern of mine for some time. We don't practice falls regularly, but when it's show time I'm expected to do it well due to my sempai status. Ironically, when it's done fast and well I'm at my best. When done slow and studious accidents always happen.

So it comes to tonight. We've got a couple of newbies and the mats come out during the second hour. So we start with wrist locks and some take downs - which is kind of nice now that I get to teach the new folks basics - off we go. I forgot how punishing it can be to teach the new person on wrist locks. I had to take a dose of ibuprofen to deal with the ouchies tonight.

We move on to hip throws (koshinage?) and even a couple of shoulder throws.
This video demonstrate what we aspire to. We aren't usually this fast or precise. Who knew the Poles has such whipass guys!


I think I have mentioned that I slightly taller than the rest of the group. I find throws to be very cool, but getting my hips under the short folks is murder. I'd rather pick them up and do it - which I find out later is somewhat acceptable if they aren't struggling. Talk about stealing their balance!

When I first started we had a guy who was enormous. Short story long - when we learned to throw the first night I was excited because this guy had hips as high as mine. For the life of me I couldn't throw him because I couldn't take his balance and he wasn't giving it up. However, he threw me a good 10 to 15 times. Remember I didn't know what I was doing. I got home that night and considered not coming back. I had never taken that amount of physical abuse in my life. Well here it is 4 or so years later and I easily took 20 throws and even gave a good 10 and I walked out of there with a smile on my face.

Back to the beginning. I don't know about the rest of you, but I fall really well to the right (a left hand slap to me). We just don't practice the other side a lot, so tonight Nilon threw me to the left and I ended up landing on my right hand and arm. Holy cow did that hurt. Mostly humiliation pain since Teacher was watching, but that was the other reason for the ibuprofen. I looked at the new guy and said, "that's why when you slap your arm needs to be out at a 45 degree angle." Very instructive.

Photos

I just added some photos from over the years in the sidebar. Watch the bad technique!

Belt and Rank

Our class is going to be taking a break for a week or so I was going to bring my video camera to get a couple clips of us practicing kata or kicking each other. When I get there I had to stifle a groan when I realized that camera had no charge. So no video this week.

Cook brought in his new born daughter for a few minutes before attending class. He let me hold her for a few minutes which aways evokes a bunch of feelings for me. Thankfully he took her off my hands, but not before I was awash with sentimentality. Hell of way to start class.

Lots of kicks for the first hour and then a few self defense exercises in the 2nd hour. We went over Kata for a bit and the word came out, "everyone sit to the side." This is followed by, "except for ____." The irony of this was that I've have been thinking about what a test for my Brown belt might consist of. However he called Cook and after the test he gave him his first Green tab.

Since Teacher customizes each test to the user I was thinking how I'd do my own test in his place. I was thinking that I would have to do all the Kata that we know up to this point, Sparring for a longer than average period, Do some multiple attack scenarios, show effective wrist and joint locks, and them demonstrate a technique as if educating someone.

Most likely he'll see that I accomplished all that over time and the test will be some formality, but I guess I should be thinking about it. I just feeling an itch that means things might be moving forward again. With Cook getting his 1st rank my anxiety popped up a bit.

Sleep interrupted

So I've got a problem living in the far North. As the days get shorter I tend to have more problems sleeping. What happens is that I was born in the South so my biorhythms tend to be fairly "normal." By that I mean that when it gets dark I tend to relax and think about bed. I get into the rituals that mean I'm getting ready for bed - cleaning the kitchen, taking care of the cats, etc. This gets a little difficult when the winter comes. As you all know the farther you get North the shorter the day gets. When my wife and I lived in the Arctic there are certain times of the year where there is no light.

So what I'm trying to say is that around 5pm my body wants to go to sleep and sends me signals by being drowsy and so forth. If I indulge in this and go to bed early I can't get to sleep; setting up a frustrating cycle of tossing and turning and easily disrupted sleep. Add to this two old cats that like to come at all hours and announce their cat problems. Arggh.

