evergrey

I love my tameshiwari! It helps me gauge how my focus is doing, and how my technique is coming along, without breaking my classmates, haha! Well except the time I accidentally broke a couple ribs. D: I still feel bad about it, even though she smiles and laughs and said "this lump is yours!" Anyway, pads and heavy bags also don't hit back. They are also training tools, however. They make for sustainable training. This is a good thing. And did I mention fun?

OSU, at my dojo, the instructor actually gave the whole student body a writing assignment. They were to research the meaning of OSU and write about it, and what it meant to them. Unfortunately, a good number of the adults didn't ever do it. I guess they decided they were too old to have to study something or write something? Well, they missed out. I loved doing it. It means a lot to me. I wish everyone paid attention instead of just mouthing the sounds. OSU.

Hmm, I was doing kumite on my second day of class, though I had been training for a few months before I got to the dojo. Other white belts usually go a month or so before participating in kumite, IF they have no previous striking experience. You might find a knockdown style dojo to be more to your liking. I travel 45 minutes to get to my dojo, BTW.

Haha, you are awesome. I'm doing weight training at a gym to grow stronger, myself. :} Now a new and improved routine that my Shihan put me on. He hated what Sensei had me doing, lol!

Powerlifting is what my Shihan trains in. His arms are 23 inches around, lol! But he knows to stretch before and after, and he is lithe and fast and graceful, despite being inhumanly strong. Most knockdown fighters I've chatted with have agreed that weight lifting is important when training for fighting. I've started doing it myself. It suuuuuucks. But it feels good too.

Doesn't sound like a flashback to me. Sounds like a reality check type event that really left an impression with you- it's normal and natural to think about that a lot. Use it as a reminder to take your training seriously, and you will be okay. That being said, CBT might not be a bad idea. OSU! (Speaking as someone with pretty severe PTSD, who gets flashbacks, it can be really bad, heh. Very very bad. Depends on the person and how their brain is affected and where they're at.)

I once got a failing grade on an essay test worth a very large percent of my grade because I said that the man was poorly-traveled and anti-semetic. That instructor just LOVED him and wrote at the end "you obviously didn't pay attention to my lecture." Yes, yes I did, but I disagreed with it. Her name was "Mrs. Hunt." That's not quite what we called her in the halls...

I just met a Kyokushin guy who started training when he was 51. He's 61 now.

Back in the day, some 30-odd years ago, our Shihan told my Sensei that he never wanted to go above 3rd Dan. He said something like "up to 3rd Dan are the fighting ranks. Above that, it's all politics. I'm a fighter. I want to train, and fight. I hate politics." Now he's a 7th dan, though I've heard he went kicking and screaming through all those ranks, heh. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me. I know it involves testing and years spent and maybe teaching experience or what one has done to contribute. In my style it really differs wildly from organization to organization... and a lot of the old school people who trained under Mas Oyama have never tested after he passed, and didn't want rank under anyone else. For me, as a 6th kyu (oh yeah, passed my ranking test, and got it today!) I sort of look at the stripes and categorize them in terms of how hard the kumite will be. In my mind see them like I do chili peppers on a Northern Chinese food menu. 1 pepper/stripe = pain. 2 peppers/stripes = more pain. 5 peppers = OH GOD IT HURTS 7 peppers = MAYBE IT WILL BE OVER FAST AND THEN THERE WILL BE A TUNNEL AND LIGHT. I guess I'm just sort of practical-minded like that.

Honestly, while I can appreciate a kata done well, with exceptional grace and understanding of bunkai, kata competitions have always bored the living daylights out of me. It's odd, from what I've heard though, how they're judged, especially when they're cross-style competitions, so the judges might not even know if a mistake is being made. I kind of doubt Kyokushin would do well in cross-style kata competitions. We're not known for exceptionally pretty kata, lol! I... sorry, my post is not at all useful. I hate insomnia.

Kata is great, and something we learn, but we are very combat-focused in Kyokushin.

Sometimes when I'm engaged in extremely intense and heated kumite, "yame" loses it's meaning. Haha, there has been at least one time when it has slowly encroached on my consciousness, as my head instructor has shouted it while advancing on me, and looked up from my Sensei and I pummeling one another to see that everyone else was standing lined up in formation, looking at us, haha! Nothing like freezing with one hand on my instructor's throat, and his knee in my gut, and saying "oh... I think they want us to stop." Not what you meant?

Haha well, Shakespeare isn't my favorite either, truth be told. I have seen a group of 4th graders recite hamlet in monotone though. Most. Painful. Play. Ever.

Hey man, don't front Master Ken! AMERI-DO-TE!!!!!!!

Is there any Enshin? Ashihara, maybe?

OSU, I'm afraid not- I don't uh, actually own a tv, heh! And thanks! OSU!

