Relax

Teacher let us know on Tuesday that he wanted to work on meditation last night.  This usually means that he wants to do energy work as well or what I call “feats of strength.” 

After a short set of blocking drills we refocused using a circular block that really requires relaxed shoulders and arms.  Teacher will occasionally take a foray out of our hard-style comfort zone and attempt to get us to relax portions of our physique that should be relaxed no matter what.  I mean that a cross-block in TSD (Tang Soo Do) is also a strike to a certain degree and requires muscle tensions in all sorts of directions.  So not only are you blocking, but you are also striking.  As I’ve mentioned before dynamic tension in the move is a shockingly difficult concept to get my head around – something best felt rather than intellectually encapsulated. 

What Teacher is trying to show us is that certain things need to be strong and other things need to be relaxed.  My ignorance of the physiology involved makes me guess that what makes us fast is a certain set of muscles and not all of them.  Brighter minds probably know.

To amplify on this Teacher had me block punches very close at real speed.  A majority of these made it through to varying degrees.  He had me practice a quick relaxation and unfocus from the situation then he punched again. 

I should mention here that my mind was completely occupied with trying to ignore all the external stimuli and figuring that I wasn’t going to block his shot for all the tea in China. 

While my mind was struggling to free itself from the monkey-madness Teacher took the shot and before I could even think I had already blocked the shot.  Stunned, I just gaped for a minute.  Teacher punches very fast and I performed a beautiful block with little or no stress.  He saw my obvious disbelief and had me relax again for another shot.  As my mind inevitably got itself into a dither he did another and I blocked just as nicely!

Tall new guy joined me in disbelief.  There was a lot of mouth breathing. 

We worked on unbreakable arm for awhile.  Only two folks in the class could get there last night.  After all these years I still fight believing it even though I see it in front of my eyes.  Doubting Tater – the pragmatic martial artist who can’t grow for that very reason. 

Steamrolla

Beard’s been out for several weeks so his arrival filled out the ranks quite a bit (we had nine!).   Any more makes the space a little close.  For instance during the second hour we practiced kata/hyung and we had to be very careful or we’d end up clipping each others heels. 

Our technique for the evening was a cross block that leads to a behind the elbow grab.  This is integrated with a step forward with a hooking step.  The uki gets his/her shoulder bunched up, balance disrupted, and then falls. 

I started out with Tall new guy and found out that whatever flourish he uses ends up knocking me on my butt.  He doesn’t know what he’s doing so it yet so we were just appreciating the fact that he was effective without too much fuss.  We then rotated and my new partner was the new gal, Swimmer.  She’s about my wife’s height (a foot shorter) so automatically has an advantage in certain spots.  This was definitely one of them.  Once she had the basic dynamic we tried our first variation (I punch with over my lead foot) to which she added a slight bounce with with her hooking foot.  The result was my feet flying and since she had twisted my shoulders I had to take the fall from fairly high on the hard floor.  I landed beautifully.  Yeah experience!

When it was my turn it took me a few times to work out distance and get chagrined about the closeness that is required to execute the move properly (It’s very intimate to have my leg firmly planted between a lady’s legs – especially when they aren’t my wife).  The third time I did everything correctly and she went flying – except she wasn’t supposed to and ended up crashing to the floor.  She was writhing in pain from a really bad fall and I thought she had broken her wrist!  Thankfully she was okay and explained to me that she tried to stop the fall poorly and the shock went up her arm and slammed her shoulder into her jaw.  Bad Sempai!

I was examining my feelings after the fact and was surprised that I didn’t feel bad over the possibility that I caused another person possible serious injury, but the horror to know that I still have problems with controlling my power.

___

On a lighter note – my hunting trip was grueling and my legs are very tired.  No bambi’s were harmed.

Dynamic Muscle Tension Choke

I got the new guy in a straight-armed wrist lock, jumped up, clamped my legs around his neck, fell to the floor in an arm bar before he even knew what happened. 

That didn’t happen at all because I would have hurt my back and probably kicked him in the head instead.  Never the less, after choking one another for 20 minutes it had felt like I’d done the flying arm bar. 

Teacher was going over all the basics to prep Robot, and the Wonder Twins for the test in the 2nd hour, but got a bit burned out and decided to teacher a blood choke for the last half of the 1st hour.  When done correctly it goes smoothly and the main vein on one side of your neck gets pinched you go nighty-night. 

What I learned – Some people have a big vein on the neck and it’s easy to choke them (me).  Some people must have their vein buried deep in the or their body takes up the slack by pumping hard on the other side (new girl).  So when you can’t knock them out you crush them and that doesn’t work at all.  So the lesson is you better have something else up your sleeve.

Needless to say learning this technique means that everybody has a sore neck and has been choked out a multitude of times.  It left me wondering how much brain damage we were causing.

---

Teacher keeps harping on the judicious use of muscle to stabilize positions. For instance – in preparation for a side kick our chamber is standing on foot, that knee bent, the kicking leg thigh is almost parallel to the ground.  What he sees is that many of use are not using a bit of muscle to help us stabilize here.  Once he tells folks their balance in this position improves dramatically.

This got me thinking about how much other pieces of the pie are tied together with a bit of dynamic tension.  Normally, the demonstration about being relaxed and kicking (for instance) is contrasted by having the student squeezing the muscles through the kick to demonstrate how it impedes the process.  While a fully relaxed exertion moves very quick.  It’s only at the end point in which tighten to give the big boom. 

I don’t know how to adequately describe this phenomenon, but I know it’s fundamental to a good kick, but hard to teach. 

Click, Click, Boom

I may have mentioned that I live in a very remote section of the country in the past.  Part of that means that I get to do things that most folks don’t have easy access to do.  One of these is to go hunting.  Let me just say that I have never really hunted.  As a suburbanite raised gringo the closet I ever came to seeing wild life was at a zoo or cows along the side of the road.  It certainly means that I’ve never seen the taking of an animals life up close and personal.  That’s all about to change.

In an attempt to eat healthier and save some money my wife and I have been trying to stick to fish caught during the summer and occasionally eating of venison or buffalo for a red meat fix. 

Where we live fish is given almost all the time as way to share the bounty and spread the luck, but venison is a prized possession because of the effort to get to it and get it back. 

Short story long – my friend invited me on a hunt.  The season starts on Sunday and I’ve got to hike into the mountains and bring something out.  Unless the weather is bad.  I guess deer hide very efficiently in bad weather.

This leads up to how I’ve been changing my work out routine as of late.  Normally, I try to work out three times a week and go to beatings twice.  The irony is that with that schedule I would presume that I would be reasonably fit for a hike in the mountains, but the truth is that I’m huffing and puffing within the first few minutes uphill. 

Too be a good hunting partner I’ve been hiking instead of going to the gym.  My wife and I head up the mountain behind town every other day for a couple of hours in hopes that I’m not an entire embarrassment to our friend.  

This radical change in exercise pattern has been nice for a bit of weight loss, but my legs are completely shot.  This makes beatings nearly hilarious.  Last night Teacher had us focus on kicking in close range.  In order for us to kick at any height the knee must be very high.  After a few minutes my tell-tale wheezing and sweating had already made an appearance, but I noticed that I was able to do the kicks whereas in the past that might not have occurred.  Also, my level of soreness this morning is the same as any other day so maybe I’m making some progress after all.  

Video Outtakes

Teacher pulled me aside and said that he was going to be taking video of the students doing their kata/hyungs.  He remembered years ago where he and I had done some elementary attempts and it turned out to be a great teaching tool. 

The first hour was an ironic treat.  He pulled me and the new tall guy up front and we worked on “how to attack a tall guy.”  Something I’m all too comfortable with.  Not that I know what to do with it most of the time, but to give everyone ideas was a little stressful.  One of the shortest guys in class is a nightmare to spar with because he simply climbs inside and beats me to pieces. 

Thankfully, after a frustrating time of getting pummeled he pulled me and the other guy aside to give some pointers about what to do.  These turned out to be hilarious because it took advantage of head control.  So if my less that average heighted opponent got too close I could steer or turn his head.  That lasted about one round with each of the students.  They immediately started slapping that hand away.  Attack, riposted, repeat.  

The video review portion showed pretty much what we all expected – bad shoulder position, standing too high, etc.  Plenty to work on in the coming weeks.

Wrist Locks

On almost every paper I’ve read there is a main title and then a subtitle that is a play on words.  I think mine would be "and other forms of self abuse via teaching.”  I’m pretty sure that any psych professor would be pleased to see that in the pile of their evening reading. 

Teacher is trying to get us to use more combinations and to this end he’ll have us do a sort of Simon Says routine.  He’ll do a staggeringly complex combination of blocks and strikes and count and we are supposed to follow along.  Hilarity ensues.  We’ve found out that you have to move slow or suffer that dumb look when you know you’ve done it wrong. 

During break I asked about a throw I’m not very good at and that got Teacher’s juices flowing for the 2nd hour.  So we brought the mats and learned how to do that throw. 

Imagine someone grabbing your left shoulder from behind with their left hand (improbable, but it’s easier to describe this way).  You reach across with your right and clamp down on their hand, your thumb over their web.  You step back and pull the hand down at a 45 degree angle in front of you.  To avoid a painful shoulder the bad guy needs to roll out in front of you.  Simple, elegant and frustrating as hell to do right.  

