My Name's Not Tigger

Because Tigger's bounce. And I don't.

I'm talking about all that jumping up and down during kumite. I hate that stuff - not because I CAN'T do it but because I don't WANT TO do it. It's got nothing to do with my knees (they are old, but they can still move when I need them to) or my asthmatic lungs (which are well-medicated and controlled, thank you very much) - but because bouncing is NOT fighting, it's bouncing - plus it seems to waste lots of energy (a direct violation of my former sensei's "six calorie rule" - about how much effort I want to use to end the fight while hoping my adversary uses much more) - but that is the name of the game in sports karate kumite, it seems.

Because I don't bounce, I got my head (and my butt and a few other body parts, LOL) handed to me in the opening round of kumite Grand Championships in my first KRANE circuit tournament yesterday. Don't misunderstand, I'm mobile - just not all "Bouncy Tag" and stuff. Considering it was my WORST FIGHT EVER (and that includes my very first kumite competition eight years ago where I promptly got DQ'ed for excessive head contact), I might hafta re-think my "No Bounce" rule - especially if I want to give this sports karate circuit thing a shot. Not having sparred since my last local tournament in October, I felt out of my element anyway, which was terrible - just like it was in that first team sparring tournament all those years ago. It. Was. AWFUL.

Trouble is, I'm a bit of a traditionalist in that I like techniques to at least sort of look the same during point fighting (kumite) and presentation (kata) as they do in the dojo. No extreme embelishments and no kiai-like sounds on every. single. technique; No glitter weapons and no musical kata (which are cool - just not my thing), either. But I also understand that I need to do something different if I want to net different results. Sigh...

Although I didn't begin karate to compete, competing IS sorta in my blood. For 24 years, I trained 5 to 6 days a week, concluding said week with a meet from November through July. Of course track and field and karate are totally different animals, but I hafta admit that the idea of competing against others my age (and usually younger, as was the case yesterday) intrigues me - so much so that I have decided to go a NASKA tournament in a few weeks, which means I gotta figure out a way around or through this thing if I'm going to step in the ring in sparring gear and a helmet.

Ironically, my kata went pretty well yesterday - which usually isn't the case (because I tend to get very nervous and rush through my form when presenting to the judges). I was the only 40-49-year-old female black belt in the traditional forms division, but I presented anyway. I would have won without presenting it, but I figured doing the "no contest" round would help set the butterflies free before the Grand Championship got underway. I finished 6th out of 7 competitors (black belt winners from other age divisions) but I think I did the best I could for that day. The only thing I'm bummed about with kata was that I didn't follow my game plan and presented a different form than I originally intended because, well, I got nervous and ended up settling for my "back pocket" kata (the one I know I can smooth out and compete with no matter what). The other kata - a Shotokan form with a whole lot of back stances (mine still need work because there aren't any in Goju or Goju-Ryu) and some spinning one-legged stuff - had me doubting whether I could get through it without a major bobble or even a slip. Yeah, I was a bit of a mental mess yesterday for sure.

But now that I've done it - and no fire and brimstone fell from the sky when I got my booty kicked and actually lost a fight - I know what to expect next time. I learned some things and took some stuff home to work on.

But to bounce or not to bounce? That is the question....

Leg Work

Earnestly dipping my toes into Goju-Ryu - the root of USA Goju, the style I've studied now for eight years. The classes are great and we do lots of two-person sparring and bunkai drills and tear apart kata a like you wouldn't believe, working stances and bettering footwork. Then I jump in my car and drive the hour home. No biggie, really (been doing the long travel to get to and from class for over five years now, so I'm used to it), but tonight when I walked up those six stairs that lead to my front door, my legs felt...different. OK, they felt tired as all get out - a lot like they do after a good "leg day" at the gym. Of course I tried to figure out why I felt like I'd squatted when I hadn't and then it hit me: we'd done lots of shiko dachi (horse stances) in class. Seems like all that bending at the knees will tax even the most well-conditioned quad - fancy that!

