Back Eval 2

I went to the Doc today and have been officially graduated from my phase of traction, but had a rather frank conversation about what I can and can’t do. 

Principally I’ve got to watch my back like a hawk (keeping it straight and strong all the time) and completely adjust my stretching.  I went over everything I’ve done for years and he pretty much disallowed every stretch I’ve done.  He was trying to tell me all this info and my mind was going to the start of class and how I really couldn’t do any of the stuff I normally did. 

I’ve got to talk to Teacher and see if I can recreate the warm up when I start the classes.  Talk about monumental.   I’m not sure he’ll bite, but if I can’t change that I’ll have to warm up outside of class or something.  Crap!

Update

I went to my evaluation session with the PT and felt pretty good before he had me run through things.  Alas, I still experience pain at the last one percent of my range and that was enough for him to say that there will be no beatings until that is gone. 

So traction weight has increased and the exercise to facilitate ease of movement has become more aggressive.  Maybe another month?  If so, it will fall in line with his original prognostication. 

In the mean time I’m finding it easy to avoid class and hang out with my wife, but I’ve been mostly working.  I will say that practice in the mornings feels entirely comfortable except that I can’t do any of the yoga I normally enjoy. 

During the evaluation we covered exercises I can and can’t do at the gym which was both nice and frustrating.  Weight lifting is such a horrible place to keep a rigid posture.  There is so much lifting at a horrible level that I’m constantly gritting my teeth when I notice I’m doing it wrong.  Everything good for you has the potential to be bad for you.  And everything that tastes good has the potential to be bad for you. 

The best part of the recovery is that I’m taking a huge pleasure in being able to sit on the toilet and just plain bending down to pick something up without screeching in pain. 

Back And Forwards

After having a long talk with Sensei during the last weekend I figured I’d better visit class just to say hi to gang at the very least, but as the time got closer I just started feeling worse and worse. 

I’ve been going to physical therapy for a little over two weeks and sat down with the doctor to discuss what I was able or capable of doing since we were seeing some nice progress. 

You could almost hear the sad trombone. 

He said it would be two months before pain would be gone (depending) and a full 8 months before the damage healed completely.  During that time I have to make sure I pay huge attention to my spine, it’s curve and any activity that would impact those things. 

So that left me with a lot of questions about what I can and can’t do, but deep down it meant that I’m not going to be doing any kicking or bending for a long time. 

With all that in mind I went to class and figured I’d be incredibly bitter and depressed and sure enough I was.  Class had already begun and everyone was asking how come I couldn’t play.   I had a few folks come and talk to me and got a lot of comments about my long face (and I wasn’t even hamming it up!  I was surprised that I looked that way to them).  

Teacher looked like hell.  Red rimmed eyes, slightly swollen jaw, not able to hear, etc.  He told me that he had an 104 temperature earlier in the day.  He hacked his way through the start up and I thought he was going to keel over a couple of times, but when the gang started pairing off he said, “why don’t you walk around and correct folks?”  Music to my ears!  I was a bit tentative, but walked around and went to work. 

I had only intended to stay for a little bit and ended staying the whole two hours.  I walked out floating on a cloud.  I can participate!  Man did that feel good.  Of course a new guy didn’t get the fact that I can’t play and still wanted to take me down at the hips.  Just that little jostle sent a zip up and down my back.  Must be careful! 

Out of Action

I haven’t posted for awhile due to my busy schedule, but mostly because I haven’t been able to do anything since I’ve been back from the Big City.  While I was there my Doctor swung through and while we were hanging out I showed him some problems I’d been experiencing.  Primarily my right leg seemed to be week in a couple of spots.  I was unable to do a calf raise on my right leg and this caused him some concern which, in turn, caused me some concern. 

I got back into town last week and the doc did a repeat of the evaluation and I hadn’t gotten worse, but neither was I better.  His first thought was to get me to a MRI a.s.a.p, but with a few exercises I noticed a small amount of progress.  So we are hold for the MRI, but Beatings has been put on the side line until I can do more physically.  This is especially frustrating as I’d hoped to go to class and do a modified workout, but the doctor wants to hold off.  I was wondering what I can accomplish, but I’m afraid to go backwards.  So I think I’ll watch class and see how everyone is doing and eat bitter. 