After that it was basic wrist locks from every conceivable angle.  I was given the new guy, Shootah, again and I took him through everything I could recall until the end of the class.  Ouch. 

Too many laughs?

What is becoming a predictable joke in my repertoire happened yet again last night but with a bit more substance. 

I love telling people that I get my ass kicked by children, adolescents and whatever comes across as a juxtaposition on my size compared to theirs. 

It’s not a great advertisement for our school based on the fact that I’ve been crippled by children more than a few times.  The worst was when I was in a perfect chamber for a side kick and a kid kicked underneath and collapsed my ankle.  Result – rehab for months.  Thankfully nothing was torn completely through.

So last night one of the new girls, Swimmer, did a one-two on my face.  One chop in the jaw that snapped my head around and the second in the lips because my head was turned.  Double ouch.  End result – two fat, bloody lips.  I got to smile at the class with my carmine stained teeth whilst I knuckled away a manly tear. 

At the end of class I noticed that we’d spent most of the class laughing hysterically about little things.  Many of us appear to be tickled by the smallest things and Teacher isn’t stopping it so it goes on unabated.  A lot of fun, but I’m worried that we might be less effective in our learning.  It’s not often that folks launch into combat while they are laughing their heads off.  What do I know?  Maybe it happens all the time.

Joints-a-poppin’

Yet another night of being the prime demonstration fall guy.

Not too many people in class lately (during the summer we loose a lot of folks to work and travel) so it was nice to see four folks run in just as we finished the bow in.  Dorks.

Teacher seems to be ratcheting up the action more since the base level of our group is pretty high.  As a result, the new guy is struggling to keep up, but he’s game for all it and loves every bit of it.  In keeping with the theme, the post warm up punches, blocks, and strikes were twice as much and twice as long.

The practical part of class was with the mats, which I eyed with some trepidation.  After taking a thrown I get worried about the constant standing up.  Coming out of seiza isn’t too bad because I use my right leg first, but if we do throws that require me to bend or lean with the left leg first it usually starts squealing pretty bad.  No problems emerged as we started flying through the air.

Continuing with Tuesday’s theme of what do do with the person who tries to drag you to the ground we started with steering the shoulders, backing away, and shoving a person down all beautifully performed by me.  Alas, this meant that I had the wind knocked out of me a couple of times and generally had to take a beating to get the best views for the rest of the class.

By the end of class me and the new guy were wheezing horribly because ups and downs, but mostly due to the take down in which the shoulder or elbow are pressed down on the mat while the wrist is controlled caused the most anguish. 

Tight and flight

As we finished our bowing out one of the Wonder Twins said, "this was the best class ever."

During the class I had a few fleeting insights that I'm wracking my head over. They seemed really important, but nothing is surfacing as I type.

For some reason the class is clicking as a phenomenal level. Tonight it was only guys and everyone was an adult.

I'm trying to take my job as junior instructor seriously with the new guy and he appears to be totally open to everything I'm saying. Teacher often pairs him with me, because I enjoy as well. During the break I was talking to him about the word Randori and was pointing out the differences between schools. For whatever reason the jujitsu schools came up (because we have no idea what they do) and I mentioned that we rarely "rolled." I guess Teacher over heard me because we went right into how to deal with someone who tries to take you down.

Unfortunately/hilariously I was the demo man. Teacher spared no expense in using full effort into driving me into the mat, throwing across the room and in one demo kicking me in the chest at 90% force. I let out the worst strangle noise as my chest collapsed and my shoulders tried to wrap around to the front. Either the class thinks I am the hardest man they have ever met or the dumbest; perhaps both.

We went directly to the next stage which was "if he's got you in this position" scenarios and how to deal it and finally ended with "if he's got you in full mount what do you do?" During the former I was working with Beard on how to get a good hip throw into the mix and he borrowed to illustrate a point. I basically had him in a side head lock and he picked me up and for whatever reason I was particularly light this evening and shot into the air. I came down pretty well considering the height, but he was really being nice and laid me straight out instead of a throw. More minds were blown. No one had ever seen a throw that high given or taken.

The later was having another fellow sit on you. It's such an intimate position especially when they are punching you in the face. I was watching a video at Patrick Parker's and the fellow was saying that martial arts are good for you because the physical contact is fantastic because you touch all the acupuncture points. I don't think he meant that another dude was going to sit on you with his privates and then punch you though.

Unbendable

This was getting ridiculous.  I was literally using all my muscle at this point.  My left hand was in his elbow and my right was under his wrist.  The other students were starting to titter as my face become congested with blood and the veins in my neck bulged with the effort.

I’m often picked for demos because of my height or size in class.  It shows that a smaller man can easily manage a man 50 to 60 pounds heavier than him or 5 to 6 inches taller.  In this case Teacher picked me for the muscles.  In demonstrating unbendable arms he picked me because I was going to pop out of my gi trying to fold him up. 

Unbendable arms are something I never request to work on.  I’m not even sure I can sum it up it quickly either.  Teacher puts it under the heading of “energy work.”  He says we are to visualize a ball of energy that swells in us and then is channeled by leaving us via our arms.  The analogy is our arms are fire hoses.  They are without structure until water is moving through them and then they are like steel. 

I keep waiting for a trick to emerge so I can understand this phenomena, but there is no trace of muscle use that I can see or feel.  When I try to do it I immediately start using muscle and it fails. What made is worse last night is that a majority of the class could do it.  As a senior student/semi-teacher I totally thought I had egg on my face. 

At least my knee didn’t hurt during the class.  That and during one of our exercises I farted loudly when one of the twins got a good punch in on my gut.

!@%*ing Knee

A couple of years ago I promised that I’d stop complaining about physical pains or injuries in class knowing that there is a fine line between whining and letting Teacher know that I had an impediment.  I made that pledge to myself, because when I saw others do it I thought it was incredibly unflattering to the student and the result was mixed.  Most folks can’t remember to hold back unless it’s an obvious injury.

In interest of full disclosure I have a chronic irritation in my right shoulder which is perpetuated by our constant shoulder locks.  My L5 is a bit dicey and can lead to spasms if I don’t stretch regularly and the other massive problem I’ve got is my left knee.  Apparently the inside surface (cartilage) of the kneecap gets easily inflamed.  That takes endless patience to rehab and beatings doesn’t help at all.  Last time I had to take about two months off from class and that was painful in itself.

That being said following vacation I savaged my knee playing on the neighbors trampoline.  This means no running until the inflammation cools off.  Of course we go to class and bulk of the first hour is cat stance.  In the beginning I didn’t feel a thing because we were warmed up, but as time progressed the pain just kept growing.  At the same time I noticed something that gave me a little pleasure – all the bicycle work that I have to do as part of the rehab process is paying off.  I could sit in a fairly low cat stance without problem – a first for me until the knee starting playing up.  Ugh. 

Shaky, shaky

After three weeks off I presumed that moving and kicking and such might be rather painful.  The over indulgence at pretty much every meal made the multitude of plane flights seem like mobile veal pens for humans.  I’d put on 8 pounds in that brief amount of time.  All my pants are tight and I’m always looking for an excuse to put on sweatpants. 

My friends call and invite me over to dinner.  My immediate response, “is this a casual affair?” and then, “how casual?”

Since I’ve got back I knocked of two of those pounds, but I’ll feel better once I’m back into beatings and the gym regularly.  The addition to the blubber is that prolonged inactivity sets me up for knee problems.  As soon as I try anything after a couple of weeks of sitting around my left knee acts up.   So when I got back the first thing I did was inflame it.  So running is out for a while and I have to sit on the exercise bike with no resistance to rehab the knee.  Not exactly a great way to burn calories. 

Class was nice though.  I thought I could get away with a high stance to baby the knee, but the higher the stance the more I tend to straightened the leg.  Kicks instantly got off balance.  Teacher had a great time pointing that out.   So I tried lower stances and didn’t have any problems.  When everything is warm it’s good to go. 

Teacher has been putting me with all the new students for some time.  I went to thank him because not only has it been fun, but really helpful in correcting my own form and so forth.  He told me that was exactly the reason he did it. 

Whiplash Hustler

Last night we took a lot of falls.  I’d forgotten that we had new people that had no idea how to slap so I’d grit my teeth when they’d reach out to catch themselves when I’d throw them.  So we’d stop and I’d do some basic education about landing, slapping, foot and hand placement.  The only problem was that to get them used to the timing I’d hold them longer in order to set them down.  I’m going to say that this is a bad idea through and through.  My lower back is absolutely thrashed.  Thankfully, no spasms, but definitely tired and sore. 

I did a lot of Uke time to get the new folks into the groove of the throws, but as a result I got sloppy with my slaps and ended falling wrong more often than not.  When I fall wrong it’s really wrong.  I don’t land in one piece, my head isn’t tucked, etc.  One of the new guys threw me beautifully and when I hit my lower back beat all of the rest of my by a beat.  The last thing to hit the mat was the back of my head.  Whiplash!

I figured when I woke up this morning that I’d be miserable, but thankfully 800mg of vitamin I eased my woes.  My back is sore and so is my neck, but not as bad as it could have been.  My primary worry being that I’m going on vacation tomorrow and sitting in a plane seat for multiple hours does nothing for me or my back.

