Back to karate
Dec. 2nd, 2009 09:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pegkerrYesterday was my second lesson back after a hiatus of several months. Last week's lesson was a bit mortifying, because I'm restricted mostly on kicking, especially spin kicks, which I can't do at all. And what were they doing at that lesson? Kicks, the entire time. Including spin kicks. So I found that particularly discouraging.
But yesterday, we were doing karate marching basics, and one part of the red belt form Zhang Du Moon, which is mostly front stances. I'm working in the red belt/brown belt class, which is the class below my level (I'm a black stripe). One of the other students there, Spencer Anderson, is just resuming training after a long hiatus, too. He's just a brown stripe at this point, but it was clear to everyone that he was really gifted (I'll freely admit that he's much better than me), which is why he was put on the instructor training track. But then he tore the ligament in his leg, and so he's been out for a long time, too. Our instructor, Mr. Sidner (fifth degree black belt) has a surgical boot on his leg, due to a sprained ankle sustained at a tournament a couple weeks ago. Injuries everywhere.
We were practicing the shift from back stance to front stance. Weight shifts from 70% on the back leg to 70% on the front leg, and the stance widens from two inches to shoulder width. The front foot shifts straight to the side--not forward nor back. The back foot especially isn't allowed to drift further backwards on the shift. Mr. Sidner explained that the way to do that is to shift on the heel rather than the toes of the back foot--which is very difficult for me, especially on the side we were mostly working on (left side, meaning the right foot is in back) because my right ankle is much, much stiffer than my left ankle. That's one of the things I've been working on with my rehab exercises (and also reminds me that I've forgotten to do the foot exercises this past week). I've been helped the most by one of the tips one of the other instructors gave me: when you do the shift, really use the momentum of your hips torquing over to give you power on the shift from back stance to front stance position. That will keep your back foot from drifting back; instead, you'll end up dragging the entire back foot forward a few inches, and that's okay. I do a pretty good job of keeping my front leg bent enough, most of the time. Both front and back stances really work the quads. I also pay a lot more attention than most students do to keeping my shoulders squared and my back hand high and tight.
We did that short section of the form one by one. One thing I've gotten from watching SO many belt exams is that I really do know exactly what the instructors are looking for when students do form. I managed especially tight snaps on the front kicks, for example (unlike one of the other students, who was ordered to do his front kick repeatedly because the snap was really sloppy). When I was finished and watched all the other students, I was pretty convinced that I'd done it the best of all of them. Which should be the case, of course, since I was the highest belt, but it was especially sweet since I've been out so long. Not bad for an old broad who hasn't been coming to the dojo for months. Mr. Sidner told me afterwards that I looked really solid. So, after last week's discouragement, I'm quite pleased.Pain has been minimal today. Well, okay, so a little pain is there. About 2 out a scale of 1 to 10. Nothing terribly dire.
I was quite curious to see what my Gruve device would indicate when I synched it today. It said I burned only 64 calories during last night's class. I don't think it can really accurately assess calorie burn during a martial arts class. Karate marching basics really do make you sweat because the stances are so deep. It's really exhausting and, as I said, works your quads strenously. And the power of the punches, etc., I suppose, can't be accurately picked up by a device that you wear at your waistband.
But yesterday, we were doing karate marching basics, and one part of the red belt form Zhang Du Moon, which is mostly front stances. I'm working in the red belt/brown belt class, which is the class below my level (I'm a black stripe). One of the other students there, Spencer Anderson, is just resuming training after a long hiatus, too. He's just a brown stripe at this point, but it was clear to everyone that he was really gifted (I'll freely admit that he's much better than me), which is why he was put on the instructor training track. But then he tore the ligament in his leg, and so he's been out for a long time, too. Our instructor, Mr. Sidner (fifth degree black belt) has a surgical boot on his leg, due to a sprained ankle sustained at a tournament a couple weeks ago. Injuries everywhere.
We were practicing the shift from back stance to front stance. Weight shifts from 70% on the back leg to 70% on the front leg, and the stance widens from two inches to shoulder width. The front foot shifts straight to the side--not forward nor back. The back foot especially isn't allowed to drift further backwards on the shift. Mr. Sidner explained that the way to do that is to shift on the heel rather than the toes of the back foot--which is very difficult for me, especially on the side we were mostly working on (left side, meaning the right foot is in back) because my right ankle is much, much stiffer than my left ankle. That's one of the things I've been working on with my rehab exercises (and also reminds me that I've forgotten to do the foot exercises this past week). I've been helped the most by one of the tips one of the other instructors gave me: when you do the shift, really use the momentum of your hips torquing over to give you power on the shift from back stance to front stance position. That will keep your back foot from drifting back; instead, you'll end up dragging the entire back foot forward a few inches, and that's okay. I do a pretty good job of keeping my front leg bent enough, most of the time. Both front and back stances really work the quads. I also pay a lot more attention than most students do to keeping my shoulders squared and my back hand high and tight.
We did that short section of the form one by one. One thing I've gotten from watching SO many belt exams is that I really do know exactly what the instructors are looking for when students do form. I managed especially tight snaps on the front kicks, for example (unlike one of the other students, who was ordered to do his front kick repeatedly because the snap was really sloppy). When I was finished and watched all the other students, I was pretty convinced that I'd done it the best of all of them. Which should be the case, of course, since I was the highest belt, but it was especially sweet since I've been out so long. Not bad for an old broad who hasn't been coming to the dojo for months. Mr. Sidner told me afterwards that I looked really solid. So, after last week's discouragement, I'm quite pleased.
I was quite curious to see what my Gruve device would indicate when I synched it today. It said I burned only 64 calories during last night's class. I don't think it can really accurately assess calorie burn during a martial arts class. Karate marching basics really do make you sweat because the stances are so deep. It's really exhausting and, as I said, works your quads strenously. And the power of the punches, etc., I suppose, can't be accurately picked up by a device that you wear at your waistband.