Warning: Angry rant below....

I need to vent. Our school has had a "dress code" forever which is T-shirts (instead of gi tops) are allowed on saturdays(all year) and every day during the summer months only (June thru September). And they have to be karate-related t-shirts. The rest of the year, full gi is what you wear. I don't think thats unreasonable. But lately at the dojo, I've been noticing some students wearing t-shirts instead of their gi top. So I asked one of the instructors what was going on. Apparently, there are some students who complained that they wanted to wear t-shirts all year. They didn't think it was "fair" that they could not. They even went so far as to threaten to leave the dojo if they couldn't be accommodated. So the policy was changed. Now, certain "winter" t-shirts are allowed all year.
You will NOT see me or my son wearing a freakin t-shirt during the winter months . I would love to know who the whiney babies are that caused this to be an issue. Why?? Is the gi top too hot? Too cumbersome? Too uniform-y? well suck it up! its Karate, for crying out loud! The gi is part of the whole experience. It just blows my mind that people have the you-know-whats to complain about these things. I couldn't imagine owning a business like this. Maybe I wouldn't have many students. I don't think I could stand all the whiney babycriers. "What? you don't want to wear your gi top? Then GO HOME!" There's no whining in karate. If you want to join a dojo, then follow their rules! don't try to change them for your own selfish reasons! Grow up!
Ok, stepping down off my soapbox now. Thanks for listening.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Spar Wars

So, Saturday was Spar Wars. My son and I were signed up for the 1pm time slot. We got there in time to watch some other matches and we stayed for a while after to watch some more. I had never seen Kyoshi spar seriously before yesterday. He is a big man. He is also very fast and very powerful. He teaches while he spars and if you're paying attention you can learn a lot. If you're not paying attention you will hurt a lot. Now, it is also important to note, that he only goes as hard (or a little harder) as you do. So if you go into the match in full attack mode, expect to get taken down a notch or 2. There were all ages sparring him. Some of his opponents only came up to his waist. I love watching those matches. One of these kids was doing back to back spinning hook kicks. Not even coming within 2 feet of landing any of them. But Kyoshi would pretend to dodge them all and praised the boy for his efforts. There were lots of cute little kid matches. Kyoshi is known for his powerful spinning hook kick. He got everyone with at least one. His speed and force depended on the size and skill level of his opponent. For the little kids he was slow motion, ending with a tap to the kid's head with his foot. I did pretty well in my 2 minutes. I took a decent hit to the head , (I'm thinking that was because I hit him in his head) but all in all I dodged his kicks pretty well and he was obviously very kind. Next came my son, C. C is 15 years old. He has been going thru a rough time. Those of you who have teenagers know what I mean. They want to make their own decisions and sometimes you have to let them. He stopped going to karate a couple months ago - I said he could take a break but not quit. This is his freshman year in HS. He has ADHD. He's having a hard time making the right decisions. Anyway, long story short-Saturday was his first day back at karate. Kyoshi has missed him and knew about what he was going thru. They bowed in, shook hands and sparred HARD. The first spinning hook kick Kyoshi threw landed squarely on C's jaw-POW! Knocked him off balance, and then Kyoshi got him in a headlock and took him down to the floor. My friend M is looking at me saying "are you okay mom? are you worried?" I was fine, I knew he wasn't going to end up at the hospital or anything like that and frankly, he needed this. C could not get out of the headlock. Kids watching were yelling "Elbow him!" but Kyoshi also had his arm trapped. After a bit, Kyoshi released him. Finally, they were up on their feet again sparring and Kyoshi executed 2 more speed-of-light spinning hook kicks and C ducked under both of them. Good thing to, because they would have sent him flying. But he learns fast and is quick and agile. Finally the 2 minutes were up and the bell went off. They bowed, shook hands and Kyoshi gave him a HUGE hug, told him he was glad to see him back and that he had missed him. C walked out of the ring with a bloody lip and a big smile on his face. It was great to see. Now, that is tough love!