Schooled

I was having one of those Karate Kid moments where Pat Morita was using some mundane task as a base for a movement. I wasn't that awesome, but I was working with a new student, Nurse, and found that if I broke blocking exercises up and did repeating patterns she immediately got the rhythm and did a nice job. I'm awesome.

The 2nd half of class was mostly a tripping throw. Going calf to calf with someone and rotating their shoulders until they fall. I'm the king of falling. I can't stay up when my shoulders are twisted so I'm the best Uke anyone can get. I was partnered with Trucker for the first part of class so my arms bruises from last week had a nice flair up while we did exercises.

Trucker has decided to make more of class and start studying on the outside. Our class is complicated in that we teach in Japanese, but it's a Korean art. We forget to tell people about this and they assume it's just Karate. Anyway, Trucker called me and I had to go through the whole history of our school and help him with some internet searches. The frustrating part of TSD is that we are not affiliated with a school down South or anywhere else. So our style is a blend of Karate and TSD with a bit of Aikido mixed in. This makes learning material very tough to focus on. TSD has a wide variety of style if you go by the internet. I've found two sources to be most reflective of how we do things, but neither is very similar. Master Kil and Master Pak are my favorites.

Our school started as an informal club with no fixed curriculum. Teacher Slim would just teach whatever he could remember off his head. He has four Black belts, but his only 2nd degree is in TSD. When the old students moved on and the other Teacher moved away my Teacher stepped up, but everyone knew Japanese and not Korean. So when Teacher got his black from Slim we just stuck with what everybody knew. I can say that I wish we had a static curriculum from one of the books, but I've been there long enough to see the benefits of how Teacher runs class. It may seem eclectic, but we all progress in a circular fashion.

Kick, Block, Twitch

Our small town has a festival for Memorial Day and it gets pretty geared up for a special function.  Unfortunately, it means that parking downtown is totally unavailable during the four days that it’s going on.  So Teacher has been cancelling class for several years around that weekend.  On top of that our weather has finally turned nice and that means that class was doubly empty of bodies last night.  

After warm-ups we went right to blocking, then blocking kicks.  Teacher let us beat our selves into a pulp for a half hour or so.  I’m not sure what thing I’ve come to dislike over the years, but blocking a kick hard-style has to be one of the big ones.  I got partnered with Trucker and the very first block felt like it snapped my ulna (or radius).  We went over every kick for that half hour and never have I looked forward to a break more.   I’d gotten to the point where I was blocking minutely lower or higher just to avoid the golf balls that were rapidly growing on my forearms. 

As we found out later, Teacher was purposely making us dread that nastiness to get us ready for the next part of class.

Twitching – or the art of knowing what’s coming.

Teacher had us pair off and work on “guess the kick.”  Basically the two folks stand face to face and one of them initiates a kick and the other has to guess what it’s going to be based on shoulders, hips, etc.  After a bit we were able to pick everything up pretty well.  This meant we could take a bit longer to execute a block, have more planning for follow up. 

We then paired up for some practice.  Me and Trucker got into position with our new skills and went after it.  Surprisingly we were able to block kick initiation, move in faster, and generally be more assertive into an attack than before.  A great lesson.

Blessed Synchrony – Trucker and I had a moment of blessed synchrony.  It was that moment in sparring that every shot was blocked and everything was lined up perfectly.  I don’t even think he knew he was doing it, but he was stoked when we stopped.  A beautiful moment. 

Feeling awesome – I’m normally shy about stupid stuff like showing off my body.  The last time I took pictures of myself after class I felt great, but saw an icky fat man in the mirror.  Last night was a nice surprise – I actually look like I’m in shape for once.  And I normally smile, but I was concentrating on getting a shot in focus.  This was the only one.

Note to Self

I woke up this morning with a lot of energy. Not the good kind. I woke up angry and I have no idea what is creating that feeling. However, energy is energy and I took advantage of it. I did a bunch of chores around the house, but no matter what I did it didn't seem to abate the flow. So I figured I'd do a session at home to see if it would burn my calories or whatever down a bit.

I couldn't go running today because my legs are trashed from running yesterday. Why not pretend to do a class and loosen myself up a bit? So I did. I ran through the warmups and did 10 or so of every kick I could think of. And then I did all of my kata/hyung. The hour went by quickly and I'm sweating more than I thought possible for a home work out.

Unfortunately/fortunately, I've still got a lot of energy yet, but I'm feeling a little more mentally centered. Plus my wife was excited that I vacuumed the house and did the laundry. I guess a win/win.

General Notes

Teacher called me up and told me that he pulled a muscle in his neck or shoulder and could barely move his neck, so I told him I'd lead as much of the class as he needed. When I got home from work I hurriedly wrote an outline of the class that we barely even used. He was able to set up the hour and only used a smidgen of my stuff for the second. I was going with the advanced stuff too much, but he liked all the kicking things I laid out.

I didn't get around to posting last week because I couldn't think of anything of note the next day. If work gets too busy in the morning then I can't think of things later in the day. I guess blogging in the evening is as good as it gets for me.

The constant stream of new people constantly impresses me. Teacher absolutely does not advertise at all and yet by word of mouth we have two or three new people every couple of months. Our current hardcore membership consists of the Wonder Twins, Robot, Little Sister and once a week, Beard and Trucker. The new folks are High School aged folks and the newest is guy works on a boat so he'll be an occasional.

The reason I mention this is that I often get placed with the new people so I can teach them or be generally helpful. The latest batch of folks is fairly physically adept so they are pleasant to teach or correct. I used to get bitter because I was so worried that I wasn't working on advance skills that I'd end up forgetting them. Now that the Twins are up to speed I get to show them all the stuff I learned which in turn helps me iron those exact moves out in myself.

I'll be going on vacation in June - how will they get along without me?

Niiiicce

My feet were well above my face and I hadn't even started falling yet. The execution was so smooth that the Wonder twin hadn't even started moving me into the throw. When I did land it was like coming out of a hip throw and I did it like a rockstar.

Both twins were laughing. Apparently when I'm in the moment and the moment is great I say, "niiice." In this case I was still in the air when it happened.

---

Teacher has this move that is totally not in the manual at all. I'm not even sure what it is attributed to, but it's effective - I call it the elvis. It's a leg hook - where you are calf to calf, but you are standing on your tip toes as far into the stance as you can get - then you plant your foot quickly and your opponent has to do a deep split or in my case roll back into a slap.

As class progressed Teacher would pull half the class out to work on realistic attacks - in this case stairs. While he did that I would would work on the elvis. As he left the room for the stairs he said and do whatever would go after that. I was able to squeeze in a progression from the manual and worked in a throw. I am awesome.

The final move was a block followed by a roundhouse to the gut. Instead of going back to the original stance you moved in to the leg hook and do an elvis followed by a slight torso throw. It turned out great.

I was all aglow when I got home tonight. I had to give a credit to my wife since I had approached her earlier on some one-step sparring ideas. She promptly punched me in the face. Smooth as always.

Heat

There is this moment of sickness.

It's usually followed a moment of physical weakness.

And then it's go time. Over the years I've developed a love hate relationship with the adrenaline shock that accompanies the few moments before sparring. It used to be fear straight up and then it turned into excitement, but along the way it contained all kinds of combinations of both. Where am I now? Hard to say, but tonight I feel like I have a fire lit inside my torso. I presume it's the long, lingering effects of hormones, adrenaline, cortisone and whatever the body generates when it's firing on all cylinders.

Needless to say, this evening was a good class. Trucker was going to get tested on his green belt and there was no new folks in class so Teacher started us off on long complicated sequences to warm us up. We ended up the first hour kicking three ways and trying to find power on that third one is very difficult when you try to be fast.

The second hour started with a few drills and went into multiple attacks. I love these, and not because I'm good at them. I think they represent the most realistic venue for testing skills and thinking on the fly. And that's even with "rules" put in place to slow things down. So we did a 3 on 1 drill and that migrated over to sparring.

I volunteered to go first and started with one Wonder twin and set the pace at high speed. That was a poor choice because although he can move that quick he isn't that polished. We started off with a brutal double shin kick and almost immediately followed it with a fist to fist contact. Ouch!

I took a break and then had to fight the other twin. We had a more stately pace, but I ended that with a crescent to his head.

Finally I got to spar with Teacher, but it was a specific one. It was where we only use elbows. I can't get beyond his defense, but I've got more muscle and height on him. This never helps me out though. He slid in three big punches that made me grunt and squeak at the same time. The class was left laughing.

Along time ago I feared being the subject of Teacher's attention. I was afraid of the pain involved in demonstrations. Then I was proud because I thought he looked at me and thought I could take it. Then I realized I was a good example because I am so much bigger than him. Then I realized he wants he techniques to look crisp and he knows I will make him look good. After sparring I realized it all these things, plus I am just plain fun to take a beating to.

Not Right

There is a simple shoulder lock that we teach the new folks to get them used to the idea that muscle is a poor substitute for technique.  Basically you capture the wrist, rotate the arm and as the person passes by you move the locked arm into the upright position forcing that person to bend over or experience pain in the shoulder and wrist. 

I’m in the middle of “monkey in the middle” at the tail end of class where we’ve been reviewing our locks.  The idea is that you try it with everyone giving you an idea of what works with different heights, lengths of arms and skill levels. 