Pertaining to the martial arts.... What makes you cry? Testing for rank, haha! I hold myself to impossibly high standards. I cry when I'm frustrated with myself, once I get into my car. I cried (once I got into my car) the first time I cracked someone's ribs. I felt like a monster. I cried once I got home, the day I snapped my ACL. It hurt and even more than that, I was scared I wouldn't ever be able to fight knockdown again. What makes you smile? Just about everything else, haha! My Sensei, teaching me. Our head instructor, cracking a joke. Shihan teasing me (I tease him right back, though I pay for it, lol!) Watching a beautiful kata. Kumite done well. Seeing someone's spirit really shine through. A classmate accomplishing something great, in or out of the dojo. Watching a master at work. Seeing a martial artist with decades of experience flow from one movement to the next, like water. When I finally LEARN something and am able to APPLY it! A clean dojo. Learning opportunities (though usually much later once the sting has passed, haha) A photo of our Sosai. A story from "back in the day," precious and told from a place of trust and love. That feeling when your blood is pumping and it's HARD work but it makes you feel so ALIVE. Stepping into the dojo. Knowing I am home, with friends and family. Everything, really. What makes you say "WOW"? When someone shows their true fighting spirit. When someone overcomes seemingly impossible odds. When someone KEEPS PUSHING way beyond what they thought they could endure. When I see my instructors fight, or even just MOVE. What makes you pause? Remembering that I need to breathe? What makes you angry? Injustice. Feeling misunderstood. Politics! POLITICS! Ugly nasty dark secrets! Lies! Bullying. Thankfully these things are rare in my dojo, or well in the past, long before my time. What makes you laugh? Getting hit really hard. No seriously, I start laughing... The jokes my instructors crack. The things that happen to people that make me think "oh man, I have SO been there!" What makes you think? Everything. Everything. I need to think less, maybe, not live in my head so much. What makes you try? I think about my horse, everything he survived, how he kept fighting, pushing, enduring, surviving abuse and injuries that would have made others die. I think of OSU- to push, and to endure. I think of how I refuse to give up, I refuse to give in, I refuse to give in to the weakness of my flesh or the fragility of my mental health. I have goals. I want to please my instructors. I want to honor the gift of knowledge they give me. I want to pass that gift along to future generations of knockdown fighters. I think of the lessons that Sosai taught, and I want to honor them as well. My spirit and my hear and my blood all sing the name of Kyokushin, and that pushing me onward and onward still. For myself, for my family, for my community, I try. What makes you surrender? Well, sometimes I will experience pain that is intense enough, and enough of a shock, that I just Have To Sit Down Right Now. That happens less and less. As for surrender though, I surrender to the will of my instructors, as much as I can, out of gratitude, love, and trust. What makes you respect? Those who give it 110%. People who can put their ego aside. People who have a good heart, who walk through this world with honor and integrity, who serve their community and their families. People who have humility and confidence both. People who balance their ability to destroy with the ability to create. People who know how to harm, and seek to heal. People who build up all those around them instead of breaking them down. Those who act like warriors, instead of thugs. People with a pure spirit. People who, against all odds, continue to push, and to endure. OSU

OSU, every single class, when Shihan goes to leave, he tells the students, "PRACTICE! OSU!" On top of that practice, however, must be focus. Mindfulness. It's like reciting Shakespeare by rote memorization, delivering it in monotone with no timing, no feel, no emotion, versus method acting, FEELING the words, conveying the passion, taking the listener THERE. I can unthinkingly throw my leg up, chamber, out, re-chamber, down, and that is technically a kick. Or I can pay attention to how every inch of my body moves with the strike, and visualize where the strike would land, and really be PRESENT with that kick. That's when the lightbulbs will (occasionally, lol, I'm a slow learner when it comes to physically doing things) flicker to life. You have to not only practice, but put 110% into that practice, just as you should in class. Always do the best you can, and you will BECOME the best you can, in that moment. Do it lazily, learn laziness, and it will show in all that you do. Things that are worth doing, are worth doing well. Preferably often. ;} OSU!

Haha Dobbersky, I was just about to post that link! OSU!

Wind got knocked out of you, eh? That's scary, Snowbat, especially the first time it happens, heh! Happened to me the first time I sparred at my dojo, lol!

Oh man me too. It took me weeks to get better from the illness that prompted this post. Still recovering, even. D:

Yeah the "we're all fighters here" hug isn't the same as a long hug... though I hug some of the other women in the dojo with a long hug.

Are you tensing your muscles over the areas that are getting hit? Like, if it's your sides, bend to the side a bit, tighten your lats.

I would have them take a short amount of time evaluating me- discussing my style of fighting, physique, etc, maybe a short sparring session, and then ask them to teach me something that isn't taught in my own style, just ONE thing, that they think would be very useful for me, that would work well for me specifically. Just one. And then work together with it, trying to get it down as well as possible.

Yeah, health and safety first! And it's just kata anyway.