Diagnosis – injured disk.  Pressure on sciatic nerve lead to calve and foot weakness; pain in areas of range of mobility.

Treatment – traction and specific exercise to increase fluidity of nerve channel around hip joint. 

Prognosis – ?  I guess we wait and see.  In the mean I’m a half a man (I can kick on one side with no problem, but barely on the other). 

Aikido 5

My last night. I was extremely tired and really was thinking about going to bed early, but I needed to get motivated and get to the dojo if for no other reason than to pay for my classes.

In that vein I called Greyhound to see if he was going to the Gojo Ryu class just see if he could motivate me to go to two different classes in one night. He had a presentation so I was right out.

I drug myself out and got there early to watch the kids class which is an entertainment in itself. There was youngster who insisted that she was not sucking her thumb all the while plopping her thumb in her mouth whenever sensei turned his head. He knew it was going on making the few onlookers teeter with stifled giggling.

Sensei seemed to be speaking louder so I had an easier time understanding what was being said and it also meant that I didn’t have to lean over, struggling to understand what he was saying. I was under the impression that leaning over the kneeling line was frowned upon, but I couldn't hear anything if I didn't. Sensei is a very quiet spoken, 6th degree black belt who imparts lessons concisely. As one of the Nidans told me, “his gift is that he knows what to tell you and when to do it.” I was the recipient of this over and over. Just a simple correction of the placement of the arm or correction of center and I was instantly better.

That evening’s class placed an emphasis on taking Uke’s balance via a very minute correction from myself (as the Nage). I really had a hard time believing it, but it was immediately shown to me that it was valid. I was partnered with a 5 foot, 60 year old woman (in Hakima’s – I should have known) whom which I had both hands around her forearm. Through settled her stance and moving a finger she had me moving into a throw position. I think she was literally only half my weight. Unfortunately, I left bruises on her arm. That made me feel uncomfortable.

I mentioned before that the degree of theatricality that seems to accompany Uke’s intended fall makes me feel uncomfortable. I’m not totally over it even on a good day, but getting thrown by a little old lady certainly did lend credence that there discomfort in some positions. If I'm going all in on a hold I'm going to pay a price.

I partnered with a rather bulky guy and my height seemed to put him into a relatively difficult position to which he’d have to dance to get around me. When he’d grunt or make some other noise I’d immediately back off and give him space which would disrupt the exercise and really throw things off. He said, “dude, if it’s really hurting me I’ll roll out – just go through the whole move.” I’ll try. I’ll try.

Finally I get partnered with a guy that’s fully 6’ 5” and about 300 pounds. He was by far the most dramatic of the bunch, but at least he would talk a bit. In retrospect I think that’s what I found so frustrating. The absolute minimum of chatter at all times. I realize that is what is expected, but I’m really from a different mid set.

After class I asked the folks if they socialized together (since I felt rather ostracized) and they reported that some did and some didn’t. It depended on age or if they had family. No clear group whereas my class makes pains to be inclusive at the very least during the class.

In the end I realized that the sense of community was very important to me, but the quality of the teaching was excellent. It was definitely better to come the class with no prior knowledge as I keep dissecting instead of absorbing. Probably a better person would have a better experience. I’d go back though just because there seemed to be something more to learn right around the corner.

Aikido 4

After Gojo Ryu I wasn't sure how Aikido was going to feel. Sure enough the first 15 minutes felt alien and I kept losing focus, but we started the examples I felt more engaged. Of course I couldn't stop thinking about how much all the arts borrow from something else and try to refine it to a philosophy.

The Sensei at the school is very good and really focuses on centering on the Uke. This a concept that my school occasionally touches upon, but never in such concise fashion. It's the same with taking balance. They don't say that specifically (at least not to me), but everything in the class is predicated on some aspect of that. I did find myself taking umbrage with a lot of the moves that require the Uke to give themselves so fully to Nage. I know it's for building and such, but to have such drama put into it makes me want to puke. I'm like, "just stand up for god's sake and stop groaning and squirming." Totally not fair to the circumstances, but it was my mindset.