Everybody gets a chance to be the Monkey and eventually I get up to the head of the line and one of my first people is Little Sister.  Little Sister is notorious in that no lock can be put on her.  Everybody has a spot that locks them out of course, but she’s only got one and it’s difficult to get her there.  She is a veritable rubber man.  I can’t believe how easy this is to forget, yet I do it over and over.  On this occasion I presumed that a shoulder lock would work just fine.  I actually knew the wrist lock was a failure as soon as I got a hold of her arm, but I went through the motions smoothly.  Little Sister looked up at me when I confidently had her in position – which is to say that she was bent at the waist and her arm was pointed up at 45 degree position behind her – and then stood up straight while her arm rotated in the socket even farther up.  The only thing that ran through my mind was my old G.I. Joe doll.  Somehow when they designed it they left out any possibility of normal shoulder rotation, giving the children of America an unrealistic idea of the limitations of the body (not to mention the lack of genitals). 

Long story short  - I thought I for a second that I was going to be sick and since I wasn’t I immediately made fake retching sounds and dropped her arm like a hot iron.  My discomfort made the class piddle themselves in hilarity.  I actually had the Wonder Twins on the floor laughing. 

Another incident of fine teaching.

Mini Revelation

I was reading Mat's Way this afternoon and left a comment how sometimes I felt it was hard to express things in class when there is only small revelations every once in a while. Those are interspersed with hours of labor perfecting technique and trying to learn new things.

I remember when everything was new and it was a tremendous effort to sift through everything I was learning in order get to settle in my brain. Now so much of it is rote so I can focus on the nuances. I was struggling to describe in posts past, but tonight I got a metaphor pop in my brain.

I realized that every night that I go to class it's like the first time learning technique, but I have all the skills and didn't realize it. It's like now I'm the first time natural will all the gifts, but I also have the gift to see what's wrong in others and myself without being critical.

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Teacher asked me to teach our sixth Kata/Hyung tonight. I must say that it went very well and as a class with had a beautiful synchronisity to our movements. At one point during our kicking drills we all knew that we in synch and balanced as well. You could feel it extending to the new students and it seemed to carry on throughout the class.

Sweet.

PPT

Piss Poor Teaching.

I talked with Teacher before class and reminded myself of to work on the slowness I needed and focus on fundamentals.  However, after mentoring a new guy (Hippie) for the first hour I was feeling unusually good about my segment in the 2nd hour. 

My part was on the Cat stance.  I reviewed all of our stances in Japanese (because I can’t remember the chases – Hu Gul in this case).  I gave a brief introduction foot placement, weight placement, etc.  We practiced movement back and forth and everyone looked pretty good doing it.  I threw in front snaps kicks and finally got to the double knife hand (Mahk ki something something) over the lead leg.  We got so good at this I started cracking jokes.  As soon as I did this I started mentally cursing myself for making said jokes.  Not that they were bad, but I told myself I wouldn’t, but as soon as I did it the mental cursing messed me up. 

I didn’t have the heart to talk to teacher afterwards.  So last night I had terrible nightmares of teaching, messing things up and never really get lessons started because I was bogged down in all the little things.  Damn, I’m neurotic. 

The Soreness

I’m so sore that moving my arms makes it feel as if I’m tearing scabs off my biceps.  The combination of beatings and the gym is absolutely punishing me to the core.  Ironically I think it’s the beatings that causing me the most anguish.  If I sit for more than an hour my legs completely stiffen up and make walking an awkward drunkards stumble until my hips loosen up. 

As usual the internal griping and whining disappears after we have warmed up and started moving.  I was actually dreading leading the warm ups because of this, but Teacher chose Little Sister to run that portion.  I was never so thankful.  Of course later in class we did side kicks for a half hour and I almost barfed from the agony of keeping the ground leg bent and kicking slowly. 

For some reason the class moved very slowly in time and we were able to pack in a huge amount of content.  Teacher continued to drill on the beginning techniques for the benefit of the new students, but I found a great deal of comfort in focusing on the basics.  I’m finding that I’m pleased that I can remember the odds and ends that he normally teaches and then apply them to myself.

The 2nd hour was dedicated to kata/hyungs.  That really beat the legs up.  He stopped us at one point and had us practice our kihap.  We all sounded pretty lame in the beginning, but we sounded great after we got going again.  There is nothing like everyone being in unison and belting out, “Hai!”

The last 15 minutes was dedicated to a bit of slow sparring.  I say slow because that’s all I was capable of.  I got paired with Robot and the sure signs of Rust were on both of us.  He has a horrible habit of catching my kicks which is nice when we are slow, but leaves him open in all sorts of ways.  Last night he did the same thing, but when I started to say something he kept his balance and planted a nice kick in my crotch.  I guess I need to amend my opinion or move a bit quicker. 

In the last bout Teacher brought me up and give some pointers to the class with me as the dummy.  When we did get going I was able to keep moving fairly well, but I noticed that my eyes were closed more often than not.  Too many fingers and elbows were making me nervous.  Beard complimented me on my technical acumen, but then chided me for taking it easy with Robot.  I guess I can’t win! 

Rust and Nails

After 6 weeks of no class (ha ha) last night was a welcome diversion from lazy evenings at home.  Not that I’m opposed to that, but the sofa and I have a long relationship and I need my space. 

During the time Teacher has been gone I’ve been diligent about working out regularly assuming that I’d been in reasonable shape for this week.  This assumption has proven to be incorrect more often than not and last night was no exception to that rule.  We were practicing simple punch and block with movement and after three or four runs up and down the hall I was getting more and more out of breath.  Due to the numbers I was able to step out of rotation and help correct form and stance in the others and catch my breath.  Teacher came up to me and I whispered in his ear, “man, we look really rusty!”  He laughed because it was true.  There was not even an ounce of smoothness in any of us.  Our class looked like absolute beginners. 

So we struggled through the basics for two hours.  Mostly bad balance and shaking legs betraying the fact that none of us had practiced this specifically. 

After working on basic movement for awhile Teacher asked who had the lowest stance.  I looked around and pointed out two students who looked pretty good.  He said nope.  It was the two guys that had already turned around and headed back in our direction.  I screamed, “cheaters!” 

To finish the class Teacher decided to do a little knife defense.  I assume this was to show off a bit to the new students.  He took a different approach and let us suffer a bit, by letting us try to recall our moves on our own.  I was really pleased to learn that I could recall the few very important lessons from just before break and thought I was pretty smooth considering the shakes.

Just before the end of class Teacher asked me to the front for demo time.  He then showed the class what their options were from the variety of attacks one could expect from a knife wielder.  I’ve never been in a knife fight and nor do I want to be so I’m sure hopeful that the stuff we are practicing has some semblance to what we could expect.  So while Teacher is throwing me around, locking me out, and otherwise abusing me in front of the class he told us the story of the police officer here in town that got stabbed 13 times.  The officer thought he got punched and almost bled out because the attacker didn’t slash – he just punched with the blade. 

While letting that soak in he demonstrated an arm capture with spinning back fist.  As he spun around his heel peeled up my big toe nail.  Not wanting to look any worse a weenie than I normally do I just pursed my lips and gritted my teeth for the rest of class.  Ouch.  Bloody toe again. 

Dance fool

Teacher got back from vacation last week and aside from the tan was pretty much the same as always. I guess I thought he was going to be brimming with philosophy after laying on the beach for a month. He had me over for dinner and had pretty much picked where he left off.

So he settled in and had me come in for an early workout. He had some ideas about how to improve my transitional movements. I realize that I'm clunky most of the time so I was intrigued with what he come up with. While I warmed up he started playing with the stereo for a bit. I thought that was a intriguing way to start things off, but he demonstrated using the music's tempo to dictate the pace or beat of the movement.

So it wasn't exactly kata/hyung, or dancing, but it was fun jumping around to the beat of the drum as it were. I was hoping, "everyone was kung fu fighting" would come on.

After 20 minutes of looking we were background players in a rock video from the 90s we started sparring using soft method. I find this difficult after years of hard style. It feels like being back in wing chun and doing chi sao drills. However this was great exercise and time flew by. The only problem was that I was prodigiously sore the next day. The combo of gym and beatings takes its toll.

Teaching the knife.

“How do you deal with a knife attack?” Teacher asked the class.  He then broke us up into groups and directed me to three of the up and coming guys, Robot and the Wonder Twins. 

I inwardly gulped because this is definitely not one of my strong points.  I keep running the moves realistically in my head and became very anxious about confronting a knife-wielder.   This comes from practical practice.  I usually get poked in the belly or sliced somewhere sensitive when we practice with our wood knives.  Tuesday was no exception for a few of our students.  Pin point bruises and a scalp laceration were the definite highlights. 

So there I am trying to run through all the techniques and the guys I’m with are pointing out everything wrong with what I’m doing.  Thankfully Teacher came up and cleared up some basic things for me.  I was teaching them out right wrist captures – which I think we can all agree on is pretty close to impossible in most instances.  Teacher showed us the bigger block on the forearm that lead to a capture a second later.  Obviously something that needs pictures to explain, but as soon as we did it everybody in my group went, “ahhhh.”  The universal sign of understanding concept and action all at once. 

Even though my teaching was sub par I did feel a moment of pride in being able to remember 90% of the basic techniques –even Teacher did a small ahhh over things he’d forgotten. 