My old lady knees held up fine, but my quads are shot. I have a feeling I might be a bit sore tomorrow. I know it sounds like I'm whining, but I'm actually kinda liking being sore the day after a good, taxing workout. It's a great reminder of the fun had the day prior - and I really like feeling that as soon as I swing my feet over the side of the bed in the morning.

I love learning this martial stuff! I hope that feeling never, ever goes away...

Finding My Inner Yogi

My beloved is a track coach. That means he spends lots and lots of weekends watching kids run around or jump/throw things inside a big oval. That also means he usually leaves our home on Saturday mornings between November and June at the crack of dawn to get to said oval. Because I like to help him get out of the door, make him breakfast and wish him well, I'm usually up at the crack of dawn with him.

Since going back to sleep after he's backed out of the driveway is nearly impossible for me, I usually find something to do - like read, jump on my iPad or sort laundry (what an exciting life I lead, eh?!?) - before I really need to start my day, but last weekend, I just didn't feel like doing anything other than watching a little TV. While surfing the 500+ channels our satelite company charges us for - I mean, PROVIDES us with - I stumbled across a woman talking about the benefits of yoga. Soon, she spread out her mat and talked her audience through a few poses. As I was already wide awake and intrigued, I slid the coffee table back and kicked off my slippers.

Years ago, I'd taken a few yoga classes and thoroughly enjoyed them, but I never kept up with it any longer than it took to undo my legs from lotus position, roll up the mat I'd borrowed and head to my car. My television guide was actually targeting the hips and added some interesting stretches before wrapping the workout up with some relaxation - and ironically, my right hip has been a little sore after gym days (which was the day before for me). I was kind of amazed at how much it had loosened by the end of the impromptu class.

Some of the poses were harder than others, I admit. More than a couple of them had me asking if my guide's body actually contained any bones at all. A few of them had me completely out of balance, rolling off of whatever body part I was supposed to be balanced on and collapsing into a laughing heap on the floor. My dog seemed to enjoy those the most, LOL.

Although I couldn't do everything with the grace, poise and, well, conviction of my virtual instructor, I noticed that I was able to do the one thing she seemed to focus most: breathing - as in when to inhale and exhale, as well as focusing on filling the abdomen with air. Thinking about all that while moving from one pose to another wasn't as hard as I anticipated (confession: I am neither the epitome of the "natural" athlete or the best multi-tasker when it comes to doing physical movements) - probably because of all the do-this-with-your-hands-while-doing-this-with-your-legs-and-screaming practice I've gotten over the years with kata and kihon. What I did find difficult was doing the movements while WATCHING - like scoping my belly's rise and fall with my chin tucked to my chest and my legs touching the floor over my shoulders (don't even ask what pose that was; all I could hear was the blood thudding in my ears). Karate calls for lots of looking up and out, not down and in. But I can see the compliment yoga can be to karate training, because balance as well as proper breathing are staples and flexibility is more important than it looks. The literal meaning of the word "yoga" is "to add," "to join," "to unite," or "to attach." How fitting :-)

Later that Saturday - after karate - I headed out and bought a yoga mat (so I don't slip and slide all over the living room carpet again next weekend) and a yoga basics book/DVD (so I can do a little hatha yoga even when I can't catch my television instructor). Figuring I can give trying to watch my mid-section expand another whirl.

Gotta Be In It to Win It

I'm happy to report that I am "between schools" no more! I will be settling down in a new dojo next week. Because my karate flux lasted much longer than I thought, I feel like I just hit the daggone lottery!

My last visit to my old dojo was in early Fall. Although my attendance had slowed from twice a week EVERY week to about twice a month since summer had ended, it totally stopped one October evening. It was then that it became perfectly clear that the environment/vibe in my learning school was not, shall we say, conducive to my well-being. That was the night I decided that it was time to let go and move on.

So, yeah, I'd visited a few schools in the area, all with Okinawan roots, but none of them had quite what I was looking for. Keeping my rank was not important as I have more than a few white belts from new gis laying around, LOL - but I did want a school with some semblance of rei that wasn't a McDojo but that also offered some kobudo - specifically tonfa. Trust and believe I found a little bit of everything in my travels - and some of it was pretty frightening. It came to a point where I was either going to have to travel pretty far to train or settle for something that simply didn't completely jibe with how I wanted to continue on this path.

