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pegkerrWell, sparring was fun last night, albeit embarrassing.
I got off to a bad start when I got to the dojo and discovered that my helmet wasn't in my bag. The zipper on my bag broke last week, which means the bag gapes open, and so I immediately realized that my helmet must have dumped out of it and was probably sitting on the closet floor at home (which, when I got home, I discovered to be the case). I was able to borrow a helmet, however, and suited up. We were working on side-to-side defenses to front-line attacks. It was fun and extremely interesting. I have entirely gotten over being afraid now, which is great progress (for the first year or so I'd regularly be crying when I left the class space which was made me feel so stupid), but I still feel as though I'm not very good at it. I genuinely enjoy fighting Kevin. He is very tall and extremely flexible and very fast and good, so I know I'm outmatched whenever I face him, but whenever I can land something on him, it's very satisfying. I learn a lot watching him. Fighting Jesus, on the other hand, is absolutely bewildering. As our sensei remarked last night, Jesus doesn't so much fight right side or left side so much as any side, switching continually in midmove, and even facing front on. More than that, he's darting from back and forth across the center line, high to low, and you burn up an enormous amount of energy just trying to keep track of where he is.
I was having extreme difficulty with getting winded, however. Much more than usual. It was puzzling; I wasn't sick, and I hadn't eaten a heavy dinner or anything. I do get too tense when I spar, which means I burn up too much energy and start hypervenilating. I had to stop and sit out several bouts. Finally I stopped altogether, but I kept feeling more and more weak, even nauseous. I kept waiting to feel better, but I didn't, even after ten minutes had passed. Mr. Dingmann glanced over and must have seen how white I looked, and asked if I was okay, but I was already swaying, on the verge of passing out. They sat me down and got me water and had me take off my equipment. I was fine, just extremely embarrassed. I need to build up my stamina. Man, sparring takes it out of you like no other exercise I know. But more than that, I just need to learn to relax more as I fight.
I got off to a bad start when I got to the dojo and discovered that my helmet wasn't in my bag. The zipper on my bag broke last week, which means the bag gapes open, and so I immediately realized that my helmet must have dumped out of it and was probably sitting on the closet floor at home (which, when I got home, I discovered to be the case). I was able to borrow a helmet, however, and suited up. We were working on side-to-side defenses to front-line attacks. It was fun and extremely interesting. I have entirely gotten over being afraid now, which is great progress (for the first year or so I'd regularly be crying when I left the class space which was made me feel so stupid), but I still feel as though I'm not very good at it. I genuinely enjoy fighting Kevin. He is very tall and extremely flexible and very fast and good, so I know I'm outmatched whenever I face him, but whenever I can land something on him, it's very satisfying. I learn a lot watching him. Fighting Jesus, on the other hand, is absolutely bewildering. As our sensei remarked last night, Jesus doesn't so much fight right side or left side so much as any side, switching continually in midmove, and even facing front on. More than that, he's darting from back and forth across the center line, high to low, and you burn up an enormous amount of energy just trying to keep track of where he is.
I was having extreme difficulty with getting winded, however. Much more than usual. It was puzzling; I wasn't sick, and I hadn't eaten a heavy dinner or anything. I do get too tense when I spar, which means I burn up too much energy and start hypervenilating. I had to stop and sit out several bouts. Finally I stopped altogether, but I kept feeling more and more weak, even nauseous. I kept waiting to feel better, but I didn't, even after ten minutes had passed. Mr. Dingmann glanced over and must have seen how white I looked, and asked if I was okay, but I was already swaying, on the verge of passing out. They sat me down and got me water and had me take off my equipment. I was fine, just extremely embarrassed. I need to build up my stamina. Man, sparring takes it out of you like no other exercise I know. But more than that, I just need to learn to relax more as I fight.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-04 03:32 pm (UTC)I feel the same way when I hang out in the GT suite at conventions. If you pick a dozen topics at random, even if they include what I'm being paid to do at my job, I'm certainly not the smartest guy there in any of them, and I'm likely to be in the bottom 25% in at least half of them. That's why I love it so much.
You can only get better by working outside your capabilities. Nobody who's better than you started out that way. Nobody on that floor wants to hurt anyone.
I went to my first TKD class in a month last Thursday. I could really feel the time off when my lungs and gut started to burn about 10 minutes in.
You're right about relaxing when you spar. I have a friend at work who did TKD as a college student, and currently he's about 5 years into Tai Chi. He says "Yeah, we used to dance around like that, be stiff and wound up like a spring all the time. Now I just drop my center of gravity, relax and wait for the other guy to either do something or tire himself out bouncing around. Those guys dance around like that, they've got maybe 60, maybe 90 seconds and they're done, then you can take them out."
I still am way too tense when I spar, and I don't have the reflexes nor the muscle memory to just land kicks, especially backs and spins, but learning is fun anyway.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-04 05:44 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-12-04 07:12 pm (UTC)