Robots and Movies

Teacher leans over to me at half time and whispers, “I’m going to test the Wonder Twins tonight, but first we’re going to do some sparring to tire them out.”  While they get put through their paces Teacher leans over to me and whispers again, “I’m going to put you with Robot.  Just take it easy because he’s never done this kind of thing before.” 

The class theme before sparring was infighting and developing some comfort with elbows and targets up close. 

Robot and I bow to each other and he immediately gets inside my arms and legs and begins to thrash me.  Since we were in hugging distance he kept throwing knees into my thighs – unfortunately for me, they were accurate and effective.  I tried to step into him to throw him off his pace and his knee painfully collided with mine. 

The reason I call him Robot is that he had his knee replaced with a titanium one about 15 years ago due to cancer. 

What this meant to me is that his knee strikes are incredibly effective because he doesn’t have pain there whereas the next day I have a bruise on the knee cap.  Ouch.

Not to be outdone I decided to back out and use my kicks.  I tried a roundhouse and he caught it (beginners mistake) so I twisted my hips over farther and gently slapped him on the face with the top of my foot.  Awesome!  I got a lot of laughs and some respect with that one. 
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While basking in the glow of a nice sparring session I noticed that the students were really doing a great job at blocking and kicking.  Much to my chagrin I realized considering their time in and level that they were much better than I was. 

I go through this occasionally – a moment where I see new folks performing so much better than I ever could and realize that I’m not gifted athletically; that everything I ever learned was hard won and never a natural feeling. 

I saw this boxing movie a long time ago which may have starred Wesley Snipes, where a young white guy and young black guy apprentice to a Russian drunk guy.  We find out that the Russian was an incredibly gifted boxer that had dreams, but they played out when he defected to the states.  So he teaches the guys – living his dreams though them.  Anyway Wesley is incredibly gifted and the white guy brings nothing to the table, but always has the will to do better.  They both end up getting close to the Olympics and Wesley gets cut in a street fight.  So white boy gets on the team (because we knew he wouldn’t make it originally) and, of course, wins the gold. 

I can’t help drawing comparisons to myself.  Not that I’m going to the Olympics or anything, but I know I’m not gifted in any sense – I just happen to be the guy that goes to class forever.  That’s not even saying much either.  I’m the guy that goes to class forever because I have an unencumbered life. 

I don’t mean to have a pity party, because I’m proud of the things I have achieved, but to see people that will easily surpass my dreams of physical achievement sometimes stings.  

Jumping

I normally like to start my posts with a humorous anecdote about some aspect of class, but I’m so sleepy I don’t have it in me.  I’m on day four of heavily interrupted sleep.  Long story short – life with geriatric, stroke-addled cats is brutal.

I haven’t been posting much lately because I either keep forgetting what we did the night before or I can’t think of pithy things to write about.  However, last night had a brief change in the regular goings on.  One of the Wonder Twins asked about jumping kicks which progressed from the crescent kicks we were practicing to a whole room of uncoordinated jumping, twisting and groaning. 

I usually leave this kind of analysis to Colin or Mark, but trying to sort out the body dynamics for this kick was dizzying. The kick is a jumping outside crescent, by that I mean that the right foot (in this case) comes in from the right and the striking surface is the bottom/arch of the foot.  With the jump added we pump the left knee into the air to launch before we perform the kick.  We could all do that via a huge twist in the torso (leaving my back incredibly sore this morning).  Teacher added a level of complexity to this – coming down from the landing with spinning back fist.  To do this the left leg had to not only pump into the air but also in the direction you needed you body to move (in this case up and to the left).  This was to mitigate the need to twist the torso in mid air.  We were horrible.  It was the proverbial bunch of monkeys humping a football.  Something to practice obviously since we never practice jumping kicks, even though they are part of the TSD curriculum.  Teacher is very uncomfortable teaching the techniques because they leave the floor and source of power. 

The rest of the night was practicing wrist-twist, four corners throw and various locks and basic throws.  Lots of fun now that I can teach a bit better and have the Wonder Twins to utilize as ukes. 

At the end of class we have one student stand while the rest us get in line and present as the uke. The student practices what they learned that evening.  I saw the frustration in everyone’s faces and even I would lock up when folks would offer a left hand. 

Teacher had everyone sit down and had me demonstrate Neihanshi Cho Dan before bow out.  Not sure why, but it was a nice treat to show everyone what I was working on.

Throat Punches and Child Beatings

Throat punching, unlike its cousin throat singing, is neither relaxing or melodic with zen-like sparseness.  I found this out while sparring with one of the wonder twins.  Apparently, I thought it was technically proficient to block with my adam’s apple.  As with many of my technical failure’s in combat I felt a sudden desire to sit down right in the middle of everything because my throat had become the center of the universe. 

Somehow I managed to keep it together and push my eyes back into my head and regurgitate the important parts of my throat back into their relative places. 

By the next class I was able to make noises similar to an old cat that simply doesn’t have enough lung capacity to meow coupled with a honking squeak. 
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I ended up not having to teach a full kids class after all.  Teacher was able to get back, but when I showed up later he looked completely asleep and couldn’t count to save his life. 
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Last night was a big blocking night.  My forearms look like a rough stretch of road and I can’t set them on anything due to the tenderness.
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The computer guy from down the hall poked his head in my office and said, “so I hear a 16 year old girl kicked you ass.”  Why is this a repetitive theme in my life?  Then he says, “I hear your going to be testing for your Black Belt soon.”  How is it that everyone knows this before me?

I take solace in the fact that the I heard that kind of thing for my Brown for a really long time before the test occurred.  I’m just not anxious to take that kind of beating anytime soon.

You know things are desperate when there is absolutely no pretense in how you try to control your breathing – just sucking huge breaths, gi completely disheveled, belt around to the side, etc.  Not very elegant – that’s me in testing.

Kids 2 / Lessons Learned

I literally have too much too write about.   I learned so much in one evening that I think it would take several hours to get it all down.

Last night was my 2nd evening with the kids class and it went fairly well.  Teacher made an effort to remove himself from the class frequently so see how I’d handle the normal escalation of energy the kids normally exhibit.  It seemed to go pretty good!  I would take a second to stop someone off task or just get back to exercises – it wasn’t exhausting and I never lost patience and the hour went by very fast. 

Adult class was extremely small.  Just the wonder twins and Little Sister.  The first hour was mostly discussion and a small amount of practical work.  Teacher was introducing “verbal karate” which is always a neat approach.  He applies physical technique to verbal and tries to guide us to a place where we never get into a fight; or, at least, tries to keep us farther away. 

Normally I find that a bit too long to listen to, but it was pretty interesting and his pacing was right on.

Second hour was only sparring!  We definitely haven’t done this in a while, but it was brutal fun.  We all got to spar with each person in class – which is a rarity, but a blast.  As usual I took a lot of very solid shots and gave a few (by mistake) as well.  My best shot was an inside crescent on Little Sister.  She has actually gotten so good that she analyzed my technique and started to take advantage of it!  She would get close and just beat the crap out of me.  However, the crescent always throws a false message to the other guy and she walked right into it.  Bang.  Later on I did a spinning back kick and did the spin in with a hook punch right to my kidney.  Beautiful timing, but I think I’m pissing blood today. 

Afterwards I met with Teacher for a beer and discussion.  He complimented my progress and we reviewed everyone’s progress.  The twins will get tested in the next couple of weeks.  

Kids

Something I’ve been avoiding has come to pass. 

I’d like to say that it’s because I don’t have children and that I’m not used to being around them, but I think it’s really that I don’t know how to be an adult.  I instantly try to be a buddy.  This inherently not productive as a martial arts teacher.

Teacher has to go out of town and finally gave me the “call.”  He knows that I’m uncomfortable around the kids, but he wants class to move on consistently and has asked me to help out when he can’t be there.  Unfortunately, his father has late stage cancer combined with other health problems.

So I started coming early to help out with the kids so they can, 1. see who I am, and 2. I can see who they are. 

The last time I had to work with the kids was over 3 years ago and I pretty much liked keeping that distance.  I was so traumatized after the one class I had to “teach” that I would steer any conversation about taking over to anything I could fit in. 

So it was with considerable trepidation that I got to class early to man up and do some teaching. The reason I’m doing this?  I kind of feel that it’s germane to my next rank.  Becoming more comfortable in the teaching/leading role to demonstrate proper assertiveness, etc. 

Anywho, the class went well, and the few interactions I had with the kids went fairly well.  This time I’m very aware that this is how it went until I showed up in class and the kids ran amok.  We shall see. 
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In regular class it was all cat stance all the time.  Since we’d all been around enough he made us sit in the lowest stance we could.  I actually started laughing at one point because he went on with a story to illustrate a point while we stuck our low, static pose.  He threw a queried look at me and I said, “I can’t hold this more than a couple of minutes!”  We all laughed and moved on.

Teaching moment – Realizing I know how to do the move, but have no idea how to translate it into steps, example #6.  After all is said and done, Teacher brings up a critical point to make it all easy and my group looks at me glaringly.  How do you explain that all the work you just did allowed them to understand that last point and correctly do the technique? 

Balance

I was about 50 reps in to a spinning back kick and as time went on I noticed that I kept losing my balance.  Mind you  - I’m the one teaching the class so I was a bit red-faced at this point. 

