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"The best laid plans of mice and men..." have gone astray here. I had every intention of getting off my rear and working out every morning, despite loaning my Wii out to a friend. Did that work? No. So much for my public accountability, right??? I fell flat for 3 days. Oh well. If you fall down, get up, brush yourself off and get back to what you were doing.
So. My plan is this: I'm going to the track tomorrow morning. It's the first of the month, first workout of the month. I'm going to start trying to run. No more of this "I hate running" thing I've had going. NO MORE telling myself "I'm allergic to running." All that does is perpetuates the negativity about the act itself. If you tell yourself something often enough, you internalize it and that's the last thing I need. What I NEED to tell myself is "I can run that mile in ten minutes."
Now that I've let it slip, may as well come straight out. As an adult of "advancing years" (44), I need to aim to run a mile within ten minutes, thirty seconds. I am overweight by a good 100 pounds too, but I WILL get to that ten minute mark!! It'll be good for me to get out and run.
I didn't do any training today other than some standing crunches. I did twenty of them this morning. That's not a lot, I know, but I was trying to work on my balance. I have a real issue with my balance when I'm trying to do some kicks. My ahp chagis are okay, but my nakse chagis leave a lot to be desired. Master F pointed out that some of us were raising our legs up, then pulling our knees in. It's something I need to work on, which I understand.
So...that's not a lot, but there you have it. Day 1--no training.
Yesterday was Open Training at the dojang. I took my son and we worked on what we needed to know. He worked on Kee Cho Hyung Il Bu while I worked on One Steps and Ho Sin Sul with one of my fellow adult students. My son also got the opportunity to work with Master G on his form and learned quite a bit. I had him write it down in a notebook when we got home so that he wouldn't forget it.
I worked on a hair grab defense with Mr. L. That was interesting because it starts from someone getting a chunk of your hair and you breaking past that. I was given pointers on using my last three fingers on my hand to break the grip (those have strength--the index finger doesn't have as much). The way it was described made a lot of sense to me. I'm sure I could get out of that type of a grab if it was absolutely necessary.
Another thing I came out of training with was falling. I worked with Ms. S on front falls and back falls. If executed properly, you will land on your forearms when you fall. You don't want to land on your wrists because you *will* break your wrists if you're falling on them. Think of the amount of force you're putting on your wrists! We practiced front falls, back falls and side falls. I don't feel TOO badly about the side falls and back falls. I need to work on releasing the energy from the fall, and the landing, but that's something I can do.
I'm looking forward to class on Tuesday now. I know it'll be another informative class.
Last night was a One Step, Ho Sin Sul and Bunkai night. The bunkai aspect I have never been exposed to before. The one steps were *slightly* intimidating, but mainly because they were "2 on 1" attacks, meaning that you had to deal with an attacker from front and back on one of the techniques and one on either side on the other. I had been concentrating on the lower one steps and had never even TRIED to get into the upper level ones, so this was really an experience. I worked with the Mr. L's and Master F. It was an eye opener. The one steps are designed to help you as if you were in a real life fight situation. I learned that I can NOT stand way back from a tall person as I'd seriously have to reach to get him or her in a fight. Not only that, but I'd also be knocked flat on my butt before that happened.
In the other one step we did (we were working on our highest ones for our testing cycle), it was an attack from the front with a person holding the defender on either side (by the arm). The attacker is throwing a kick, which the defender can use to his or her advantage. I thought about that one and am pretty sure I can duplicate it without TOO much trouble. The thing that worries me is the fall on the other one we did. I'll get to that one later.
The Bunkai aspect of class was really fun. We were to take our highest form, take a part of it and figure out the bunkai for it. I'd never thought of the forms as anything other than "forms"...they're pretty and you have to do them. I may have been taught what they meant, but I wasn't taught how to visualize and explain WHAT you are doing at any specific moment in the form. Last night opened my eyes in a totally different way.
