Back to karate

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:00:11 GMT

Yesterday 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.

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The Diamond Nationals

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 19:25:08 GMT

One of the first people we spotted when we arrived back at the hotel last night was the unfortunate young woman who took that severe blow in Fiona's sparring division. To both of our immense relief, she was there again, apparently discharged from the hospital, up and walking around, although she had on a huge neck brace. The blow had been under her chin, right under her helmet. I guess it's being treated as a whiplash-type injury.

Here's Fiona performing Sho Shin, the first degree black belt form for kamas.

The thing is, the Diamonds are, of course, local for us, but it is really a big-deal national tournament. She had really hoped to perform Me Young (sp?), which is a bo form that's ordinarily done by fourth degree black belts, and she'd spent a month working on learning it. However, she got sick two weeks before the tournament, and so missed a week and a half of classes and so wasn't able to finish learning the form. She decided, reluctantly, to go back to doing Sho Shin--which she loved when she first learned it, but she learned it awhile ago, and she felt rusty at it. And the black belt competition at the Diamonds is especially fierce. The other schools often use more technically challenging forms (which is why Fiona was trying to master a fourth degree form). Because she was rusty, she performed it more slowly than she should have, and in the end, she felt, the form she was forced to use was simply outclassed by the other, more complicated forms. The people who come to compete at the Diamonds travel so far because they are the best of the best.

So that was a disappointment. She hopes she'll have Me Young mastered by tournament time next year. She said she also wants to try some of the smaller regional tournaments, where she wouldn't necessarily be facing national champions who live and breathe nothing but karate.

Here she is demonstrating gun self defense with a partner. In this video, Fiona (closest to the camera) first is the attacker, and then the defender.

We went back to watch the finals last night, which were amazing as always. The people up on the stage perform truly astonishing physical feats. There is quite a bit of gymnastics incorporated in the more extreme forms. Some of the kids, with their leaps, kicks, and blindingly fast weapons work, seem almost superhuman. The synchronized teams were wonderful to watch, too.

"The thing is," Fiona said, "I'd like to be able to do karate like that, but still have a real life. But I don't think that's possible."

I enjoyed the judging much much more the second day. It was particularly fascinating to judge forms done by people from entirely different disciplines--a little intimidating, too, because I honestly didn't know what their criteria for excellence was. But I guess I knew enough to have a feel for it, because my scores were pretty much right in the very same ballpark as the other, more experienced judges. One of the women, in the weapons division, was wielding a fan--an enormous Japanese (I guess) fan. I had never seen anything like it, but it was great fun to watch.

I had been particularly intimidated by judging sparring. The first day, my center (the head judge of the division) was my own senior instructor at our dojo. I asked him privately how I did after the night was over, and he told me I had to be faster and more decisive when making calls. I felt like I really had gotten the hang of it by the end of the second day, and was actually enjoying the process in the end. I would be willing to judge next year. But (an even bigger deal) I also realized I feel I would like to compete myself next year--if, that is, I'm healed well enough to be in fighting shape.

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Peg Kerr's Journal

Back to karate

The Diamond Nationals