Tornado kicks, 360° round kicks

It seems to be our senseis' mission this week to make me look as clumsy as possible. This is the second class in a row that we've worked on 360° kicks. (Tuesday was the spin hook kick).

For the tornado kick, you go up on your toes and spin in place, winding your legs up until they cross. As you come around back to the front, you push off, lifting your front leg into a sort of prance, and then as you come down, you swing your back leg up and over in an arc from the outside toward the center line of your body (i.e., a crescent kick, the opposite of a wheel kick). Hips are kept squared, facing toward the front. As in all 360° kicks, the rotation is what gives the kick the power.

It's not easy (this is one of the kicks you have to demonstrate on the black belt exam). Mr. Pallesen, who was teaching last night, said that he worked at it for about six months before he landed one that felt like he was doing it really right. ("And then it was probably another six months before I felt as if I did it right again.")

I tried it, and yeah, it felt extremely clumsy and weird. I didn't have a chance to work at it much, though, because on my third attempt, I felt my hip wrench as I brought the back leg around. Surprised by the pain, I yelped and swore--and then just about collapsed in mortification at my lapse in front of sensei. I apologized profusely but he made light of it. I still felt terrible.

And frustrated, because he told me to just watch as the rest of the class continued working on the kick. The hip, I fretted to myself as I watched, always the damn hip. How am I going to get my black belt if my hip keeps doing this to me? Then the class moved on to the 360° round kick. For this kick, you wind up the same way, but instead of keeping the hips squared to the front, you pull your shoulders back, thrust your hips forward, and turn the kicking leg's hip over, and you throw a round kick as you come around to the front. Again, I just mostly watched. The red belt I was holding pads for, Connor, looked just as clumsy as I felt as he practiced. So yeah, I guess these kicks are difficult.

I talked with sensei a bit after class, and we discussed how I may have physical limitations (the hips, relative lack of flexibility compared to younger people in the class), but that they wouldn't preclude my getting a black belt. "If there's something you can't do, you simply have to learn other ways to compensate for it. But you are already kicking at belt level, which is perfectly sufficient to pass black belt, even if you may pine to kick higher. Frankly, these 360° kicks may look cool, but you wouldn't necessarily use them in a self-defense situation--unless your goal is more to absolutely pwn your opponent by humiliating them, rather than purely trying to defend yourself. The self-defense move I like best is a good, solid side stomp to the knee, and that's something even white belts can do. As far as your hips go, just keep doing slow kicks and working on your stretches."

"Well, I am doing slow kicks every day." I sighed. "This reminds of when I was doing ballet as a kid. I was serious about it; I actually got to the point where I was studying on toe for awhile. But just as in karate, what I wanted to do usually fell short of what I could do. I find that really frustrating."

He nodded. "I used to feel that way all the time when I was sparring Mr. Dingmann," he said. (Mr. Dingmann is one of the fourth degree senseis who is a champion fighter and crazy flexible--like Delia--and can do really high ax kicks, round kicks, hook kicks and spin kicks to the head.) "I would get so frustrated because I could see an opening and know, if I could only do a high ax kick there, I could absolutely nail him--but I wasn't capable of doing it. It was only when I gave up worrying about what I couldn't do and started focusing on what I could do, like a good punch when he gave me an opening, that I actually started scoring against him." He made a face. "Not enough to beat him, usually, though."

I laughed. "Tell me, what am I doing right?" I asked.

"Oh, you are turning your hips over perfectly on the round kick," he said immediately. "I was watching you, and you did it every time. You were the best one in the room."

"Really?" That made me feel better.

Well, I'll try to do that--to focus on what I can do rather than what I can't.

I see, more and more what our senior sensei says, that so much of achieving black belt, especially for adults, is mental rather than physical.

The hip still felt a little weird as I was doing slow kicks on that side today. Hope it'll be better in time for tomorrow's sparring class.

Screencleaner

madrobins helpfully points to an excellent screencleaner here.

Sunset at the North Pole

A friend sent this to me today, and it's too beautiful not to share:

This is the sunset at the North Pole with the moon at its closest point. You also see the sun below the moon.

Edited to add: Okay, I'm totally gullible, and this is photoshopped.

johnridley is right; it's still very pretty.