Thankfully Teacher came in for a simple correction.  “Just look at my face all the way through.”  Bam – just like that I’m perfect again.  As the exercises had progressed I started doing the beginner – looking at the floor, mirrors, whatever it takes to savage balance. 

Teacher is going out of town and wants me to run the class a few days.  This means that I have to run the kids class as well as the adult class.  Talk about anxiety.  Little kids freak me out.  So to maybe help myself out I’m going to a few kids classes before he goes to gear myself up.  Yikes.  It’s like knowing a test is coming up. 

I think in the adult classes we are going to work on jumping kicks.  Something we never do, but they are part of the TSD songbook so I think it’s worthwhile.  I also want to work on them for the simple fact that I can’t remember doing them very well in the past. 

One-step continued

I hurriedly grabbed some time with the internets before class and spotted a move we hadn’t done in ages – the simultaneous block and strike.  I’d actually learned this when I took Wing Chun in High School ages ago and was surprised when it came up in class since TSD seems so static with punch, block, kick, block. 

Anyway, it appeared to be well received and actually kind of challenging for our newer members.  I gather even after a few months of punch then block changing the pattern is very difficult.  Thankfully teaching it made it fairly easy, but Teacher had me constantly slow the pace so everyone could catch up.  Another lesson in teaching.  Do a lot of rote work so people can get comfortable.  I’m teaching to a lot of new folks.  Ugh.  I have a huge desire to skip to the practical demo and I need to slow way down.

The two sisters were tested during the last hour and did pretty good so we have two new Greens.  Tonight one will have to redo her hyung/kata due to a couple of missteps.  I think they’ll be doing some sparring as well since we ran out of time.  Being the Sempai means I’m going to have to take some lumps from their poor power control.  Sigh.

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I’ve restarted my self education and have started relearning Neihanchi Cho Dan.  Anything Teacher learned in the past beyond his 1st Dan has long since been forgotten and he doesn’t appear interested in learning so I’m taking the initiative to learn it.  It doesn’t feel beyond my current level of education, but because of the repetitive hook punches I can easily get confused.  I’m beyond half way and just need to finish up in the next week before I go on vacation.

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Tonight I ask to teach some more advanced kicks like the hook, spinning back and jumping front.  Teacher hasn’t done anything like that in a long time, so I feel like I’m rummaging through the history closet.

X block

In some attempt to provide fresh and interesting grist for the class mill, I dug back in my memory to find something that might grab the classes attention.  After reviewing even more videos on one-step sparring I got a memory jog!  For a very limited time in the very distant past we were taught the X-block.  Basically making a scissors with your arms to stop an overhead strike or front snap kick. 

We haven’t practiced this block in years and it didn’t dawn upon me as to why until I was teaching the evolution.  I went from high blocks and low blocks to x blocks.  Here’s what I found was bad.  You block your line of sight, both hands are occupied and unless you are following up with a technique to take the wrist or heel it doesn’t leave you in a good spot to riposte. 

I’m definitely learning the critical lesson in teaching – deeper understanding of technique by teaching and demonstrating. 

I reviewed the lesson with Teacher and Beard after class, feeling that it went poorly.  Beard said that he really enjoys my lessons just because they are different than Teacher’s – not better or worse.  In my mind I thought I spent the whole time telling everyone what was wrong about the technique and why they shouldn’t do it. 

Applause

I’m already planning for tonight’s lesson after studying some online one-step sparring videos.  I can’t believe the wide variety of style differences purported to be all TSD.  Never the less, I found a lot of ideas and grabbed one I like.

During Tuesday’s class Teacher and I hastily pulled together a lesson for the second hour during the rest break.  I threw out a couple of ideas and we ran through the evolution of exercises that would lead up the final execution.

I’ve always enjoyed how he takes a few basics moves and tied them together.  We tried that with a wrist grab into a lock and submission.  We broke it into small parts and tried to tie that together.  Only this time I was explaining everything and using Teacher as the Uke.  Sweet.

After the lesson everyone applauded. 
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1 minute Judo

This was from way back, but I wanted to show it again. Keep up if you can.

glumbert - 1 Minute Judo Lesson

Pre-Thanksgiving

Somewhere around the 10th punch to my chest and palm-strike to my face I started to think I better concentrate on blocking.

We have a lot of different folks show up for class, no doubt for a wide variety of reasons, but our latest iconoclasts are the two sisters and their brother. They’ve been coming off and on for the last 6 months. Although I can’t get a lot of details out of them it appears that they are home schooled, are very active and come from a huge family. The two girls have taken Karate in the past and it must have been fairly hard style. Their blocks are definitely strikes.

The older of the two, Strong Hand, Got placed with me in the first hour to work on one and two step sparring. Within minutes of some simple one-two punches I was splattered by her blood and inwardly groaning about the bruises I was going to be sporting tomorrow.

We ended up stopping periodically so she could put some more band-aids on. What a mess. I hope it all comes out in the wash.

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During the 2nd hour I got the do the lesson on side kicks. I really tried hard to modulate my voice and pace. I’m still really nervous about cracking jokes since it derails me, but I got a few out without being disruptive.
- intro to side kicks – lateral defense and attack
- practice the move “knee up and foot turn” before kick.
- standing side-kicks 10 on both sides
- step through side kicks 10 on both sides
- heavy bag drills for strength and distance
- partner drill for distance and balance

After that we did katas/hyungs for the last 10 minutes.
- 4 keicho hyung Ill Boo
- 3 keicho hyung Eee Boo
- 2 keicho hyung Sam Boo

I was tired the hell out by the end of class. I got home just as my wife got home and barely got into bed before I passed out.

Notes

I wasn’t much of a teacher last night; more of giggler.  Whether it was the flu or an external confluence of events, our class was down to eight.  Even that sounds funny because that used to be such a big number to us.  However, it’s the perfect number for rotation so that was pretty great.  By the end of the night we were having such a good time everyone was laughing.  I wasn’t helping the level of seriousness.

Giant got his gi last night.  Size 7 and still a bit tight.  Dang.  I taught him a take down – capture a punch and pull the arm across the chest, take your other hand and do a jaw strike continue to twist the head and turn your hips.  Uke goes down easy.  He’s so big that he doesn't have to use any effort.  The strength in his torso far exceeds all of us together. 

The 2nd part of class started with some mats out, but we never really went far with that.  However during the warm up I was showing the students how to roll and then slap to arrest the movement and also to practice for taking a throw.  We usually have two lanes of rollers and I missed the lane on one role and had to slap on the floor – bang!  My leg still still hurts today.  Smooth.

Post class note

Class Tuesday was fine and went quick.  I didn’t develop any particular insight into my own skills, but settled in and just participated and taught when asked to.  The newest folks don’t hesitate to ask me on technical matters which I kind of like.

So Teacher calls me up yesterday and tells me that he thought I was doing better with Teaching.  We went into a long discussion about the various students and their skills. 

Unfortunately I still have a long way to go when it comes to teaching.  Teacher has a spontaneous approach to what the lesson might consist of, but he’s been doing it so long a majority of his work is pretty flawless and everything dovetails nicely with the theme of the night.  Mine stuff is pretty basic and pretty bite-sized. 

He ended the conversation with, “I noticed that you seem more relaxed when you’re teaching.”  And that I need to count with more authority.  I guess my quiet wheezing doesn’t motivate the class very well.

Teaching 3

Somewhere between yelping in pain and standing on my toes for the umpteenth time I began to grin.  I had just experienced something naturally without thinking about it.  In our 2nd hour I was teaching one our newest students, Cop, wrist locks and was being constantly interrupted by other students with questions about technique.  It was then I realized I felt comfortable with educating someone else. 

Normally my mental experience is something on par with, “what if they ask me this A – I don’t know A!” and so on, but last night I was able follow my own track so I knew exactly where I was going and just stick to those things.

In retrospect I wish I had a laminated card so I could go over the techniques (wrist and shoulder locks) in some semblance of order.  I feel like I confuse the students because I’m often dredging up memories instead of focusing on the technique at hand. 
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Another class with 15 folks!  The room is packed.  Grinding the basics in is very tiring mentally and physically.  The mental part is just focusing on the weak points in my technique and trying to correct all the new bad habits I’ve picked up.  The physical is that we are trying to slow the technique down and it’s brutal after about 40 reps.  All of the older folks (above 40) were groaning pretty quickly. 

I got paired with this new guy – clearly a giant awkward in his own skin.  I’ve never seen such a big guy with absolutely no physical comfort.  I figured the football team would be absolutely peeing their pants if they met this guy.  We worked on blocking kicks and he seemed comfortable and interested, but jut a horrible stance and no insight into his own body mechanics.  It reminds me of me.

My main partner for exercises for most of the night was Cop.  He showed up in uniform, but before that we had no idea.  Vigorous and inflexible, but with a great attitude.  Phenomenal balance on top of that!  I could block his kicks and he could go back to zenkutsu with no problem. Bastard!  I still struggle with that.

I slept like a log. 

Speech and Teach

Teacher took an unexpected turn Thursday by starting a long speech about Karate/Tang Soo Do.  I’m not sure what spurred that on, but it was nice to see everyone pay attention and try to absorb a bit of history on the art. 

The second half of class included my lesson on crescent kicks.  Thankfully I had talked to teacher for a bit before I started because my normal “get faster as I get stressed” technique appeared to be in check. 