Strangely after all this I just wanted to do some Chi Sao from Wing Chun, but sadly I was never that advanced to do it and my only solace is videos on youtuber.

Gojo Ryu 1

This is week two in the big city and my enthusiasm for Aikido got a short side-step when they cancelled classes for Martin Luther King day. So my friend of many years (who I think participated in my brown belt test) talked me into trying out a free Gojo Ryu class instead.

We showed up early and got to meet our instructor. My buddy showed his normal annoying trait of not asking the correct questions. For instance, "Can we participate in class tonight?" turned into "Hi, I was wondering about Gojo Ryu and stuff." Urgh.

The class was lead in a very traditional Japanese style, but the floor was hardwood and seiza was brutal. Everything about the dojo screamed Okinawa and had all their pedigree out for everyone to see. The backwall was covered with makiwari and forearm weights. The other walls had tons of black and white photos of instructors in Okinawa doing all sorts of exercises with arcane gear.

Me and Greyhound shared the class with four kids and one teenager and got a quick introduction into the class. We got to shout "Oos" a lot and learned a huge amount of Japanese (about 10 words). Mostly stances, strikes and direction. Certainly more than what my class has.

As we went through the stances I got a huge flashback from two aspects of my martial arts history. The first was more recent. Teacher Slim used to have us do Sanchin, which to me was a very specific routine of foot works and strikes. Sure enough Gojo Ryu is all about sanchin! I couldn't help but inwardly giggle as one of the blackbelts corrected my stance.

After doing that we had to learn all the basic stances which really blew my mind. I took Wing Chun in 1981 or 2 and remember a lot of the basic stuffs and here I was a million years later doing the back foot stances and settling into the shallow-chested, rolled back stance from back in the day. Toes in, toes out and then toes back in and knees slightly in. Man, I was tripping hardcore in a martial arts class.

One stance I had never before was "shige" I think. A deep horse stance with the toes pointed out. I was concerned about my knees as always, but this stance was incredibly comfortable to me. What a nice surprise when so much of the stuff we normally do kills me.

When we practiced the strikes I was caught off guard about how little emphasis was put onto form. Our home class is about doing stuff so correctly to avoid bad habits, but I was in a class with kids so maybe that had something to do with it.

All in all a really fun class. A great change, but it told me how much I miss Wing Chun and how much we all study really goes back to China. Weird. I think this means that I've studying long enough now that everything can be seen to have connections. Wild

Aikido 3

Tonight I thought things were starting to come together because were worked on many similar techniques, but stuff where I take some pride really suffered. Specifically my rolls. I'd like to think I'm one of the better rollers in my class, but in Aikido I'm like a drunken elephant. Most of the time I go into the roll to fast and get a resulting boom whereas the seasoned practitioners enter and exit the rolls with nary a sound and always appear to be soft and comfortable.

Something that came up several times was when I was the Nage I would regularly forget to step out of line when the Uke attacked. This led to a lot of bad technique setup. Ironically I would say this was a problem I had at my TSD classes. So it was nice to have that corrected and I hope that it pays off in TSD.

The second portion of that problem was that I needed to be facing Uke with hips parallel, or being centered correctly, as they say it. I tend to enter the technique correctly but then get far beyond instead of blending. A fascinating concept for me since it's not something we do in TSD.

My third significant problem was my tendency to lean. This is something that comes up from time to time in TSD because it throws my balance forward and makes it easy to take advantage of me. No different here. Thankfully everyone is totally cool with pointing it out and I think it made it easier to not do it or, at least, reduce the incidence. I just really have to focus on my "carriage and posture."

A final note for this week. I was going into the class with a bit of a frown because I was expecting a larger experience earlier in the week, but exhaustion and the job were making it tough to enjoy afterwork activity. However, when I walked out I felt reinvigorated about attending and going back again next week. Clearly it's having an impact on things I know I need to correct and I'm getting to learn all kinds of new things.