I had to take Nahainchi Cho Dan and work on a part of that and *explain* the bunkai, what I was doing and why. Master F told all of us to remember to think it through. You can't just take a form and do the bunkai halfway. You have to mean what you're doing and use it to your advantage. If you are going to execute a block or a punch, you need to be able to explain yourself. It was that sort of thing that I don't remember doing in the past. I did enjoy the bunkai aspect of the class and will strive to remember it going forward.
After all the whining and moaning about how I had "forgotten" my forms, I wound up showing Master F my version of Bassai on Tuesday. I had an ear to ear grin on my face when I finished. I need to put myself into my own little world and just focus on me and not anyone else. If I don't, I will continue to mess up the forms. Another thing I need to remember is to relax. That will do wonders for my forms.
I feel like I've been re-earning my belts, if that makes sense. Being a Dan is not an isolated experience at BTK. You're part of a greater whole. If you need help, all you have to do is to ask and someone will help you. There is always room for improvement in anything you do. I've been trying to get my forms "fixed". I wasn't doing them wrong, just differently. Different schools have different styles. It's not "my school is right, yours is wrong."
One thing to work on is my push up requirement and my crunch requirement. We did pushups in class on Thursday. I HURT! My arms are so sore, it's not even funny! I gave myself two days off, but am going to attempt to do pushups today. I have to get my requirement in. I have to run too. I don't mind putting my running requirement on my blog...it's a mile in 10:30. My son, who is 9, has the same time requirement as me. Now if I could just get him to actually RUN around the track and not just goof off and try to roll around on the infield.
I've been doing some exercise with my Wii in an effort to work on muscle strength and toning. It's the EA Sports Active...there's a 30 Day Challenge on it. I hit 14 out of 20 workouts today. 6 more to go. There are a lot of lunges in it, which I think helps some. I hate the running part of it. If I was in a bottom floor apartment, I wouldn't have as many issues with it, but...oh well, I'm still doing it. Real life running is next on my list.
I am truly humbled when I look at other people and see the results of the YEARS of training they've put in. Case in point was yesterday at Dan Training. We did several techniques (note to self: MUST LEARN KOREAN!!!) and I felt like I was just starting out with as well as some of these people were doing their techniques. It gives me something new to work on.
Another thing was forms. We practiced the Nahainchi forms yesterday. I only know Nahainchi Cho Dan, but even that felt like I was just a newbie when I saw how others were doing the form. I realize that I have to tweak my forms to catch up to the way my school does them, but this was a huge WOW to me. They did Nahainchi Ee Dan and I had to sit out because I don't have that particular skill...YET. I loved watching the way they did it, plus I picked up some pointers. Then they moved into Nahainchi Sam Dan and again, it was an eye opener! The Masters then did Sip Soo and Jin Do. I had learned Sip Soo at my old school, but I wouldn't have felt comfortable even ATTEMPTING it in the presence of Master M and Master A! They made it look *easy*!!
We worked on Ho Sin Sul and worked on ways to break out of an attack. Again, this was an eye opening experience. I have never before consciously thought about the ways to break out of an attack, but I was thinking about it yesterday. I like learning new things and I feel like I definitely learned something new.
I wrote down what I remembered from the training and will think about it as I attend my regular classes. When I came home from training, I told my husband that I felt like my fire was re-ignited. I am finding every day a new challenge. I love the fact that I learn, that there are new things to learn.
I am getting together with my instructor and picking out a weapon to learn. I sent him a list of the weapons I currently own, that I'd be interested in. Ultimately, I think I'd like to learn the Bo, but mainly because I have two of them and I'm short...It gives me a reach on an opponent. I may not get that as a weapon of choice, but I've told him what I have at my disposal.
I also have a pair of (cheap) kamas, a pair of wooden tonfas and a pair of wooden kamas. I don't own a pair of sai (YET!), but that's also something that would be interesting to learn. Then there's the idea that a cane is also a weapon, along with the fan and other things....
As I was doing research, I found an interesting article by Scott Shaw about the Korean Long Staff. I'm interested in it and have a strong leaning toward either the bo or Haidong Gumdo (Korean sword). I should see if my brother would be interested in talking to MG about HG.