I started everyone off with some front kicks to warm up and then move to a quick speech on the inside crescent.  I keep in same position while they got used to that and then had them move forward with the kick.  Since then they seemed so comfortable we went to outside crescents and I could see right away that that was a more difficult skill to absorb.  I ended up using a pad so they could see where to bring the power in that kick and noticed that several people, although low, could generate a lot of force without losing balance.  Cool!

We ended the class with an advanced technique that required a mat.  It led from our earlier exercises with elbow deflection and attack.  Teacher has us working on moving into an attack quite a bit which is tough for us to learn, but oh so effective.  This time we lead in with an elbow and go to a trip/throw.  Very fun, but my back sure complained about it all night.  I forgot the Ibuprofin.

Lesson 2

Last night was my second attempt at a lesson.  I only had the vaguest idea of what I was going to do, because I figured Teacher was going to keep things basic.  When he split the class in the 2nd hour and placed me with Teacher Slim I definitely didn’t do well.

Teacher Slim, who rarely comes to class anymore, has a very eclectic teaching style.  Basically, whatever comes to him he will teach.  So super advanced technique will be taught hand in hand with some basic skill. 

Teacher Slim also has 4 black belts and is probably pushing 60, but he can snap me like a wet towel so I find “teaching” with him to be very intimidating.  Plus, my teaching style is very methodic and poorly timed.  So together the students in our group has a constant questioning look on their faces. 

-segue-
Teacher asked us a question, “what’s the difference between a professional and a Master?”  I was about to spout out, “the pay,” but held my tongue. 
He said, “the professional will practice the move until he gets it right and the Master practices the move until he never gets it wrong.”  Awesome.

Teacher Slim’s specialties are locks, painful locks, and brutal take downs.  Whereas my specialty is nothing.  Great teaching combo.  Anyway we started with kotegashi (wrist twist) which is fun, but when you work with younger folks with flexible wrists it becomes very difficult.  In steps Teacher Slim.  He introduces the concept of “softening” the opponent.   After locking the wrist up and bringing to your abdomen while turning, bring up your elbow into the face of the Uke and that will help he/she fall down easier.  Needless to say there was a lot of elbow-cheekbone contact, but the Uke does go down.

As the endless hour moved on I realized my anxiety to make a good lesson was being channeled into talking faster and moving faster which translated into a crappy teaching experience.  I really need to breath more and slow up.  Hell, even Teacher will stop and think and no one even blinks about that.

Back to the beginning - again

I can't believe that so much time has gone by since the last post. At least I'm going to class regularly again, but (I'm having a hard time remembering to post the next day and then class comes up again and I forgot what I was going to write about.

After I got back from vacation I was in for a surprise. Teacher warned me, but I still couldn't believe it. Our class ranks have swelled unbelievably. For the first time our class has a consistent number of members (around 14). In repsonse Teacher has stepped up his game on teaching. He's become more concise, more timely and impressive in his ability to match the class to the general skill level of everyone. I find myself a bit bored and then force myself to focus on my form and movement. The classes are flying bye at incredible speed.

Now that I'm trying to teach segments I'm finding that matching to the class is incredibly difficult. I came somewhat prepared to work on breakfalls and basic slaps, but Teacher looked at the class that was big as hell and filled with too many new folks and said maybe next week. I realized then that until the bulk of folks get the handle on blocks and kicks taking falls is going to be a ways off. There isn't going to be any sparring for awhile either. Sad face.

So it appears to me that I'll be working on the basics with everyone else and also teaching the same as well.

After Teacher and I had our discussion about being more assertive I've taking a more forward approach to the class. Having mostly new folks makes this easy and that makes correcting my long-time classmates a lot easier too. Maybe this growth will come along after all. I still find myself going over incidents and wondering if I would have handled it differently. Being assertive in real life is a significant change in the way I've handled myself so I see this as a long term project.

Lessons

I’m very behind in writing because life is complicated, but I just wanted to jot down a few notes about my last class.  I talked with Teacher about doing a section in class as he had suggested.  I picked side-kicks and told him what I’d be doing.  I took up a majority of the 2nd hour, but it felt like a longer time.  It’s tiring to do all the thinking as well as the work.

The lesson:
- side kicks
- side kick with step behind
- water dummy practice
- partner drills

The first three were pretty good, but the partner drills were pretty crappy.  We really needed folks of similar height and flexibility to start off, but it didn’t go that way.   Short, tall, flexible, not – argh!

Stance

Crick, crack.  Crick Crack.  “Jeeze,” I thought to myself.  “Is this what my wife heard over the years?” 

With the plethora of new students Teacher is making a very solid beginners lesson plan which requires endless repetition of the kicks and work on stances.  In our discussions last year before my Brown Belt exam he was emphasizing that I needed to be an example in form and so on.   The primary example is that I present the stance in it’s most traditional form (Japanese not Korean).  Let’s just say that I have a very difficult time having the top of my leg in parallel to the ground. 

So he explains to the class that because of my age some the things that should be done and emulated aren’t going to happen. 

Well, pride goeth before the fall.  I forced myself in a lower stance (still not the parallel) and felt pretty good about it because it wasn’t too uncomfortable on my knees – and then noticed the clicking noise.  That just doesn’t sound healthy. 

Long story short – I’m back on the glucosamine and cutting back on jogging. 

After class back to Teachers place for beer and therapy.  Then called into work at midnight.  Tough morning the next day.

A Well Executed Day

I normally jot down my notes either the night of class or the next day before work gets started,  so this is a bit behind since we have class tonight and I’m writing about something that has happened almost five days ago.

The class was invigorated with some more new students so we actually started fairly early and has a small rest break making our class closer to the 2 hours that I say we do, but normally don’t. 

Teacher is still on the formula, so I was able to apply a few things after our talk to the class.  When I was leading the warm-ups I simply didn’t ask permission and told people what to do.  I led people in counting and did some corrections and hints through out the class. 

The hardest thing to do for me is to consciously get my mind in the correct place.  I’m doing a lot of self checking and stopping myself from placing the way I speak and think in the pejorative.  I find this exhausting and distracting.  However, it keeps my mouth shut more often.  Probably a nice break for my friends. 

The Big Talk

I think I may have mentioned that Teacher and I talked briefly about what’s next in my development.  After class last night we met for an hour and half on what’s expected of me for my Black Belt. 

I don’t think I can put everything into a nutshell, but it felt like a particularly intensive therapy session.  I came in thinking that we’d be talking about physical requirements and how to figure that out based on my age, but Teacher wants to focus on these things:

- be assertive (without being a dick)
- teach portions of the class in a more formal manner
- be more situationally aware

I left thinking I rather have a hard physical test (which he assured me I would) than the above.  Situational awareness can be worked on all the time, but the other things are going to require to me face aspects of myself that are a struggle.  By my very nature I’m easy going to a fault and avoid all conflict.  However I’ll do this to the nth degree; so much so that it creates conflict in other areas. 

Unfortunately there isn’t a syllabus that outlines how do this, but when I started my campaign to stop apologizing all the time it was a very small component.  Next stop – stop with all the self depreciation, and then figure out how to accept that I know some stuff. 

I know that in class I have asked the students if they want to do something instead of telling them.  How’s does one retool one aspect of their personality without changing who they are?  I don’t think I can do a major change, but Teacher says that I will do this without any problem.  Interesting times ahead.

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Two new kids in class.  Several out on injury (not from class).  So a good time that went by quickly.

Fat On One Side

I was blabbing with Teacher last week and he had mentioned in passing that Beard would be testing.  I had forgotten that and was wondering why Teacher was dragging his feet about starting class last night. 

Teacher has either become formulaic or stuck in a rut; either way I’m enjoying it.  This is the formula:

- Run through all strikes
- Run through all kicks
- drills using above
- variation drills
- break
- kata/hyungs
- light sparring
- testing (last night anyway)

My concern is that this will go by the wayside now that testing is done for a bit.  Even though I’ve been back for a week I’m enjoying the regularity and consistency.

Little Sister and Beard both tested for their rank last night.  It’s interesting to see them both do something similar with their decades of age difference.  Beard, at 50 plus, was pulling some super low stances, but was shaky on basic kicks. 

I have never perspired that much in one setting.  It was a bit better than Tuesday.  When we were stretching I asked if it was possible to be fat one on one side.  Teacher quickly replied, “only if you have a swollen liver.”  The laughter didn’t die down for about five minutes. 

Panic and Pain

I was talking to Teacher before class telling him how I felt.  It felt like the day before tournament.  A mini panic attack induced by adrenaline.  Lots of shallow, rapid breathing.  Of course, as soon as I talked about it I could breath fine.  What a head case I’ve been.  I’m not even sure what’s kept me away for this long, but I’ve been generated plenty of excuses or finding any reason not to go. 

The standard is my wife saying the weather is nice and that we should do something special.  My first impulse is to blow off beatings and hang out in the lawn with her.  Let’s just say that I followed that impulse a lot this summer.

Class is more of the same from the past, but it was awesome to come back and get moving again.  I think I’d been psychologically and physically preparing for the last month or so.  I’ve been back to the gym working out and running more to get my heart squared away.  I found out that it really doesn’t.  Something about waving your hands and feet in the air doesn’t correspond with running a mile every couple of days. 

I had to lay down at the break.  Too much great exercise.