So I count on beatings to help me sleep by working me hard enough to be exhausted to get to sleep. Even that isn't working, so tonight (after class) I'm on a sleeping pill and drinking a single malt in hopes that I'll soon have to go to sleep.

Class included what I think is Bunkai. Uses components of kata in actual application. We use the knife hand in several Kata and tonight we drilled with that quite a bit. I'm not a particular fan, but just a few oopsies led to to me flexing my throat muscles in anticipation of a strike that never came. Perhaps this will change in time, but I have no training in hardening my hand in that fashion. My wife laughs at my use of a brick to harden my knuckles.

Although she's never mocked me about the brick I thought I saw give me a couple of glances. Then, while we were having a party, a few people noticed it under the coffee table and my wife ends up telling everyone how I'm always training with it and so on. Everyone looked impressed or weirded out. I'm wasn't sure because their was beer involved.

"Not the good ear!"

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but one of Beards ears is sort of mangled. In his childhood a dog got hold of him and tore it lose. The reattachment was only so good so it's a bit off kilter. It's not something easily noticed until he points it out. Last night we were practicing a series of elbow blocks that lead into some knee strikes. The first would go into the groin forcing the Uke down and then second would be in the face. When practicing with Teacher he had his head slightly askance so when the second knee came up he came up with the quote for the evening - "not the good ear!"

We spent most of the second hour working on wrist locks. I was placed with Priest who is a willing student so I got to review all my knowledge while I suffered mightily at his hands. I presume this means I'm a good teacher.

After class Teacher pulled me aside and pointed out that my right crescent kick is out whack. He had me do the left leg first and it was awesome - enough so that one of the news guys said, "whoa." The right just won't make a nice circle. It's as if I'm fighting my own legs and hips. Something to work on.

Toe Jam

As I drove home last night I actually said this out loud rather dryly, "well that was self-fulfilling prophecy".

Normally I have a mantra I say to myself before class to get my head straight. I do this while I'm sorting out my gi, belt and water for class. It's basically this, "don't take it personal, you need this exercise, don't fear injury, but be careful, etc." Although I say this all the time before class it really hasn't come true to any degree in a long time. Last night broke that healthy stretch, but thankfully it appears to be nothing more than a painful sprain of the big toe.

I'm hobbling around today, but I don't feel any of that lingering frustration about class or myself that attends a "bigger" injury. Hopefully I'll be at class on Tuesday.

Spar, Boom, Jib

Kick to the leg, kick to the leg, kick to the leg then feint to the leg and kick to the head. God, I love sparring with new people. All the stuff I can't do with someone with experience actually works with new folks.

We haven't done any sparring for a very long time, but Sensei obviously thought it was time to get the new folks up to speed. I'm assuming it's a misnomer in our mixed Korean/Japanese class, but he likes to call slow speed sparring Randori. From what I understand it means different things in other schools and classes.

Needless to say it was pleasant to pick where I'd left off months ago. Except this time I was able to focus on a few techniques I hadn't been able to put into play in the past. I guess I'll have to learn a few more.

Cook is entering the question everything phase. I'm not sure what all the developmental phases of learning MA are, but one of them is definitely the "endless questions." Last night he had to ask about everything - "why, why why?" Tiring stuff after awhile, but it's good that he challenges Sensei to describe things. I tend to go with the flow and forget that I need to know the underpinnings of what we are learning in order to apply things later.

Structure

I'm not even sure how to put tonight's thoughts into coherent, linear writing, but things were definitely percolating in my brain after the weekend.

I've mentioned that people have come and gone to our class over time, and because it's a small town you see these folks as you go through your regular living. So excuses of time and changes of schedule can be taken with a grain of salt if the class doesn't suit someone and they need to move on. I also know that Teacher's style might not "jive" with certain folks learning style and they might have to move in time as well.