Aikido 2

I wasn't sure how much I was going to enjoy the class since it was only an hour long, but the structure of the class is that you are to be ready to go when the clocks strikes 8. The Sensei gave us about 5 or so minutes to warm up, but it was enough as he structured the class around non-intense movement in the beginning to get the blood flowing.

After each movement we would sit while he demoed the next part. In this class the exercise was always following by the same thing except performed on the knees. Walking on the knees is call shikko (which I immediately dubbed "sicko), but I think everything combat related on the knees is called suwari (not sure I heard that correctly). By the half hour mark was groaning from the activity. Worried that my tender knees would really be acting up I would occasionally stop to stretch them behind me. It really didn't work, but my partners never indicated that it was a problem.

One of my favorites was an updown. When the person comes in for a double handed grab to the gi (to the shoulders for instance) the nage steps to side, one hand pushes an elbow and the other hand pushes the other elbow down. The Uke bends over and, boom, the Uke gives a slight shove forward and the Uke rolls out. We can definitely use this in TSD. Even though it's predicated on a grab, the grab didn't actually need to occur. Sweet.

At one point we were doing a shihonage. This is a wrist twist that we use in my class so I was somewhat comfortable and didn't think much about that portion since i was trying to learn the footwork and everything else. My partner for the exercise thunked down and said, "apparently you go to a different syle school" with a big smile on his face. I'm not sure what I did differently, but I'm betting he wasn't used to his partner putting that much energy in the wrist lock. This class doesn't put an emphais on that - as far as I could tell.

This class was a great deal more populated. I think around 12 folks all together.

This class was also very quiet. Questions aren't forbidden, but it's either frowned on or something along those lines. I will say that questions weren't really required becuase the instructor was impressive in being everywhere at once and correcting what needed to be worked on. It was still a tough change from our class where it's questions and answers all the time.

Aikido 1

I got into the big city Sunday afternoon and checked in at my hotel after doing the rental car hustle. If you get one off airport property it's half price. But you have to be there by 6pm and, of course, my flight landed at 6! I was able to make it and the hotel turned to be really nice.

So I finished work and ate a hurried dinner and went early to the dojo. Since I've been there before ( 2 years ago)I could join class directly, but they are very traditional and I struggle with the Japanese and timing of the beginning of the class.

However, they all seem fine with my lack of ability and mumbled Japanese (domo origto oh my god mmymmmbbyby).

I wanted to keep my mind on anything that could be used in our class (moves that are not predicated on the Uke grabbing and holding the Nage). The nice thing is that everything in class has a proper name, but I have no paper to write down what the Teacher is saying.

Two hours was a bit tough with a poor night of sleep behind me, but it was a lot of fun. The best part being that their were only two instructors and me. About a half hour in, another fellow joined, but I was loving the attention. One of the blackbelts seemed to be struggling with things, but I think it was his knees. Hard to tell with everyone focusing on their own bodies instead of the guys attacking.

Post Vacay

I went on vacation to the mid-west for two weeks with the wife.  However just before I left my hip starting acting up.  The pain never cleared and I finally went and saw the doctor a few days ago.  Apparently I’ve got a pinched or enflamed sciatic nerve that makes it very difficult to bend over.  I’ve got to go to PT for a bit and stop stretching.  Apparently that was making it worse. 

Work has decided to send me over the big city for some extra work and training.  While I’m there I can attend the Aikido School for two weeks fairly regularly.  Can’t wait.  I had visited a few years ago for two days and loved every bit of it.  This time I’ll remember to wear my white belt and try not to look like a dork trying to remember the ceremonial steps.

Black Stripe Test 1b

After getting my notes on Tuesday night I was really struck with a case of the nerves for the Thursday observation.  I went to class early as usual and started vacuuming after I changed.  I thought I might as well take advantage of the OCD and anxiety and put it to good use.  Teacher could tell I was ramping up and pulled me aside to do some very light sparring.  After about two minutes he said, “now do it with breathing.”  Ha ha. 

