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!’

Just extremely busy.  Work really gets in the way of fun.  I had someone at work tell me it’s called work because it’s work – if it was fun they’d call it fun.  Why can’t it be fun?  There’d be less absenteeism in the workplace, er…  I mean funplace.  “Gee sorry boss, I have to call in today, I can’t come to fun.”  Nonetheless, “work” allows me to pay for the things that are actually “fun.”  This includes Karate dues for me and Big D.

Speaking of karate, Big D and I both have tips on our new blue belts.  I should be getting another one this week.  I can’t believe our next belt is green.  We’ve been warned by others that people start quitting around green as it gets more difficult and the expectations are higher as it is an intermediate belt rank.  I’m trying not to let that scare me off.  I have enough other selftalk that questions my ability and what the hell I’m doing taking karate at my age.  I don’t need others telling me I might quit.  This all goes away when I have a really good karate day.  I had one of those a week or so ago.  That morning I woke up thinking I didn’t want to get dressed and drive all the way over to the dojo.  I was “that” close to ditching, but Big D was all dressed and ready to go – I couldn’t disappoint.  As it turns out I ended up grappling with a black belt and was able to hold my own.  She’s much more skilled at the “what comes next” part of grappling.  I was able to get out of anything she put me in, and got her in a choke and she had to tapout.  That made my week!

Well, back to work (not fun).  Thanks for visiting and I’ll try and be better about posting more often.  Notice I said “try” not “promise” ;-D

~K

Big D finally passed his blue belt test.  It was stressful and heart-wrenching to watch.  Last week he was jazzed about testing and I felt he was truly ready.  We had been practicing every day and he seemed to get over most of his nervousness.  Well, all the preparation and knowledge went right out the window when he stepped on the mat.  He blanked out on some of the very basic elements.  At one point I went outside the dojo thinking I was making him nervous.  When I came back, it hadn’t gotten any better and he was to the point of pure frustration so he couldn’t go any further.  I felt so bad for him.  I realize this is a “learning opportunity” as he’ll be in front of a large board for both brown and black belts, but I can’t help but feel for him as he’s my son.  He went back at the end of the week and was able to re-test on those elements he failed and passed.  He still needs some work, but Sensei was very kind and realized he needed a confidence boost.  At last we are both wearing blue belts around our waist.  Now it’s on to green belt which is longer and more difficult.  We’re heading into intermediate belt territory where the skills are more difficult to acquire, there are more of them, and the hour requirement is longer.  I know we’ll make it, but there are days I wonder what I’ve gotten myself into!  I did get my first tip last week, and Big D will get his next week.  We’re on our way!

I finally earned my blue belt!  It seemed to be a long time coming.  Not only did this belt require more hours and skills testing, I was out for a month with pneumonia.  I ended up in the hospital for a few days.  It’s been a rough winter for this kind of thing around here.  I’m on the mend and back on track.  I still don’t quite have my stamina and lung capacity back yet, but I know it will come back in time.  I continue to train at home and at the dojo.

I also had to switch training days as my morning classes were cancelled.  The instructor left, and no one wants to be there at 6:00 am to teach karate – go figure.  Although I was disappointed at first, it may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise.  My son and I now attend the family karate classes together on two other days.  We’re having a lot of fun and it saved me some trips to the dojo – a good thing with these ridiculous gas prices!

Big D will be testing for his blue belt soon.  We work a little bit each day and he seems to be getting over his nervousness.  He gets nervous during testing and forgets everything he knows.  He failed his yellow belt test and felt really bad.  He is bound and determined not to let that happen again.

Anyway, I’m back on track and hope to be posting at least one a week again.  Thanks for stopping by!

I haven’t written for a couple of weeks as I’ve put myself out of commission.  A bad front roll out caused me to land on my neck and shoulders.  I heard the crunch inside my own head, and that can’t be good.  I was pretty sore and in no shape for any karate for about two weeks.  I also ended up with the flu during that two weeks.  When it rains it pours, I suppose.  I’m feeling better and went to class yesterday.  It was kata day and I figured I couldn’t do any damage practicing kata.  I now have Pinan Nidan (Pinan 2) memorized.  It’s not perfect, but I’ve got the moves committed to memory.  It feels pretty good being a full two belts ahead in kata.  It used to be the bane of my existence, but now I actually like it.  Don’t tell anyone I said that!

Today is one of those days where I long for the warmth of the sun and the first flowers of Spring.  It is cold and windy.  The forecast says wind, rain, cooler temps for the next three days.  Okay, so we don’t get snow, sleet, or ice here, but my thin blood can’t take much more of this “cooler” weather.  Not to mention that it’s difficult to be motivated to workout/train when it’s cold.  I almost didn’t get out of bed for karate class this morning.  I’m glad I did, but the class was small as others decided a warm bed was more inviting than grappling.