Nunchucks and Spar Wars

So I went to 2 classes on saturday. First was weapons. I brought my big girl nunchucks and had some refresher training on Nunchuku Dai Ich. By the end of the class I could get through the kata without help so that means...next week is Kama!!! I'm very excited. I have to say, though, I'm really enjoying the nunchucks. Anyway, after that class I had regular class, where we did a lot of partner work with focus pads. We went thru several combos (jab, cross, hook, upper cut) while staying in motion. I swear, the hardest part is holding the pads and remembering which way to turn them to receive the next punch. I worked with B, a brown belt who works her a** off. She is one of the group of parents who started training a couple years ago. They are all brown belts now and I can't wait to see them all get their black belts. They are so cool. Its going to be a huge group testing in about a year. So after skinning my knuckles on pads (ouchie), we worked on focus kicks-double roundhouse kicks (to the stomach , then to the head) and then hook kick/round kick combo.


In a couple weeks we have Spar Wars. This started a couple of years ago when one of the student's house burned down. Kyoshi set aside one saturday and had people sign up to spar him. The cost - $5 for 2 minutes in the ring with Kyoshi and all the money collected was given to the student's family. This year, the proceeds go to the KIAI fund which is a scholarship program for students who want to learn karate but cannot afford the tuition. So, there is a 3 page sign up sheet, you can choose the timeslot you want to get your hiney whooped that day. I have never sparred Kyoshi. It will be amusing. I'm sure he'll be smiling the whole time. That same smile he gets when he watches the adult students practice "coffee grinder's" ( a breakdancing move also) or like at Thanksgiving cardio kickboxing , at the end of class,when he had us do partner sit-ups where we lined up in 2 lines across, facing each other -in sit up position , ankles locked with your partner, do 10 situps, making sure you do "high tens" with your partner each time,then after 10, rotate to the right and do the same with your new partner. and over and over and over...that twisted, evil smile he gets watching his students suffer like that.
I'm looking forward to it! :)

still here

Sorry its been a while. Not much to talk about, Thanksgiving was good, started out at 6am with the annual Thanksgiving Cardio Kickbox "so you can have extra pie" class. It lasted for over an hour and was pure torture..I loved it. There was no class that weekend because of a inner school Tourney. I didn't participate in that one. I really need to get to class tonite.

QQS 2-5pm

so QQS was fun. I came home feeling pretty good about things. Sore and exhausted, but good. The run went fine. We had to run for 1/2 hour on the bike path across from the dojo. I almost did 3 miles. Its weird how even if you haven't run for almost a year, your body doesn't forget how to do it. Not like I had forgotten how to actually run, but the pace and the breathing just fell into place. I also know enough about myself to know that I have to stretch my calves out for a good 15 minutes before running. If not, shin splints will ruin it for me. I have to stretch my calves until I can't feel them stretching anymore. Its the only way. So after the run, we went back in the dojo and changed up for sparring. Sparring was great. We all line up in 2 rows facing our partner, then spar for a while, then stop, bow, shake, and rotate to the right. I was paired up with people who I knew wouldn't go to rough, including many little jr blackbelts. Now some of them are half my size. Some have super control and are excellent at sparring. Some of them were trying to be extra tough and going full force. And some of the newer bb's were OUT OF CONTROL. There was this one kid next to me. The one kid who wore his blue gi top when we're all supposed to wear white. He had something to prove, I think. He was all over the place, even punching a couple teen Nidans in the face. (they had EXCEPTIONAL self control and just let it roll off their backs) But the weird thing was, that this little guy was on the verge of tears the whole time.
So after sparring we did kata for the rest of the time. It was excellent. AND B (who got his black belt with me) and I had some time to learn Gojushiho. Cool!