He told me before class that I could continue teaching the kids class until I improved.  Since I was fairly anxious I immediately starting reading into that.  I figured that meant I wasn’t going to get the belt tonight because I had to grow so much more.

The class went smoothly and in retrospect I’d say that I tried very hard to put the notes Teacher gave me into action.  Afterword he gave me some more notes, but it started with the fact that I had, in deed, improved vastly.  He added that I needed to refine a few areas and, frankly, I knew when I blew it most of the time.  Thankfully the kids didn’t seem to mind or notice when I’d flub something.  Teacher, I think, I was mostly focused on my ability to control the class and still move forward. 
---
I’ve been fighting some intense pain in my right hip as a result of some bad falls on Tuesday which were exacerbated with our kneeling to standing kick exercises.  Ironically a low stance eases the pressure on my hip, but ibuprofen is really the best prevention and treatment.  Of course I forgot to take that before class in my fit of anxiousness.

Of course we do those very same kicks last night and I was accompanied in my discomfort by others who weren’t quite healed up as well. 

We did some “return to basics” type exercises that really worked on using the hips to initiate turns and then went on to two-step sparring.  At the end of class one of the new students was tested for his first green stripe and frankly looked better than most of us when we did ours. 

At the bow-out Teacher says, “Congrats to new guy on his green tip and everyone give Tater a round of applause on his first black tip.” 

Wait, what? 

I blushed furiously and then everyone clapped.  Which was immediately followed by comments like, “Did I miss something?” and “hunh?”

After class bowed out I had to explain to folks about the observations and teaching the kids class were the requirement. 

I practically skipped out.  I got home, swept my wife off her feet, drank two glasses of wine and promptly went to bed and snored loudly.  As befits the man on his way to the 1 in a 1000. 

Black Stripe Test 1a

As part of my testing criteria for this stripe I’m required to teach two kids classes while being observed by two black belts. 

After the class completed Teacher pulled me aside to give me some notes. 

“Tater” he said.  “If you get into a fight with five guys and you focus on only one guy, what’s going to happen?” 

“I get my ass kicked by the other four guys.” I replied. 

“Well, that’s what happened in class tonight,” he finished wryly. 

Apparently my OCD nature got the best of me because I spent half the class fixating on the one new kid who couldn’t do anything while the rest of the class started to wonder away from their lines or lose their attention in some other fashion. 

I was kind of feeling good about the class, but after he pointed that out I started to realize that I had let a lot of stuff go poorly because I’d focus on something either too long or try a concept that was too involved for their ages. 

Later Teacher gave me so more notes which I think will be the hardest of all to sort out. 

- Talk to the children as adults – not down to them
- You are not in a democracy – you control the class
- Off task behavior needs to be addressed immediately

and so on. 

Needless to say I’m going to simplify my content on Thursday and try to keep things as professional as possible.  Teacher said that he’ll make me teach the class until I get it right.  Ugh. 

Grumpy Knees

I was having this internal conversation with myself yesterday.

“I completely exhausted from work and poor sleep for the past couple of nights.  I’ve got a second job that’s sucking the life out of me.  I should probably skip beatings tonight.”

“The whole point of beatings is that it’s something you do no matter how you’re feeling or what state you’re in.  So you should go – it’s not just for your physical fitness.”

“I know I’m in a foul mood though.  It makes for a tough night.”

“Right. Whatever.  You’re sounding pretty whiney now.  You’ve got to go early and work with the kids to show proper spirit and also get ready for next week’s observations.” 

So I went.  I’m my own worst and best litigator. 
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As usual the kids class blasted by at high speed.  I only started the class off and Teacher didn’t have any notes after words so that was nice.  The rest of the time I walked around doing corrections and holding a pad for the kids to kick.  Another Blackbelt was helping out since his little girl is in the class.  I’d love to see him in the adult class, but his schedule won’t permit it. 