So during the weekend I ran into Check who hasn't been to class for sometime. I had actually wondered if she moved because the Karate fairy dropped off a water weighted kicking dummy in front of my house several weeks ago. So we chatted and of course class came up. She basically was tired of second guessing Teacher and his methods. To me it sounded like the old quandary, do we blindly listen or do we question to learn more? Check is definitely the latter, while I'll try to straddle both schools. To add insult to injury she said that she ran into Vet and he pretty much couldn't take class because there wasn't any structure. I could sympathize with this because I've often thought that to be like a normal school or have more success in student retention that we'd have skills laid out and have static testing benchmarks. Obviously some folks really want that. I guess we should get rid of belts all together, but it's some tradition built in that keeps the chain of continuity together.

In the end I was kind of wounded for Teacher and myself. I felt like the only reason that I was staying in class was because quitting something is anathema to me. What a horrible reason to stay and what a horrible thing to think.

After a lot of soul-searching I realized that I enjoyed the class for a few simple reasons. It's great exercise and it allows me to develop insights into myself which in turn help me grow as a person. It could have structure, but it doesn't and that's just fine.

So we come to tonight and as I'm walking in I see Check following close behind. She told me during class that after talking about it the weekend she ended up being drawn back to the excitement like a moth to a flame. Hah! She mumbled here and there, but maintained a stalwart composure and didn't complain hardly at all.

Tagged!

I've been tagged by Frotoe on the 7 Random facts meme.

1. I used to be Marriage and Family Therapist.

2. I've been married for 12 years.

3. I used to live in the Arctic.

4. I swam with Galapagos Penguins.

5. I'm a liberal and I like guns.

6. I love the clean and jerk.

7. I find cleaning the catbox relaxing. It's like a zen sand garden.

Wrist

I'm not saying that we practice any "real" kind of Aikido, but we are heavy on the wrist and joint locks and we do love the throws based off those locks, however teaching these things and being Uki for these things is brutal in our class.

I'm definitely going to have to rethink the way I present this to a new person. I've been steadfastly telling new folks that you have to take me to the point of pain so you know how to do the technique properly. A half hour into instruction I'm barely able to move my right wrist without serious discomfort.

Of course the next day I have no problems with articulation or discomfort, but during a few of the locks I kept thinking to myself "man, that's got to be a light sprain." My wrists are never more than slightly sore are so you'd think I'd be better at dealing with the discomfort. And I might be, but pain is pain and wrist pain is something special in its dry intensity.

We started with a few one-two drills and moved on to very slow kicks and distance work. Very tough on the legs, but a great exercise for me as distance is tough for me when we are sparring. I notice that since I've started that I'm growing more comfortable with getting closer, but I'll only do it sparingly. It was on to wrists and then, as if by magic, the night was done.

Peaks, Valleys, and Plateaus

I'm going to describe tonight in reverse order. As we exited the changing room Teacher asked me, "What has been your learning experience like?" I said at first it was exciting and everything was new and then I hit that plateau and since then it's been puncuated with small peaks and valleys. Everyone echoed this. We found out that Cook is very excited (stage one) and had one of those nights where everything felt wrong even when he was doing it right. We all laughed.

The lesson? When you do this you need to realize that you are only fighting yourself and that you need to relax. Cliche, but I can't describe it any better.

The whole first hour was kata. One through Nine. My legs were shaking and during instruction my mind kept going blank. Terrible feeling. Teacher would have to remind me the first step and then I was good to go. Urgh.

More Elvis hip twist drills that lead to a throw over the thigh. Fun. I was able to one, but not another that required me to take Uki's balance then rock them the other direction when then fight to correct which led to a through. Not so good tonight.

Reunion?

Nilon came back this evening and I was proud to say that I didn't have any emotional responses to his appearance. I was more relieved that he showed so that class would have some more people. I was a bit chagrined when we got partnered once or twice. After doing the technique once or twice he becomes restless and wants to try other things. I don't know why that agitates me so, but I know he needs to focus on his basic technique and get that rote repetition in. Personally I want to do the technique over and over again so I get it right. When I was visiting an Aikido school in the big city they had the rule of four. Four times one side and then the other and then switch partners. That way you didn't get stuck with height and distance so much. Ah well, it's good training for me.

With the two girls we totalled six. Which I'm starting to think is the perfect number if we rotate frequently. If the new guy comes then we'll have seven which will be crazy. We haven't had that many people in the class in years.