QQS

QQS is on saturday. I need to go. QQS is 3-4 times/year and is for black belts only. I think I've mentioned it before, it lasts about 3 hours, starts with a 3 mile run, then sparring and kata and weapons. QQS means Quality, Quantity and Spirit testing. I am so out of shape right now the run will probably wipe me out, but its important to go and do your best regardless. It is fun, too. Sometimes Kyoshi will have other events count as QQS...this year, the St Patricks day tournament and summer camp both counted as a QQS for black belts. I did both. Last November was my first QQS and it was held outside at the HS track. We lucked out as it was a beautiful and unseasonably warm day. Not sure where this one will be. If it is in the dojo, we're gonna be packed in like sardines. We'll probably smell just as bad by the end of it too.

There's a 4th day of November too?

Well, I've already blown the NaBloPoMo daily blogging thingy. Why? cause I forgot, thats why. I have no good reason. But, I will continue to blog daily thru the month just because I said I would. DOH!

Noel

We're getting the remnants of Hurricane Noel today. Its incredibly windy and rainy. My kids and I stayed in our pajamas all day. My husband had to go to work so he had to get dressed and face the storm.
But the rest of us lurked around the house all day. I watched HGTV and crocheted. It was excellent.

New Black Belts

This saturday is Black Belt Spectacular-(graduation to BB). It was a pretty large group this time going up in rank and most of them are going to 2nd, 3rd and 4th degree. I heard the practical exam was challanging. After their 3 mile run, they came back to the dojo, got in their gi's and began to spar. Not challenging enough for Kyoshi just "as is" though, and he turned off all the lights. And thats how they sparred for 2 hours. In the dark. No one broke anything, there were no injuries. Big congratulations to G. She's the only adult going for Shodan and she deserves it. She's an awesome student. Always a good attitude, never whiney, always tries her best. And-she's excellent at sparring. I'm so proud of her.

every day for a month

I'm taking on the NaBloPoMo challange. Thanks for the invite BBM! I'm certainly not a daily blogger but I am up for the challange. Yikes! who knows what I'll be talking about...

Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Please click the link every day to help!

yep, I did miss a lot

I knew I was going to fall behind. Apparantly, its been all about bunkai the past couple months. Kyoshi has been teaching Passai Sho bunkai. I've only seen this done a couple times, never actually did it myself, though. There are a couple really vicious takedowns in this bunkai-one of which you end up flat on your face. We've also been working more on Pinan Sandan bunkai. I've only done this one a couple times. I hate being behind. I went to class on Wednesday and we did bunkai for most of the class-(not passai sho, though) It was good to review these. We did the bunkai for Naihanchi Shodan oyo, Pinan Shodan oyo, Pinan Yondan oyo, and Pinan Shodan (non-oyo) and then a bit of Pinan Sandan.
sigh. I'll catch up, right?

finally

So I finally got back to class on Saturday. It felt great. I went to weapons class and reviewed the 5 bo kata I knew, then to regular class at noon. The warm up alone almost knocked me on my butt. We did mostly kata after that which was fine by me. We did all 5 kihon kata as a group then broke into smaller groups by rank to work on whatever kata we needed to. I worked with another shodan who has come back after several years hiatus. I remember her from when my son was a little white belt and she was on the STORM team. So we worked on Kusanku Dai. I know this kata pretty well now and soon I'll be starting Gojushiho. That one looks really complicated to me, but I will need it for Nidan. Lots of weird angles and new moves and its really long (54 count, which is what the name translates to...eek!)
My muscles were so sore on sunday but a good sore. I've missed that. :)

i'm it!-7 random facts

So, I've been tagged..by Supergroup7..Here are 7 random facts about me...

1. I have 9 1/2 toes

2. I used to be a hair colorist on Newbury St in Boston

3. I hate asparagus.

4. Both of my children have ADHD (without the hyperactivity)

5. My favorite things to occupy my time are karate (no, really?) gardening, and crocheting.

6. I love power tools

7. My birthday is on Halloween (turning 40 this year! eeek)

Tagging you P-Fist!!