Teacher started the adult class at level 11.  To improve our legs and kicking he had us do lunge kicks.  We haven’t done these in over five years.  Basically you’re in seiza (a side note – when I looked up the spelling, one of the suggestions was seizure!), you come up on one leg and then go into a front snap kick.  I wasn’t even sure my knees could handle that, but there was no particular evidence showing itself that I couldn’t so I soldiered on.  We commenced doing this up and down the floor and no amount of breathing would alleviate the fact that I felt like I was walking up Kilimanjaro. 

I was doing the hands on knees pose after that and realized my gluteal muscles were locking up.  Apparently sitting all day at a desk job does exactly nothing for you in terms of fitness. 

To add insult to injury, the bulk of the rest of the night was balance exercises.  The bulk of that was being able to maintain balance on one leg, crouch down low, and defend against attacks.  About 10 minutes I was unable to crouch at all and my ankles could barely support my weight. 

The final blow was the attack line.  The class was split into two groups.  One person, in the one leg position, is attacked and has to remain in that position while either passing the attacker or locking them.  I was the first to defend.  Since I was totally shaking with fatigue even the smallest bump would knock me over.  After five folks attacking I rotated out and became and attacker. 

Teacher started that rotation and, of course, made it painful.  He blocked my kick hooked it and moved it up pass my ability to stretch.  I couldn’t swivel my hips properly and end up having to take a back fall.  It’s not that I can’t take the back fall, but the pain created in making me do it is almost unendurable.  After I got up I had to limp for a few minutes before I could put weight on my leg.   In another rotation Beard chopped me on the neck (he loves to do this) while he had my leg.  Yet another time he locked my elbow out painfully and I had to take a front fall to escape the lock.  Teacher makes the comment to me, “well, it was your fault.”  I had to hide a look of surprise.  At this point I’m the only person taking falls during a simple exercise.  Conclusion = schlemiel.  The perpetual bungler.  Most certainly something I don’t want to be.  Of course gritting my teeth in pain management and frustration really makes for a smooth flow (read ironically). 

I got home completely warn out with not a lot of humor and feeling very frustrated about class.  My wife is not sympathetic to this sort of thing, but I vented for a few minutes even while I realized that my exhaustion was exacerbating the situation.  Thankfully, she just echoed a bit of my comments to make me feel heard and I was better.  We watched a bit of comedy on TV and that helped as well. 

Now that I’m typing this out the next day I can feel a lot of that frustration surging to the surface.  I keep telling myself that I’m not going to be taken advantage of by Beard, but that’s extremely difficult when you have to give yourself to a person during exercises.  A constant vigilance is required I suppose.  And I guess I need to make sure I take a quick retaliation to let him know that’s unacceptable.  I give him way too much lee-way because he’s a black belt in Judo.  He’s still a green and my junior in TSD, but it’s counter my personality to be a dick in any case. 

Sooo tired.

More Bruises

I showed up early for the kids class again based on a hint from Teacher.  My observations got moved back to next week so he wants me to keep up with the kids so they can continue to keep comfortable with me as well as me being comfortable with them. 

I wouldn’t say that I was doing very well with them, but neither was it horrible.  I’m still using words that are too big and trying to describe concepts that are too much for most of them.  Teacher also pointed out that I might be using a bit too much humor.  It gives the really frisky kids permission to do the same. 
---
Adult class was packed.  17 people!  I wasn’t quite awake and feeling somewhat stressed about work and the kid’s class when Teacher announced that we’d be working on blocking kicks.  If there’s anything that catches my attention it’s that.  There is nothing in our compendium of exercises that causes so much soft tissue damage in a single event.

No one else seemed terribly concerned which I think is absurd, but it could because I don’t have any meat on my forearms where I need it for this type of work. 

I got partnered with Dave for a low block/front snap kick combo.  He let me kick first which I thought was nice, but I immediately developed swelling bruises over both sides of my ankles.  After awhile I had to ask him to block farther up just so we could continue further.  After we switched off it was my turned to block for which I totally had to get psyched up for.  Of course within the first two kicks from Dave I could feel the bruises rising.  So instead of the normally crappy, shallow breathing I do anyway, I was clamping my jaws shut trying to manage the pain. 