Basically, I wanted a knowledgable instructor who left his/her ego and the rest of the world outside of the dojo door with his/her shoes. I wanted a sensei who had been on the path for a while, but could still lead the training session by physical example. I wanted someone who was human, because Lord knows I certainly am. I'm thinking that I may have finally found what I was looking for.

I still will have to travel a bit (about 50 minutes each way) - but, heck, when you live in The Boondocks, you get kind of use to traveling to find things outside of normal small town fare. The fees are reasonable and, best of all, I'll be walking into a place where there are other black belts training besides the instructor (believe it or not, that was NOT the theme at my previous spots and I didn't realize the significance of that until some time later, unfortunately). Some of the students have been training with the sensei for 20 years, which is totally cool, I think.

So, we'll see how it goes. But it feels good to be optimistic about karate again - and to look forward to training once more, it really does.

Hey - I could be on a roll, you never know. Perhaps I should play the lottery today :-)

For the Love of Movement: An Ode to Newton's Second Law

Last Friday, my throat was a little scratchy. On Sunday morning, the voice was totally gone. By Monday - Christmas Eve (which meant everything, including my doctor's office, closed early) - I had chills and dizziness. When I finally was able to get in to see the doc two days later, I found out I had a flu-like virus + a bacterial respiratory infection AND a lovely oral fungal infection. I had hit the germ trifecta - and left the pharmacy with a bag full of stuff to help make two of those nasty critters go away.

I've slept more in the past week than I even thought possible. Trips down the hall to the bathroom or kitchen felt more like marathons than simple walks. My appetite fell off (one meal of chicken with rice soup a day was all I could muster) and showering to change into fresh PJs took all the strength I had, I was so totally void of energy. I was really, really sick.

Suffice to say, I didn't train during my almost week in microbial hades. Usually, forced breaks from training make me cagey, but this one wasn't so bad. I guess all the sleeping made free time I could have used for training non-existant, really. But in addition to helping my body shore its resources and prepare to fend off the germ invasion, the sleep had another therapeutic value: I actually dreamed about karate a lot. Kata, bunkai, evasion/counter techniques, kihon - yep, all of it frequently made appearances in my REM cycle. My body may not have been physically able to do anything martial, but that didn't stop my mind, I guess. That's kinda cool, I think.

Since today was the first day in the last few that I woke up feeling almost kinda normal, I actually did push-ups, air squats and kata! It feels like it's been so long since I've done that and I had a brief moment of panic - like suppose I can't remember how or simply can't push my body off the ground? - but it passed quickly. There's something quite liberating about actual movement, y'know? Reading (or dreaming) about kata is one thing, but actually doing it is something else entirely. It's very profound.

If this upward health trend continues, I might actually do - gasp! - some abdominal work tomorrow, who knows? An object in motion and all that...

Sexist Bull...Shido

This flyer was posted on FaceBook by my friend, Kate. An international and national kata and weapons champion, she competes regularly on the NASKA (North American Sports Karate Association) circuit but almost always has to travel to other states to do it - which can be expensive and time-consuming (if she has to drive). So she was understandably excited that a local tournament (only about an hour away) was offering cash prizes for female kata black belt grand champions. I was kinda jazzed about the kumite prize money myself - until I read the flyer a little closer and saw that while the men's black belt grand champions stood to win $500, the women could only win $250. She said that as unfortunate as it was, it was also sort of the norm in tournament land because there are usually close to three times as many men competing as women.

Wow...

Now, I understand the economics of promoting and running a successful tournament - cover your overhead (space rental, insurance and award costs) without going in the red - but I hafta admit that I was quite taken aback by the blatant award disparity - especially since the entry fee - a whopping $75 at the door - is the same for everyone.

I found the promoter's page and asked him why women GCs were only going to be awarded half as much as the men. He wrote:

"Please don't take it as disrespect but the Women Division is too small to generate the [same] cash award. Most promoters don't offer money for a Women's Grand Champion, not out of disrespect but generally, your second round is for the Grand because of the lack of women in the division. Small tournaments in quality locations are hard to generate prize money. I am doing my best to fix all the issues with New York tournaments [and] prize money is at the top of the list."