Karate movies

I saw a cool movie last night. It was called Karate Bullfighter and it starred Sonny Chiba. I love Sonny Chiba movies. I have a collection of them. Streetfighter, Return of Streetfighter, even Streetfighters last Revenge (horrible movie) Also, Sister Streetfighter which stars Sue Shiomi and Sonny Chiba. That one is my favorite. Shiomi is amazing. One of the best things about these movies is the fake blood. So hilarious! That and the sound effects.
I love that Chiba was in Kill Bill, too. Anyway, in Karate Bullfighter, it was really cool to see Chiba and his student in the film doing Paipuren (or a variation) which is the White Crane kata I learned in association camp this summer. So there I am, all by myself, watching this movie and totally giddy saying out loud...I KNOW THAT!! I LEARNED THAT!!
so there you go...that is a brief snapshot of my sunday evening. If you ever get a chance to watch some of these, especially the Streetfighter series, I highly recommend them. Not only to see the expertise of these martial artists, but to have a good laugh at the same time.

I have been away from the dojo for about a month. Its killing me. Because of family issues and the need for me to be a presence at home I've had to prioritize. And of course family comes first. However, things are getting better, and Frotoe needs some karate in a major way. I feel like a blob. Mentally and physically. I haven't even been practicing much at home until this past week. (although I think about karate constantly) I feel like I've lost so much learning time. Uck.

the "and stuff"

I know I haven't posted in a while. Things have been busy. But for your viewing pleasure, here are some things I'm crocheting.


here's my first (successful) hat. its crocheted out of some sort of shoelace type ribbony stuff.

here's another one.

and another one. I think I should get someone to model these for me next time..

ear warmer..

a (very lopsided) scarf. Although I think i hid the lopsided part in this picture.

I've got some more, too. I'll post them later.

enjoy! (but be kind :)

Comments

You may have noticed that I have deleted my last post about nunchucku. That is because an "anonymous" idiot left this long, rude, freakish comment that has NOTHING to do with martial arts and somehow made it impossible for me to delete. So that no one else would have to read the crap that he posted, I felt I needed to just delete the whole post. I have also turned back on the comment moderation at least for the time being. some people just have nothing better to do than sabotage a person's blog.

Black Belt Challange

This is the 2nd year for the Black Belt Challange, my first one. We have one month and these are Kyoshi's challanges.

Run- 50 miles
Kata-practice 1 either Naihanchi kata or Chinto or Jion~ 100 times. I don't know Jion, so I'm doing Naihanchi Sandan.
Weapons- practice any weapons kata~ 100 times
Crunches- 3000
Spar- 20 rounds-2 minutes each
Power kicks- (must be against a pad or target) Front kicks, side kicks, rearleg roundhouse, back kicks~ 500 each leg (total 4000)
Teaching- teach an underbelt a kata/kumite/or bunkai so that they can do it on their own.
Bunkai- Pinan Godan or Pinan Sandan ~ practice 20 times in a han
Cardio- take 4 cardio kickboxing classes
Wellness- take 2 budokan and 1 tai-chi class
Grappling- learn grappling drill #1
Do 3 things in your home to "go green"
Refer a student
Read- either Weaponless Warriors or You don't need a title to be a Leader.
Atomic pushups- no particular number, get a baseline, set a goal and try to meet it. These are done with your legs in a type of stirrup-off the ground. Sensei T has set the record at 62. I'll be lucky if I can do 5. I can't even describe how these pushups look. they are evil.

So, this challange lasts only for the month of August. AND~ these challanges must be done on your own time. So any sparring that you do in class.....DOESN'T COUNT! same with crunches, kata, etc. WAH! I don't know how I'm going to spar 20 rounds on my own time..but I will do all that I can do.

Sparring

We had sparring on wednesday. We also have it for the next couple weeks. I'm kind of glad. I need to get myself back and comfortable with sparring. I need to get my cardio level back up to where it should be. I would also like to get rid of these arm guards. I love them, I feel safe wearing them, but they also retain a lot of heat. I think this week, I'll bring them but leave them to the side. Most of the people who I'm sparring now will not break my arm. (a rib, maybe...heh heh). Anyway, I don't spar armbreaker anymore, he is never in the class I go to. It was a unique incident and probably will never happen again. right? right.