After all the whole point here is to teach us that pain isn’t necessarily damage and we don’t have to retreat from it.  Trying to get my brain around that fact is really tough though.  

Man, did I sleep great.  Total freaking exhaustion.

Subdural

I remember this scene in the movie, Constantine,  in which Keanu presses his forearms together and the audience gets to see a nifty tattoo of a star from two merged designs. 

I have this now, but completely composed of bruises.  Not like this hasn’t happened before, but I’m really having a hard time placing my forearms on anything.  So typing is a challenge because I have to do it correctly – with no contact.  At least I’m foiling carpal tunnel. 

---

I went a little early again in hopes that my presence might be a motivating force to move my class teaching observations up in the priority list.  Instead I got teach the kids round house kicks and run around with a focus mitt.  Honestly it was a good warm up for me. 

Teacher’s notes:  “I think you’re still being a little too nice to them.” 

During the adult class I covered the basic one-step sparring that is inherent in TSD and demoed the standard – left middle block, punch, punch, side kick.  In my mind this is the easiest exercise ever, but as usual Teacher was correct, in that I had a lot of blank looks and struggling to keep up.  Man, teaching is totally a patience exercise.  Breaking things down is the real art. 

One of the exercises we worked on was the double knife hand block.  I was partnered with Dave and he wasn’t holding back on the striking portion.  I couldn’t seem to get my act together and just like magic Teacher appears to point out what I already know.  Thankfully he was pushing me to kick higher.  I really enjoyed the look of surprise on Dave’s face as I kicked to his chin while close up. 

---

Teacher called me today to confirm observation days!  Next Thursday and the Tuesday after that.  Moving on up!

Wishbone

Life Lesson 42:  Heavy squats at the gym and while fighting a cold is a really bad idea the day before class.

I went early for the kids class in hopes that I could warm up my legs a bit.  Squats the day before had left me stiff and inflexible.  Dealing with the sniffles on the side also made it hard to get my blood pressure up and going. The kids class went by quickly, but I never really warmed up.  Teacher plainly has a good time teaching that class, but I was totally out of it. 

The adult class went by quickly, but during the second hour we were knocking each other off our feet.  The standard move being that we slide our leg in behind the Uke’s calf and simply straighten our leg.  The Uke’s leg goes flying out. 

As Uke with my neophyte partners I’d end up crashing to the floor to save ripping my groin muscles.  More experienced partners would do the “pop” and then catch me to reduce the odds of doing a split. 

Near the end of the night Teacher came around and started working on refining the move.  In my case he pointed out that I needed to stop being shy and grab the face of my Uke to “steer” him.  As usual he demoed on me, but for whatever reason my normal flexibility was gone and his steering left me in a position where I could neither fall to my back or grab him for support.  A blinding flash of pain in my hips, coupled with an inadvertent yelp and I was able to get a knee under and fall down.  I had to lay on the floor with the “stupid, oh my god I’m in pain, far away eyes” look for a good 30 seconds.  My partner gratefully hauled me up, but I could barely stand. 

I realized that if I kept moving a little bit my legs wouldn’t collapse, but in my head I was really kind of worried that I had done some kind of damage.  My legs were literally shaking trying to hold me up.  I couldn’t really do the move on my Uke and I definitely couldn’t do the move as the Uke.  Teacher finally called the end of that exercise to which I was eternally grateful, but then he calls me over to demo the moves more fully to the class.  “Oh s#!*” I thought to myself.  “Can’t he see that I’m having troubles standing up?” I guess not.

So he expands on the two moves and then has me do a couple of attacks to the waist (wrestler grabs) so he can demonstrate what do with that.  Thankfully I was mostly in a static position and not any splits. 

End of night report – 10K mg of Ibuprofen and only a little stiff this morning. 