I admire his honesty and his efforts, but the excuse seems to be...well...just that. I've never competed in NASKA or KRANE-rated tournaments, but the local and regional ones I have competed in have never given anything but equal awards for men and women, be they 6' tall trophies, shinny cups, gold/silver/bronze medals, artful plaques or prize money (check out the Ocean State Grand Nationals tourney's award listing for instance). Truthfully, I'm not sure I could, in good conscience, compete in a tournament where women earned less than men in the same categories.

Usually how it works in local tournaments is this: black belt divisions are split by age group (18 to 29, 30 to 39, 40 to 49 and 50+). Martial artists in each division compete against each other then the winners go head-to-head for grand championship in kata, kumite and weapons. In all fairness, I've competed where there were 10 women in the 40-49-yr-old group for kata and weapons but only three for kumite, meaning there are only two fights to win before qualifying for the Grand Championship - but I've also had to fight four rounds before GCs - and in the championship fight, there are more rounds (two instead of one) that are longer. Imagine working your booty off to win the title only to be told your victory is worth half as much as the person in the next ring who did the same simply because he happens to be a guy. Exactly - so forgive me if I appear offended by that concept.

The promoter of next October's tourney said that if there are as many female competitors in the black belt divisions as in the male divisions, he will make the prizes equal, but whether that means the same number of competitors or having to fight the same number of rounds to make it to Grand Championships wasn't clear. And honestly, why should it take all that? If it's about the money, why even bother to award cash prizes at all? If the goal is to increase the number of female black belt competitors, why not send the "we really want you to come!" message by taking what is available for prize money, putting it into one pot and splitting it equally between the men and women (and children, for that matter)? Or how about halving the marketing budget by nixing the full-color glossy posters up there and using some of those ducats towards prize equity? It doesn't seem that hard to me at all, really. Am I missing something here?

And here's the kicker: other female competitors didn't really seem too phased by the idea of lower prize money for women. A few of them even said it's what they expect because it's ALWAYS been that way. One young woman even commented that since she considers the male black belt fights "more entertaining" to watch, she thought they should earn more (I had to re-read her comment a few times just to make sure I understood her correctly). And to them I say this: just because we have been conditioned to accept less, it doesn't mean we should - and if we do, we will always be awarded less. It's just that simple.

BTW, guess who's planning on putting together an all-female tournament next October? :-)

Delving into "The Way to Black Belt"

This is a re-print from our school's blog:

Although one of our students finished "The Way to Black Belt" by Lawrence A. Kane and Kris Wilder a week after she got it and others are in the throws of finishing the first few chapters, no one has been able to put their thoughts about it on paper yet. So for now, let's start with mine.

It's interesting reading the first two chapters as both a karate student and an instructor - especially since I instruct and get instruction in two different schools. And as I'm currently looking for some way to change my learning environment (specifically: expanding into more kobudo and eventually traditional Okinawan Goju-ryu), the book came at just the right time for me.

I'm currently a nidan in USA Goju so earning a black belt is not my goal, but the information detailed in chapter one - on knowing what to look for in a potential school and instructor as well as setting/reaching goals - is most useful. While I'm transitioning, Iain Abernathy's  SMART technique - or creating goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-bound - has fast become my mantra. It and the "action plan" listing at the end of chapter one are also helping me figure out whether my current struggle in my learning environment is simply a training plateau or something else all together. I'm a bit more earnest in jotting down specifics in my training log as a result.

Next week marks my foray into seeking additional instruction by visiting area dojos. Reviewing "Chapter 2: Find a Good Instructor" has between helpful - mostly because I found my first school (which I left shortly after earning my black belt) by total happenstance as the class met weekly in the community center where I worked. But it's also helping me when I wear my "Sensei" hat as I strive to ensure that I embody those "characteristics of an exemplary instructor" outlined in the chapter.

I'm just starting to move through "Chapter 3: Know How You Learn" but for me, it's been so far, so good :-)