Teacher is upping the ante again. New moves! He says that these are all things we've learned in the past, but he's putting them together in a new fashion. I'm not so sure about that, but it's still a rush to have so many things tied together. Tonight we had a sequence that went:
Block from the opposite outside, getting in close to trap Uki's striking arm against your body and ram the and hand up into the jaw. Swivel body and Uki goes boom. Then we had to learn the counter. As senior Sempai I had to take a very small circle through from low height. I went boom hard and loud. It's several hours later and no problems!

Items of note: my intent to reduce apologies seems to doing fine. In a drill I elbowed Nilon in the jaw which rewarded me with an audible clack. After making sure he was okay I grimaced and we moved on.

Priest and I trained well together. Both of us are on the same page for figuring out footwork and body placement before Teacher can get to us. Awesome.

Shattered

In the words of the Rolling Stones - "Shadooby, shattered, shattered." Before class started we had a visitor share with us his desire to join but had to wait until a MRI cleared him for beatings. This brought up the inevitable conversation about what pains we all had; to be shared like a potluck to a pain picnic. In turn, Cook shared with the details of his intriguing back problem. As a youth he was driven over by a car - twice! No wonder he is the crooked man.

Ironically while we were all sharing, none of the catalog of injuries had anything to do with class. I totally forgot about my ankle. However we all said that we felt great after class. Teacher went on at length about how the work we do actually helps spinal health. I'm not totally convinced as I can still experience lower back issues now and then, but those are usually due to poor falls.

I believe I've mentioned that for the last month Teacher has been ratcheting up the complexity of the moves we've been working on. I think that now that we have a few more willing bodies the class has presented him with the opportunity to work on stuff that's been simmering in his brain for a long time. Unfortunately, I chose Tuesday class to tell a junior student how I thought these were the most complex we've ever done. Not really appropriate for the a new guy to hear from a Sempai.

The moves we learned included the most complex hand capture we've ever done. The capture of the punching hand required me to be in a Benny Hill salute then swiveling the wrist lock to take the person down. This includes huge variety of other parts too numerous to mention to be completed at the same time. Do I tell Teacher that if I can't do them then the rest of the class will certainly have a some problems? Probably not because he always introduces us to stuff that we might not be able to do now, but in time do just fine. It's just that this is a boggler.

Final notes:

Not feeling great at moves - rusty at take down stuff/sweeps - not feeling like the advanced student. Can teach somewhat, but not all the way.

Interlude/Segue

I sat down on Wednesday to write about Tuesday's class and couldn't bring anything up that was overly interesting or fun to jot down. I think what has happened is that I'm really getting interested in keeping detailed notes of what I learned and I'm finding out that I don't have the ability to capture what has occurred in writing.

I really started this blog with the intent to work out my petty peeves from class. I'd found an avenue in which to explore the issues that were nagging at me and really making going to class a chore. What I found was that I take a lot of what happens as personal and if I didn't learn to get over it really quickly my desire to learn was always going to be overshadowed by the inability to deal with my classmates. Having the small community of folks on the web has been integral for me dealing with this and growing beyond it. This is not say it'll never be an issue in the future, but I' d like to think it'll be easier to get my head around and then work out constructively.

What I'm really trying to say in long-winding fashion is a deep heart felt thanks to anyone who's ever read this and commented.

We had a full class of 6 folks for the first time in a year last night. Everyone was in good spirits and the complexity of the moves are continuing to increase each night. Last night we continued our focus on cat stance. Simple and frustrating at the same time. We'd fall back under attack into a stance doing a double knife hand strike. After the chop we grab the arm, slide our rear leg forward between the Uki's legs, elbow strike to chin, continue rotation of torso and do a quick elvis leg twitch and Uki goes flying. So fun we couldn't stop!

New guy! I'll call him Priest. Cook's wife is going to start Lamaze so we'll miss him on Thursdays. I wonder what will happen when the baby comes. I imagine he'll disappear.