The Shift

I’m not sure when this occurred, but Teacher is giving me more and more responsibility in class and I’m not really sure I’m ready.  For instance, last night we broke up in to two groups and he assigned me one group to work on really basic grab and throw.  Since the group is made up of folks with varying skill levels and physical aptitudes, I was stuck in the predicament of explaining basic engagement with Uke and Tori.  Even though we were doing monkey-in-the-middle type practice they plainly weren’t getting the idea that they needed to face the Tori one at a time.  Instead I got a cluster*#!$ of people attacking from the rear to tapping Tori on the shoulder.  Jeeze!

After we got that sorted out Teacher came over to my group to see how we’d faired.  I was sort of nervous because I didn’t think we doing that well, but he seemed happy in that we were jerking each other off our feet with a minimum of effort – a good measure of success. 

After break we worked on refining that grab and tossing people around.  At the very end of class he demoed with me and as usual my shoulders and knees were telling a tale of woe when I got home.  The joy!

Smooth Running

I'm relaxing with a glass of Scotch after teaching both classes tonight. After a spending the day with increasing anxiety or wondering why I was more anxious I ended up going really early and vacuuming the place. I don't think I have OCD, but I do enjoy seeing a clean floor and it gave me something to do instead of fretting. Of course one of the students saw this and ran over to take over. So I sat around and watched the clock.

The twins that normally cause a ruckus didn't show up so the class was quiet and respectful and moved smoothly. I had prepared an outline for both classes, but for the kids class I stuck with easy things and only ventured into tough territory with a blocking combo. All in all a pretty fast and pleasant experience. I was only anguished by kids that couldn't keep up with certain things or were easily disoriented when we moved. Kata's proved to be most of their undoing, but I forged ahead thinking that this wasn't the time that I needed to focus on individuals.

Beard was nice enough to come to the kids class and participate with the students, occasionally straightening out a kid's form as needed. Before I knew it the class was done. I wished Teacher and Teacher Slim were there for this one. It would have been a nice start to my "testing" classes.
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The adult class had really given me some angst because I could remember years ago where, in my mind, I had epically failed at the whole experience. I was teaching technique way ahead of my skill level and rushing badly. This time I was relaxed and the pace was comfortable and I stuck with only things I felt comfortable with. So I ended up with about four that were easy to teach or, at least, were easy to introduce.

I think that mostly it was good, but I'll go over my notes with Teacher tomorrow and see what I could have polished. But, honestly, I feel really good about the whole thing.

Slipped Disk?

I got up to use the bathroom around 1:30 am this morning and when I sat down on the bed I noticed a quickly growing pain in my back.  Seconds later I could barely lay down.  Being mostly asleep I figured laying down would be a good idea, but as soon as my back started to settle the pain became so intense I had tears running down my cheeks.  Unable to find comfort in any position I went to the medicine chest and choked down 10K of ibuprofen and shuffled back to bed while literally gritting my teeth. 

After an hour of moving very carefully back and forth in a variety of positions I found I was able to lay on my back once again and fell asleep.  The only thing that was going through my mind was that I had to teach class on Thursday – this can’t be happening!

Some where in the back of my mind I realized this was different than other incidents.  Normally, with a back spasm all the muscles lock up around the spinal column causing the most intense pain.  However, even my pain and sleep induced haze I could feel my muscles all behaving normally but the pain in my back and radiating down my hamstrings was absolutely new. 

This morning I’m kind of sore, but my flexibility is mostly in tact – what an intense relief!

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Last night I made it a point to show up for the entirety of both classes.  This frustrates my wife a bit because it means I’m out of the house for more than three hours, but she’s trying to be a good joe about the whole thing since I’m working toward my next rank. 

I forget how fast the kids class goes.  I feel like I was just warming up when the class was done.  I think all my nervousness is going to be reserved for the adult class which I feel totally unsuited for.  I’m using the rule that I can only teach technique that I know really well, which when it comes down to it, doesn’t feel like a lot. 

I went over the few things I was going to work on with the adults with Sensei and brought up a lot of notes.  The biggest concern being the vast difference in skill levels.  I want to do some mat work, specifically throws, but he pointed out so many of the students were new and knew nothing about even taking a basic roll.  So that’s what I’ll be working for most the third hour.  Fantasies of high flying are gone now.  Wahhh.