First off, the whole family made it to the Apprentice Black Belt level after the last grading. That Tuesday class before the grading really clinched it. Master Needham had us go through all of the forms really, really, really fast. First off, I stand corrected. My muscles do know the forms since my brain was only focused on not falling down by the end of it. There’s this feeling after about the 10th form where you start to feel like you’re floating, and you’re not aware that your feet are still actually moving. But they must be since you aren’t bumping into any of the other blurs of motion around you.
There are two things that I learned from that class; 1) 40 minutes of karate class at “hem” speed is the ultimate workout. Never sweated so much in my life, never felt closer to a heart attack, and never felt so good when it was over. 2) Apparently, “hem” speed which I always thought meant fast, really means “ultra light” speed. Meaning you are going to feel ultra light when you’re done.
After the grading when we got our Apprentice Black Belts, this little thing called life happened. We decided to take the summer off from karate since the kids were going to be in summer camp and my husband was going to a reunion with his family out west. One of the nice things about our school is that there are no contracts so you can have life interruptions and then get back in the swing of things when you’re ready.
It was the getting back into the swing of things that is proving to be difficult. During the summer off we didn’t really practice much, or at all. Feeling guilty about taking the full summer off, we went to class in the beginning of September. Unfortunately for us, it was a Needham class again. As normal with a Needham class, it started out with a grueling 100 jumping jacks and going through all of the forms like our class before grading. To my surprise, I wasn’t feeling light headed or forgetting the forms. Gotta love that muscle memory! Then the dreaded words were uttered, “Go put on your sparring gear”.
Not like I hate sparring (no, not meJ), but it occurred to me that I hadn’t washed my mouth guard for the entire summer and who knows when I washed it before that. So, I suited up with all of my pads, gloves, and boots and very gingerly placed my mouth guard in my mouth and tried to ignore the little tangy taste. What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger, or at least I kept telling myself that.
After being warmed up with line sparring, Master Needham called me up to spar with his daughter. Looking back now, my guess is she didn’t take the summer off like I did. We almost immediately got tangled up when I went to throw a front kick. Of course, I threw it with my bad knee which felt like it popped out of place and afterward it just didn’t want to pop back in. I tried doing a little dance, shake it, snapped it really hard, nothing worked. That’s when I realized that Master Needham was waiting, patiently, but still waiting for me to finish with my little knee snapping dance. Sorry, forgot which class I was in, oh dance is next door, right; let’s get back to karate.
When I sat back down after the match, my 11 year old daughter tells me that Master Needham’s daughter is a lot like him when it comes to sparring. They are like Praying Mantis. “Do go on and enlighten me,” I replied. They are very still while waiting for their prey, and then slowly inch forward. If you don’t get out of their way, then once they are in range they strike very quickly and then it’s all over. “Ok, honey.” Mental note, check the Kung Fu Panda DVD to see if it needed to be replaced because she obviously was watching it way too much. As we watched Master Needham fight other students, I started to see her point. He did fight like a Praying Mantis. After a while I could actually tell when he felt like he was in range to strike. Move, dummy, he’s about to strike. Move! Too late. And another point would go to Needham. Hmm…mental note, watch Kung Fu Panda.
Since that class we haven’t been able to go to karate. It pains me to write this, but we won’t be going to any karate classes for a while. Due to all of our schedules, we weren’t able to get to class in any type of regularity as a family; especially since the amount of classes were reduced to two days a week. We sat down as a family and discussed what the options were, and decided that “We started this as a family and we want to go together as a family.” So, we’re going to try to practice as a family at home when we do have time.
So, another life interruption, sigh. However, I look at it as another chapter in my Karate Journey; the one where we try to be disciplined and practice at home as a family and learn from each other. I’ll let you know how it goes.
- Wendy Austin
* This blog is dedicated to Rosanna wherever you may be. Thanks for reaching out and contacting me. I’m glad to hear that others can catch Karate fever just as easily as we did. And if you want that white belt, then why not? Join a class. It’s the most fun you’ll have in your adult life, and why should it be only for the kids.
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