On the day of the grading, I wasn’t as nervous as the first grading, but there was definitely a flutter in my stomach. The grading itself wasn’t very memorable except when Grand Master Cheezic demonstrated some of the ways to apply the self defense forms. It was interesting to see that not only was he blocking the punches and advances, but was grabbing the person’s arm as well. I’m assuming that this was to control the situation which makes sense, but since we don’t practice the self-defense forms on another person it’s hard to see how it might help in a real situation.
Once we got our blue belts, there were some adjustments that needed to be made. For my husband, this was the first belt that was “new” for him. Up to this point, he was re-using the belts that they he had received in college. For myself, I was surprised at how long my belt was. I’m pretty sure the belt shouldn’t hang below your knees. During the first class after the grading, I was doing jumping jacks and my belt kept hitting me in the face. Then during stretching, I realized that my belt could stretch further than I could! My belt was going to my ankles; my hands were closer to my shins.
Which brings me to an update on my goals for starting karate; I’ve lost 34 pounds since starting the Institute of Martial Arts. Most of my clothes at this point are either falling off of me or are extremely baggy. When I do buy new clothes, I’m 4 sizes smaller than when I started!
During warm ups, I’m now able to do about 7 push-ups without needing to drop to the floor, and the crunches are definitely easier. Stretching is the only thing that doesn’t seem to be improving during the warm ups. We have one instructor who tells us to grab your ankles or touch your toes while doing a spread eagle. How about shins, is that an option? When we try butterfly stretches, he asks us to put our nose to our toes. Not that I want to smell my own feet, but it would be nice to at least get past my chest. I end up staring at my stomach.
Speaking of my stomach, one evening I was changing for bed and noticed that I had these lumps under my rib cage. This started to freak me out since they were slightly sore and I’ve never had these lumps before. When I asked my husband what he thought they might be, his reply was abdominal muscles. Cool! I’m starting to get a washboard stomach. Ok, maybe not. After feeling all over the rest of my stomach, I realized I’m about 4 cans short of a six pack. Apparently, I need to start doing more of a sit up than a crunch to get the rest of the muscles required for a rippling stomach. Since starting Karate, I have learned more about my muscles groups than at any other time in my life, including learning about some muscles that I never even knew existed.
One such muscle group is in my toes, they are called the flexor digitorum longus, flexor digitorum brevis, lumbrical and interossei muscles. During every Friday class, these muscles decide that they are out of balance. So, during any kick, form, or whatever else we are doing in class, they tighten up and cause me to have a mallet toe.
I’ve decided that it probably has something to do with wearing high heels all day at work and then going to karate, but I’m determined to not give up the heels. I’ve already started to keep my nails shorter, and can’t see myself wearing anything else but heels at work. Of course, when my middle toe decides that it can’t take it halfway through Pyung Ahn Ee Dan (form five), I always do a quick re-evaluation of my lack of sensible shoes for work. But then again, I like freaking out my kids with my “stuck” toe. It points downward at a 45 degree angle from the big toe for about 1 to 2 minutes. So, for now I’ll just deal with it.
As for my continued karate journey, the last tournaments of the year were coming up, and there was a lot of preparation being done in the school for them. I might have mentioned before that I’ve never been in a sport, and certainly never competed in any sport either through high school, college, or otherwise. So, at the tender age of 37 years old, I was willingly signing up for a martial arts tournament. What was I thinking? More to come on this in the next blog…
- 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.)
