Still Alive…and Kicking!

Yes, it’s true.  I’m still here and still in karate.  I’m now a green belt.  I’m officially half way to black.  Big D is now a green belt too.  Little D had joined us again and is an orange belt.  We all began sparring classes for credit in January and doing well.  Little D absolutely loves it.  I swear, he wanted to wear his gear all day long the day he got it.  He came up to me after his first class all sweaty and exausted with a big grin on his little face.  Big D on the onther hand is still afraid to get hit.  I think he’ll grow out of that as he gets better – which won’t take long at all.  He has a wicket roundhouse kick that can reach my head.  Once he learns to aim and control it he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.  As for me, I’m enjoying sparring for the most part.  It is a bit harder on me than the kids.  I’m literally the oldest one on the mat – older than the instructors too.  It hurts more when I fall and the bruises aren’t pretty, but I’m holding my own.  I think the kids in the calss probably feel like they’re sparring with their mom when they get me for a sparring partner.  They’re all really good about it and don’t give me a hard time.  Some of them went kind of easy on me at first, but I didn’t want to be babied so I told them they can hit me.  Stupid me – right after that I got a big spinning crescent kick to the head.  It was a really nice looking kick and I saw it coming, just didn’t get out of the way soon enough.  Oh well, I consider it a ‘learning opportunity!’