Can't think of a title for this post

So- some good news on the pretest. M passed (i knew she would), the crying one passed, and the adult arm-breaker did NOT pass. There IS justice in the world. So right now, they're all at the track freezing their butts off running 4 miles and doing crunches and pushups. aaaaahhhhh fun.
So, since our dojo has a new space for pilates and yoga, they've also started offering belly dancing class. Thats right, BELLY DANCING. For women only. I went last night and had a BLAST! They are having it every friday night and its taught by this girl (well, 24 yrs old) whose brother and sister take karate. I will definitely go again next friday. Rumor has it that Renshi wants a belly dancing demo done at the next Black Belt spectacular. I am definitely up for that. I enjoy making a fool out of myself in front of a huge crowd.

Keeping it fun?

Last nights class was excellent. Renshi's classes are always good. The BB pretest is tomorrow night so we are still reviewing kata kata kata and all the bunkai that can go with it. Tomorrow I am going to go to the dojo before the pretest to help out M. There will also be another woman testing for shodan. This one concerns me. She's quite a crybaby. Seems to always have one injury after another. And they're never injuries that are visible to the human eye. Don't get me wrong, she is a very nice person, but always seems to have an excuse for why she can't do something. she actually cried the other day when she found out that she needs to know Kusanku Sho for the pretest. CRIED and then left the dojo w/o going to class because she was so upset. a wee bit over dramatic too say the least. AND ITS KARATE! there's no crying in karate. Not like that. As far as I see it, bottom line is that it should be fun. If she's crying now when the cycle hasn't even started yet, I cannot see her surviving a whole testing cycle. So I'm sure she'll be there wednesday before the pretest practicing along with M and I. I hope she can keep this all in perspective.

Not much

Not too much to talk about. I've been getting back to class on a regular basis finally after the holidays. right now we've been focusing on lots and lots of kata. This is because the pretest is coming up next week for the new black belt candidates. The lesson plan is set up this way to help the 1st kyus practice and fine tune what they will be expected to show next week.
I AM SO GLAD ITS NOT ME! My friend M will be taking the test. we started taking karate at the same time but she took some time off to have a baby so we ended up in different testing cycles. I think this group is a lot larger than mine. With a lot of students testing for Nidan and possibly Sandan too. there is one adult student that is going for Nidan who is going to be a problem. This man is a grown up version of arm breaker. He spars like he's in a back ally brawl every time. Always hits extra hard. If he passes the pretest (he sucks at kata so he could actually fail) he's gonna be a tough one at the practical. I AM SO GLAD ITS NOT ME...oh. i said that already..

oh well

Well, I went to class last night. I did not spar, though. It was a great class anyway, mostly working combinations with a partner. Then they did regular sparring towards the end of the class. They combined the teen class with the adult class so it was pretty crowded. I worked with a woman who just got her green belt. I love seeing that there are more and more adults taking karate. My dojo always encourages the parents to start taking classes,they usually offer a free 3 months to parents of students. Right now there is a group of maybe 10-15 parents who are now green belts who all started as a "parents class" a couple years ago. Its going to be awesome to see them all get their black belts together.
My little arm breaker was in class last night too. So was my son. My son cracked him in the head with a ridge hand and said.."thats for my mom"
what a good boy...he's been waiting for an opportunity for that since the night my arm was broken.

2007

Happy New Year!

I hope its better than last year. :) We have sparring this week~ I'm hoping to be brave enough to go.