That’s right, I’ve finally said it. Master belts are scary! Most people believe the Hollywood version where the grand master or teacher is almost a parental figure. Let me tell you, that is just not true.
In my previous blog on tournaments, I explained how nervous I was when I found out that Master Needham was the head judge. Master Needham is scary. During one of our classes, we were line sparring and Master Needham joined one of the lines. When it was my turn to spar with him, he started out by grabbing my fist when I tried to punch him and finally stopped the match. Then he goes and hits me on the shoulder, and tells me to hit him on the shoulder. For the rest of the sparring match we just sat there hitting each other’s shoulders. I’m sure there was some meaning to this, but it was lost on me. I was too busy trying to determine how hard I should really hit him. He is after all the top belt at our school and should have some respect. I did get something out of it however, a very sore shoulder. Master Needham hits hard!
Then there is Grand Master Cheezic. During one of his visits, he talked about how sparring in the old days was without gloves, boots, or head gear. Then in a nostalgic voice, he said that it was quite the blood bath back then. Uh, gross! Speaking of gross, we found a video on a master belt that was able to hold up buckets of water from steel pins inserted into his forearms. It must be all of that Chi that I keep hearing about. Another Grand Master belt demonstrated how he is able to break a board with just his hand on the brick. Awesome, I would like to break things by just placing my hand on it! So, how would you go about training for something like that? I would love to be able to, but if I’ve got to do finger push-ups or something like that maybe I’ll settle for the palm heel instead.
Then there’s Master Landry, our own Master Belt who normally isn’t scary unless you get her mad, or she catches you off guard. While doing drills for speed, she was walking through the lines and correcting people on their kicks and punches. Perfectly harmless, right? She was in our row, and gave the next command. Thinking that she had gone to the next row, I turned my head away from her, and squealed like a little piggy when she grabbed my leg in the middle of the kick. I’ve got to keep remaining myself; don’t turn your back on an upper belt. Never, ever. Bad, unexpected things can happen.
I’ve found out that Black belts aren’t that much better. It really is true that Black Belts are just Master Belts in training in more ways than one. I think when they get into those Black Belt sessions with the Master Belts they start to cook up devious ideas for us Under-belts. I’m still trying to figure out why we need to learn how to roll around on the floor. I thought it was bad enough doing it from a kneeling position. One day we had to learn to roll from a standing up position. You’ve got to be kidding me. I stood there and looked down at the mat, and I swear that my body was at least ten feet from that ground. Never mind that I haven’t grown a single inch since I was 15, and I know the exact distance from my head to the floor. It was definitely ten feet that day to get to that mat. You know how I knew that I did the roll correctly? Everyone clapped and every spot on my back and shoulder hurt after doing it. Then the instructor remains us that we are doing this on mats on a carpeted floor. Imagine if we were outside on the asphalt. Hmm… Let’s leave it at that, just an imagination.
Then there’s the Black belt instructor that always manages to do kicking drills even when the theme for the month is something entirely different! I think of that class as my bottom toning session for the week since my backside is killing me for at least a couple of days afterward. The scary part is that he loves to practice the kicks with us and breaking them down step by step. After about hundred kicks on one side, I’m lucky to get my leg in the air; I’m not too concerned about whether I went to the 45° vs. straight, or whatever else.
The last scary thing a Black Belt did was during sparring. Sparring is always a little scary to begin with, but this Black Belt took it a step further. I went to kick him with a side kick (after all I had practice a bunch of kicks the day before) and then I was turned around looking the other direction. Not only was it disorienting, but I wasn’t sure if I was the one who spun the wrong way or if he had magically appeared behind me instead of in front of me. As it turned out, he just took my leg and spun me on my own foot while my leg was up in the air. Didn’t know you could do that to another person; much less have it done to me. Apparently, I wasn’t fast enough for him and he was having some fun with me. Oh, I can’t wait to be an upper belt and have this type of fun, but first I’ll have to learn their tricks.
J
- Wendy Austin
Please keep reading! Below are some links to my past blogs as well as a link to the new community forum where YOU too can post your own comments and experiences with karate.
· Karate - Martial Arts Community Forum (IMA students and parents have a special area in this forum to discuss classroom ideas.)
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