Flying Chokes

I believe I'm becoming a connoisseur of chokes. I think it was the 10th or 12th time last night where the incessant adolescent giggling started kicking in following the adrenaline kick that attends the end of the tunnel which we call consciousness.

I hate missing class now. Teacher has been motivated lately to show us some more advanced moves and Me and Cook are eating it up with a spoon. So being gone for a week to visit the parents was tough in two ways - I missed class and I fell behind on a couple of new moves.

Teacher is actually building on skills from class to class in a regular fashion!

The three moves we did last night:
Uki makes the punch. At the same time shoot to the outside of punch. Rotate so your back to back. During rotation curl hand behind to face and drive chin up and then down. Uki goes boom.

Uki makes the punch (right hand). Tori makes right hand outside capture at wrist. Tori drives left hand up under Uki's arm and goes to back of neck on Uki. With a rotation of position, pull Uki's arm up and head down. Then Pick up closest leg and wrap around Uki's head and simply step down. Uki goes down or rolls out.

Uki makes the punch. Tori passes to outside and wraps his arm around neck and punching arm in downward posture (unusual catch). Forearm to neck on grab to start choke. Tori sits down to start tominagi (sp?) and Uki flips onto back. Tori scissors legs and lays on Uki's shoulder and head completing choke.

Today my neck feels like it has a 2nd degree burn all away around, but it was an awesome way to get it. I've got to get video of this stuff because I can't describe it save my life!

Off Thursday because I'm flying over to the mainland for work. Next week!

Fighting Children

And by this title I don't mean two minors fight while I bet with other adults on the outcome. No, I mean this in the literal sense.

The adult class which is always struggling to maintain it's membership beyond a few people looked pretty sad last night. Check and Beard didn't show so it was just me and Cook. However, we had a graduate from the kids class. This gal is the younger sister of Arms of Steel. AOS has left for college, but the legacy remains.

So as Teacher explained some of the differences in the two classes Cook and I continued to warm up on our own. I couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition - both Cook and I are over 6 feet in height and Little AOS is about 4'5" and about 90 pounds.

So we did some blocking drills. I was partnered with her and while we did this I noticed the size of her fists! I know I don't have the biggest hands, but hers appeared to be close in size to mine. I enjoyed this until we went into block, block, punch drill. She doesn't mind making contact and she put those mini-hams right into my floating ribs. Ouch! Damn upper cut from tiny people.

She took off at half-time, so Teacher worked with us on a move I don't remember ever doing before. Attacking into an attack in nothing new, but he fused about three moves into one. We would lock out the same side attacking arm, coming over the top and grabbing behind the elbow. At the same time we'd have to reach across with the other hand move the head of Uki around and get the palm under the jaw line. By this time Uki is off balance and with the rear leg we'd slide into a slightly deeper zenkutsu and Uki goes over easy. From there we can go into an arm lock or elbow lock.

In conclusion small children with big fists are dangerous to lower ribs and I had some backsliding on the apology problem. I said, "I'm sorry" about twelve times.

I'm on vacation for the next week. Visiting Parents in the East.

Technical aspects

Nothing really funny or overwhelming noteworthy, but we had an awesome time. A total time slip. We started out with a combo exercise after doing kicks for a half hour. The roundhouse still frustrates me to no end, but that's what the practice is for. I'll definitely have to do that on my own more often. I've been working on side kicks for so long that all others got rusty.

So the combo was an upward block (jo dan) combined with a punch to the solar p that then moved to a neck grab to knee strike. Executed smoothly you get the feeling that the other person would never know what hit them. I had to learn a few things around this combo. First, go as low I can on the strike so I can use the upward block to keep uki's arm up. Then, second, keep my elbows up as I slide my hands in for the neck head grab to further my control of uki's arms in the short time I'm doing the move. I have a tendency to keep my arms down, since we've been taught that so often, it's now become hard to do anything different. And, third, when grabbing the head for a knee strike, you're actually grabbing the neck with fingernails down with slightly interlocked fingers. You don't even have to use muscle as it naturally guides the uki's head forward to the proper kneeing position.

