Sparring last night

Sparring is fun again, now that my mood is starting to lift once more. They've re-jiggered the schedule again, so now instead of sparring with belts lower than me, I'm the junior most belt in the class; I'm now sparring with brown belts and black belts. I faced Mr. Straton last night for the first time, a new black belt who stands six foot two and is a big, barrel-chested man. It's an interesting exercise in dealing with the sheer physical intimidation factor. He's a cheerful and friendly man, who was free with the encouragment and advice--and who managed to keep his composure pretty well when one woman, a second degree black belt, accidently landed a strong kick right to his balls. She was extremely apologetic. We all winced in sympathy (the men of course, even more than the women).

Sensei talked with me about a bad habit I'm starting to develop, leaning back too much on my kicks. It's signalling my intention to kick too much, and it makes it too difficult to dart in with a forward blitz and then get out again quickly--it keeps my momentum moving too much in the wrong direction. I'm also continuing to try to be mindful about keeping relaxed while sparring. That went a little better tonight; at least I didn't have to stop any of my fights because I was hyperventilating. Sensei also encouraged me to think about kicking as I retreat out of the red zone, to discourage follow through from my opponent.

I'm glad that sparring has become fun again.

I have to miss karate class tonight because I've just been elected to church counsel, and they meet one Tuesday night a month. You know you've become a total karate nerd when missing one class feels so frustrating. I'll work on my form at least today. I've taken to going down to the gym in my office building and working on it during my afternoon break. And I'm continuing to do my slow kicks while standing at the copier. I stand at the copier a LOT during my job, so that means a lot of slow kicks.

Notre Dame de Paris

A post by upstart_crow caught my eye earlier today:

Today I searched iTunes to see if they had the complete recording of Notre Dame de Paris, an excellent 1998 musicalization of Victor Hugo's novel. I was shocked and elated to discover that they did, and the entire recording was only $20.00. It would have cost me at least $60 to purchase the hard-to-find, French import CD from Amazon.

To show you the awesomeness that is Notre Dame de Paris, here is a clip of my favorite song from the musical, "Les Cloches." Here Quasimodo (played to perfection by Canadian singer Garou) sings about his isolation from humanity through a recitation of the Catholic calendar year.

If this isn't your thing, you should at least watch this song for the acrobatics - dancers swinging inside of giant bells!

This video did catch my eye, I listened to the music, and I liked it so much that I've downloaded the (French) soundtrack, too, and am enjoying it now. Thanks, upstart_crow.