Grappling went well today.  I worked on some of the holds/escapes I need for blue belt and worked with someone larger than me who is pretty strong.  This makes it more realistic when I have to escape.  I did however take a bad roll out.  We always practice falls before grappling and we were doing side falls and front roll outs.  I have thing fear about hurting my neck/back on roll outs, and what did I do?  I hurt my neck and upper back.  I knew it wasn’t good from the moment my right hand touched the mat – I went straight down instead of rolling on my shoulder.  I’m going to be sore for a few days, but I’m lucky that’s all that happened.  Of course I felt like a fool and was embarrased by my lack of skill at “falling.” 

My bo and dvd arrived last week.  It is quite a bit heavier than I thought, but it will make for a good workout.  The DVD is pretty good and provides a good basic foundation and a simple kata.  I haven’t had a chance to workout with it yet, I’ve only watched the DVD while on the treadmill.  I’m hoping to have some time this weekend during our “cooler” weather   One of our blackbelt instructors is also interested in bo and has offered to practice with me.  We talked about going to a park and practicing, but I’m not going to appear in public until I’ve at least learned a few of the basics from my DVD.

I’ve now got three tips, with number four coming next week.  I’m practicing the blue belt skills several times a week.  I want to be prepared for this test.  It is longer and more difficult than my last belt test.

Now that the holidays have come and gone, I finally have a chance to get back to tracking my karate journey.  I’ve been steadily progressing and am half way to my blue belt.  I had a couple of weeks off as the dojo was closed for the Christmas/New Year’s holiday.  I was a little lax during my downtime and didn’t train as much at home as I should.  I admit I ate too much and rested more than I should.  I know it, I admit it, and now it’s time to get back on the wagon.  I’ve started a better eating routine and have gotten back into my exercise and training regimen.  If I can keep it up for at least two weeks, then I shouldn’t have any trouble keeping my routine.

I recently became more interested in weapons training and have ordered myself a bo and a dvd.  I think it will be fun and help keep me motivated.  We do have weapons classes at the dojo, but there isn’t a bo class for a while.  The next class is tonfa, but I’m into those.  I’m hoping once I’ve had a chance to learn a bit on my own, they’ll run another bo class at the dojo.

Anyway, the new year has begun and I’m excited about getting back to work and testing for my blue belt soon.  I’ll tray and post here at least once a week, but no promises!

Well, my plan didn’t work out like I imagined.  Yeah, I’ll setup this cool blog and I’ll track my progress every week, and it will be great!  Progress is still being made although not blogged about.   Big D and I are doing well.  We are both getting ready to test for our yellow belt in the next couple of weeks.

Last weekend I got to workout with Ian Waite, a martial artist from New Zealand.  In a word – AWESOME!  He gave us some useful tips on increasing speed, closing the gap, and several other things.  It was not only informational, it was fun and very comfortable.  I didn’t feel so comfortable in the Joe Lewis seminar.  While it was good, I’m not aiming to be a cage fighter or anything.  I felt a little out of place in that one!  Anyway, one more tip and it’s on to yellow!

Sorry, I’ve been a bit busy lately and haven’t had time to post.  How about a summary of the last month – Big D and I both earned our orange belts.  I’ve now got two tips.  The orange belt test went well for me.  I figure I earned it as the grappling part of the test was to get a 300 lb man off of me twice!  I even knocked him back a couple of times with my front kicks.  I was pretty nervous so he adrenaline was flowing and I think I may have benefited from that.  Anyway, I’m now on my way to earning my yellow belt.

Big D did really well on his test too!  I was so proud of him.  His technique is pretty good for an 8-year0ld.  I bought him a couple of patches he’d been eyeing for sticking with it, practicing, and doing so well on his belt test.  Now if I just had time to get them attached to his gi…

Last Sunday I got to do something totally cool – I got to workout for three hours with Joe Lewis.  He was coming through town on his vacation and our Sensei got him to come do a little seminar for us.  This guy is pretty amazing.  He’s a tenth degree black belt, which means he’s a Grand Master.  It was a lot of work and I’ve got the bruises to show for it, but I’ll definitely be there when he visits us again!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted on my blog.  Busy work, busy home, makes blogging a lower priority.  I also became a little frustrated after a bad karate class.  It was kata day and the person teaching kata wasn’t the best teacher.  Just because someone can do something well doesn’t mean she can teach it.  Thankfully she doesn’t actually show up to class very often.  It was the first time I felt like maybe I wouldn’t make it through this.  Screw that!  I’m not letting someone else decide that for me!  Whew!  Nuff said.   

Now to more current things… Big D and I both have 5 orange tips and will be testing for our orange belt in the next couple of weeks.  It sure will be nice to have some color around my waist.  I think I’m ready for the test.  I got us a mat and a free-standing bag for practice.  Now we can practice at home more like we do in the dojo.  I’m also trying to work out on a regular basis on the days I don’t have karate class.  I find if I do that, I’m less sore after grappling.  We’ll see what this week brings!