So I learned that the harder I strain for the knee shot the shorter my stroke it. The more I relax for the strike the higher I bring my knee up. It was like a full foot difference -wow.

Cook asked Teacher about practical sword use. I was intrigued because we rarely bring out the weapons and this seemed interesting. Teacher used the common sword draw hand movement and turned it into a self defense move. Uki sticks a gun or knife in your kidney and you do the sword draw. Basically, you reach across with opposite hand, take their hand (making sure not to get stabbed or shot) and do the draw. This brings their locked wrist/hand up and over your head and then as you move down in the "strike" position Uki must roll or flip to exit a very painful wrist/elbow/shoulder lock. Fun as hell. It's like all those dumb movie stunt man moves that requires the stunt man to do all the work while tori effortlessly moves out of the way.

I only said "I'm sorry" five times this evening. I made sure that I was making contact and that I was doing it correctly. Day one of the new me.

3 Times

Since I've started I've heard this three times, "I wished we met more that twice a week."

The first was from my own mouth during the first year.

The second was from a student who has come and gone.

The third is Cook.

Funny how that special type of enthusiasm comes and goes over the years.

Bloody Nose and Bruises

I missed a post last week and I'm not sure why, but I had a good time playing instructor with Cook. Most of the class was dedicated to simple instruction and some basic work on movement. It felt good to have some practicle knowledge and have the ability to impart it so that it's understood.

So tonight we got started on time (will miracles never cease) and immediately started on one-two drills. I've seen videos of this kind of thing and I guess it's very formalized in some Tang Soo Do schools, but not us. For the beginners it's a time to embrace the basics and for the more experienced students it's time to work on our speed, ingenuity, and accuracy. I was paired with Check for the first hour and that went well. I felt like we were really exploring our weak areas and fine tuning some older stuff that doesn't get worked on often.

After the break I got paired with Beard. As always his skills from Judo make him a fierce opponent and force me to concentrate on everything I've ever learned. So we started working on two part attacks which require the other person to respond with three different moves. At our level (hah!) we are expected to show a lot of imagination or, if not that, very good skill. Almost immediately Beard did a great attack where the leading fist drops after a punch attempt and the lower blocking hand circles up to do another strike it the absence of the first. I got the first two, but forgot they can keep coming. After a poor block I felt a light contact on my nose and didn't think anything about it until he broke off contact. I can't say that I've ever had a bloody nose from the top before but they bleed just like any other kind. What a mess. I ended up doing the rest of the class with a band aid on top of my nose and that made me think I had my glasses on.

Still paired with Beard, the rest of the night was pretty awesome. I would occasionally show some good skills, nothing great, but they always make me feel good. At the end of class, after I had taken some jarring blocks off his kicks he mentioned something that almost stopped me cold.

He said, "I think you need to stop saying I'm sorry when you make light contact. I think you need to start talking to yourself in a positive fashion - like, 'I'm going to make contact but it will be precise.' I think this is messing up your distance and ability to make decent contact."

He was right! Time for a mantra. I will punch and kick correctly and with the right force!

Red Jaw

I was actually looking forward to coming to class tonight. I have to admit that there are times where I'm either dreading it or too exhausted to contemplate the exercise. However, after such a long hiatus I've been looking forward to going back with some regularity.

So Cook came early and I asked permission to start teaching him the first kata. Teaching kata is so difficult. I think the art is determining how much detail you should give a person. I definitely don't have that. I have the tendency to talk too fast and try to correct every little thing.

Sensei was big on basics tonight. Which I thought was great just for my own development. Block drills and movement. Great for the new guy and great for me - the old new guy.

The second hour was all ground work and fending shoots to the hips and legs. The one that really sticks out in my head is the catch of the back of the neck. We form a cup over the yuki's neck and ride our middle fingers past the ear lobe and then press the nerves in the jaw. Holy cow! Dropped me like a slaughtered hog. This required very good timing, but once achieved was very effective.