The 2nd hour was katas/hyungs.  The last 15 minutes was sparring.  I love sparring and when I’m doing good I have a hard time describing the feeling of euphoria that overcomes me.  It destroys a good night of sleep because of the adrenaline.  I think it must be the fact that I think I can “handle” myself in a physical situation.  After all the years of class feel like they pay off as it were.

So I’m sparring with older sister and she kicks into my kick and breaks my little toe and then in the next exchange she kicks a divot out of my shin.  

I was immediately angry because this girl has been coming consistently for a year and still doesn’t know how to control her punches and kicks.  We, the class, are guilty of subtly encouraging this because give her nods every time she does something “tough.”  This was meant as an encouragement to the others to be tougher, but we’ve all forgotten that everyone has to develop their inner tough-guy in their own way. 

I’m such a moody bastard.

Big Class

After being off last week I wasn’t really thinking of any surprises when I walked through the door.  The kids class was finishing up and they had about five kids altogether.  My presumption was that we’d have the same, but low and behold 10 people showed up! 

I led the warm-ups and then Teacher took us through the basics (strikes till your arms fall out and kicks until your knees shake).  I realized in the middle of this how sharp his eyes are for quick correction.  There is a constant litany of “turn your foot more, bend your knee more, bring your leg up farther, etc.” during the basics.  I tend to get cocky and he still corrects me on sloppy technique.

I was partnered with a new guy (Swede’s Dad) and warned him about protecting his shoulders during all the Shudo’s and Hammerfist practice.  I explained that it’s like throwing a baseball over and over again with both arms.  It shouldn’t be done at full intensity during practice until thoroughly warmed and then you still have to watch it.  He pulled up his sleeve and showed me the worse surgical site I’ve seen outside of the “Operation” on TV.  He had been bull and bronco rider in the rodeo and ended up being thrown monumentally and then stomped on.  Yikes.

Before class Beard was in an obviously good mood.  When queried he was delighted to share the fact that he had a cortisone shot in his shoulder.  After years of impingement he has a new lease of life.  I now have to watch his left side strikes.

I mentioned the number of attendees because when the class reaches these numbers we work extremely well.  There’s a lot less superfluous time.  Everyone is pretty on task and fairly well focused.  A rarity.

Swede moved up to the adult class.  Her Father promised that he’d attend class as well is she went that far. 

Swede’s Mom always watches the class.  At break Beard asked her why she didn’t want to participate.  She replied, “I have so many other ways to create pain.”  I could see Beard suppress an outward groan.  He appeared to want to look disappointed in her or I could have been projecting my own feelings on him.

Age and wisdom

In the evening after class, I often think of clever titles or themes for the post I’m going to right, but you should know you (the reader) never gets to see any of them.  I’m usually groggy because it’s later in the evening and my internal clock is trying to relax me after getting smacked around by kids half my age. 

The newest theme that has been cropping up is one of aging.  When does a striking/kicking based martial art become no longer appropriate due to the age of the practitioner?  Taking into account that several folks over 40 are in phenomenal shape (not me) I can’t help but wonder if I’m making myself worse off when me and my partner have to stop and message our knees while the teenagers look on in a mixture of humor, disgust, and pity. 

I was partnered for bit with the returning black belt last night.  He’s a really pleasant, nice guy who likes to laugh, but he’s gained a lot weight in the last few years.  So he’s coming back to Karate to get some fitness going.  The perfect guy for me because I perpetually feel the same way.  Although lately it’s more due to fact that the last year had sporadic attendance to class. 

Technically we are both proficient in our strikes and blocks – Teacher is still pushing “in close” fighting techniques – be me and the other guy would only get so far before we’d have to break and take a minute breather.  Shameful really, but we both will endeavor to do less of this in upcoming weeks. 

On the aging front Teacher is experiencing the weirdest physical problem that I know is causing him a lot of anxiety.  He normally struggles with plantar fasciitis, but now his ankles appear to be retaining fluid and appear to be painful.   He’s definitely not one to seek out medical care, but he’s got be close on this one.  Ouch.

Caught a ridge hand across the bridge of my nose with a very large cartilaginous crunch.  Everyone stopped as I knuckled away a manly tear.  No blood after the sensational sound.  Dang.

We practiced diverting knee shots with our knees and elbows – oh god, do my legs hurt today. 

Caught my thumb in Teachers sleeve – snap.  Not pleasant.  No problem today though.

Weather, whether

I may have mentioned in the past that where I live we have rare decent weather.  I’m talking counting on both hands the amount of connected days of nice weather in the last five years.  This is a price we pay living where we do, but something strange happened this year.  We actually have nice weather for once.  And it’s been going on for three weeks.  Weird. 

I’m only mentioning this because the local sport is to determine people’s moods by how bad or how good the weather had been.  The standard mode is that people tend to stay home when it’s really bad out or go play when the weather is nice.  This makes class suffer, but no one complains because we all understand. 

So, at the end of three weeks of sunshine class consisted of me, a sister and one of the old black belts.  The minimal class can be very much like a private lesson, but the intensity is demanding.  I get frustrated being corrected and corrected over and over again on a move that I’d rather use muscle on instead of proper technique.  That, and I feel old and creaky.  At least Teacher and the other BB where in the same place.  The sister probably laughed to herself at our constant litany of discomfort. 

We broke from our standard drills to practice more reality based stuff.  Basically infighting.  Use of elbows and knees with a ridge hand or hammer fist thrown in for fun. 

The 2nd half of class was lock and throw review (aikido).  I was partnered with sister and she is so frustrating to work with.  I just played teacher to her and went over all the basics.  Every time I do the techniques on her there is no effect.   Her flexibility makes 99% of our moves worthless.  When we rotated I went over to Teacher and dropped him in a half second with too much force – we both realized that you try so hard with Sister that you end up overdoing it for everyone else. 

Dang I’m sore.

Pilgrim’s Progress

I’m not sure it’s possible, but I think I did a little better last night.  There wasn’t too much huffing and puffing and certainly no dark spots dancing before my eyes.  I am, however, incredibly sore, but not in spots I figured.  It seems like all my connective tissue had withered and now it fighting to regain some resiliency. 

The worst is the top of the forearms near the elbow.  I don’t know enough of my own physiology to figure out what’s happened here, but I presume that the shudo practice on Tuesday must have done it. 

Without Driver and Beard the class consisted of Teacher, me, India and Giggles.  India and Giggles are teen-age girls.  Teen-age girls drive me batty.  I’m not the first one to thrown stones in that I like to have a good time and joke when I can, but teenagers can have these giggling fits that are unstoppable.  It makes me want to practice a chokehold.  Thankfully Teacher can help them focus.   At half time Beard, Sister 1 and little Brother came in to add size to the class.

Worked on Tuesday with expansion.  Teacher is making nice combos that even the basic students can grasp.  Fun for everyone.  I focused on unwinding the torso for more power generation, but because I baby my knees I can get low and do it properly. 

Ended with knife attack training.  Tried the knuckle punch to the hand and ended up doing the knuckle to knuckle.  Hands hurt today. 

Out of Shape

I knew it’s been some time since I’ve done any type of vigorous exercise, but this was ridiculous.  We were probably 10 minutes into class after warm-ups, doing a block/strike drill.  Teacher wanted me to do an inside crescent kick immediately followed by a side kick.  All of you know you just have to keep your balance and it’s a snap.  Well, after two sets of 20 I could barely breath.  And if I didn’t get my heel pointed all the way around to the target my hips would bind on the side kick.  Grueling. 

Maybe because it’s been so long since I’ve been, but for once the utilization of the hip snap to get the shoulders moving really seemed to work for once.  I didn’t fight myself too much and I was doing pretty good.  My lower back seems tender though. 

We did some katas/hyungs at the end of class and picked up a few pointers that I had forgotten. 

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After the kids left one of the guys told us that he saw the cops put Nilon on the plane to the big city with handcuffs on!!!.  Apparently three assaults in two months.  This led to a discussion on the schools responsibility, liability and what to do if he came back.  Apparently he’d been asked not to continue at the Judo school.  I hadn’t even realized that he was trying to go there. 

It got me to thinking about our open door policy to accept any students.  Does the Teacher have the right to be selective?  His approach of let them taste and then they move on has always worked, until Nilon.  I guess we were all assuming that he’d “get it” after some point.  Ah well. 

Defense

In my defense:
- She's tall for her age
- She punches without restraint
- She's flexible to the point where locks are not functional
- She's about a foot shorter that me

So the attacker comes in with a punch, you do a cross block into grab (so you end up holding their right hand in lock with your right hand; standing behind the arm standing next to them). Then you hold their locked wrist, and brace their elbow across your chest. You take your left hand palm their jaw. Holding on that annoying pressure point.

Without fail when this is applied to me I'm in so much pain I can't breath. Without fail I haven't been able to apply to this anyone but someone my own height.

So Sister1 and I are partnered practicing this. During the demo I was unable to strike teacher just due to the lockout and position. I get Sister1 in position and ask her to hit me with total conviction that I have her locked up tight.

I end up sitting on the floor groaning, holding my kidney. Nice work Mr. karate man.

--

Beard pulls me aside after class and asks me, "did you hear about Nilon? He got into some fights in the last 6 weeks and got into trouble with the law." Whoa. I couldn't believe it. I thought Beard was joking. He wasn't. I wonder if he'll show up at class...