From there defending and attacking into a kick while you are on the ground. Tough but fun as hell. It was rather sobering that you'd probably get a busted rib if your timing was off and it probably will be in a bar on the floor. But once we had them down we learned a nice submission on the foot. I wasn't paying attention and Check kicked me in the lower abdomen with her free foot. Keep that other knee up!

By the way, when I said I wasn't sore last time I was incredibly hasty in that statement. I spent the weekend taking ibuprofen hoping that I wouldn't die. Getting back to shape is going to be tough, but I've started.

Back! again...

Sensei asks me, "how do you feel?"
"I'm fat, old and hung over - well maybe not in that order - more like hung over, fat and old."

A month of indulgence made my face look like a wadded up bundle of sheets. Pale and blotchy with heavy lines under my eyes, I endeavored to work as hard as I could without pulling an myocardial episode.

So I'm back, again. Sensei has been calling regularly to tell me what's coming up and see how I was doing. After one month of 12 hours days, six days a week I've been feeling pretty frazzled. On top of this my wife and have had a not stop stream of visitors and social obligations. The real icing to this cake has been an almost constant battle with a flu that never seems to completely clear up. Even last night Sensei commented on my slight nasal honk.

The night before was my wife's birthday. I stayed up way too late and and drank way too much for a work day. I was groaning most of the day at work, not being terribly productive when Sensei called because he was getting two new students and wanted the class to be filled out. The proved to be an excellent excuse to get to class.

The two new girls didn't start that day. They just watched a bit and promised they'd be back in the future. However we have a new guy who started while I've been in hiatus. I'll call him Cook. Tall and thin and what seems to be the perfect attitude for starting out in beatings, he was a pleasure to work with.

Anywho - I'm not nearly sore as I thought I'd be. Yeah!

The Visitor

Sensei called me up last Wednesday and told me that he ran into a guy who was an instructor for 35 years and talked him into coming to class to visit/instruct. So he wanted as much of the class there so everyone could get a little more. Since I was still hacking like I have TB I just visit for the last hour to see how it was going.

Without knowing the visitor's background I'd have to say he knew some stuff about some stuff. I haven't been doing MA for very long, but did you ever notice that you can tell someone who has skills no matter what they look like. He reminded me of Teacher Slim in that he had an everyman appearance and didn't appear to have a super hero physique, but in action he had so many skills that I don't have enough knowledge to even describe how good he was.

While I sat with his wife he took our members to task. He definitely came from the old school. By this I mean that hitting is for keeps and grabs are extremely painful. After class we found out that he has attended schools in Japan and the Philippines and had acted as a trainer in so many places that I couldn't keep track. Quite the CV.

I talked with Teacher tonight and he said that everyone was still sore afterwords. Life! I can't wait to get back...

Still dragging

Another week of poor health. I had to work until 2 or 3 am last week and that following two weeks of poor health sent me right back. I woke up on Sunday thinking I was hung over, but I hadn't drank the night before. I couldn't get out of bed to save my own life. I can't wait for my wife to get back and take care of me...

Back In The Saddle

"Are you feeling okay?" asked Check.
"I think so. Why?" I replied.
"You're completely pale and sweating." she responded.
I looked past Teacher's shoulder into the floor to ceiling mirror directly behind him and noticed with concern that invisible mime people did a ghostly makeover on me while I was doing punching drills. The sweat I could discount until I realized that no one else was having a problem with the light effort. Nice.

I realized later that there are two types of out of shape; one that comes from general inactivity and one that comes from prolonged illness and the inactivity that it breeds. The later had me in it's grips last night. I was doing everything I could to keep breathing regularly, but at end of a sequence I'd be huffing and puffing like I just did sprints. Can a person have negative cardiac fitness? Apparently.

I was dreading going back because I wasn't sure that I'd have the wherewithal to do a whole class, but I made it through, drank two beers and when to sleep. It was great to see the class again. We now have a new member, a young man (12 or 13) who comes from a formal Karate background. At Yellow belt he knows 12 Katas very well compared to our 8. Ah youth.
Apparently his attendance has helped everyone be a little bit more professional so we are back to a formal bow in and out. Very nice.