evergrey

I am good at getting myself worked up, haha! I'm going to be on a 15 hour car ride with my sensei on Sunday. We'll see how that goes! Much scarier though is that we are visiting my parents up in Washington state (sensei has been a friend longer than he has been my sensei) and my mom wants to watch us spar. I just know it's going to freak her out, haha! Seems that I have more sponging to do- got an e-mail from Shihan this morning telling me he'd teach me some exercises the "next time I'm in class." I guess that means I'm going to go back!

I know, I am a silly person. :}

Yes, I feel very lucky! Though... should I be nervous about the fact that Sensei and Shihan play poker together and sometimes discuss me? They... they could be PLOTTING!

Thanks! Yes, I am really glad I was able to be there, and I hope I can find some way of working things out so that I can learn from him... ...even if he will probably end up beating me black and blue, repeatedly. *shakes just a little bit*

Sensei calls me "his tank," which I am very flattered by since his nickname back in the day was "tank," on account of him being so tiny but taking everything people threw at him and continuing to fight. Shihan, who trained Sensei, told him last week that everyone gets a nickname, and mine was "eevee." That's how he pronounced it, anyway. Because he couldn't remember that my name was "Ev," so he kept calling me "eevee" instead. I'm kind of hoping that the first one is the one that sticks. Wait, maybe not... Maybe I shouldn't want a nickname in Kyokushin that people will want to test.

OSU, A week ago, sensei and I went to visit his sensei, who is now shihan. They hadn't seen each other for 18 years. This was something I was really hoping would happen. Shihan White started training my sensei 32 years ago, and is in part responsible for sensei being the kind of man he is today. We'd talked about it for quite a while. I could tell that he missed his old instructor, that he respected him, and really wanted to reconnect. So when he showed up on Facebook, I might have done just a little bit of benevolent social engineering to help things along a bit... Maybe. ;} So this man is someone that sensei never managed to defeat while sparring. He is built kind of like an ent. A really buff one. He could probably tear down walls with his hands as well. He can bench press 600 pounds! I mean, he could pick up a large pony! And from the stories I was told by sensei, I was pretty convinced that he was 10 feet tall and could breathe fire. I'm still pretty sure he can breathe fire, but he's 6 feet tall. He is capable of being every bit as intimidating as I imagined. But he's also capable of being very warm and friendly. I chatted with him, and I'll admit that I challenged him a bit (no survival instinct whatsoever) but I also watched the way other people in the dojo interacted with him. They all approached him with a great deal of respect, and at least a bit of both fear and adoration. Iiiiiiinteresting! At any rate, this was my first time in a formal dojo since I was 12 or so, and I really don't remember much of anything about that. It was not a Kyokushin dojo though... it was some Okinawan style. So this was my first time in a Kyokushin dojo. I noticed that they were a LOT more strict and hard on the students than they were at the kung fu school I visited a while back. I liked the way they were doing things at this Kyokushin dojo. I only managed to get myself in trouble about three times. Honestly I thought I would get in a heck of a lot more trouble- if there's one thing I excel at, it's getting in trouble, hah! So after visiting with Shihan for an hour and a half or so, we were both given homework assignments. Shihan put me on an eating plan, and gave sensei some exercises to do in order to help with his back injury. He said "you have a month and a half to work through that injury." Then he gave us more homework- he told sensei to make sure I stayed on that eating plan, and he told me to make sure sensei was doing his exercises. I'm not sure how I can make sensei do them, but I found myself OSU-ing anyway, hah! He told us to come back to class and to bring our gis next time. We got in the car and I said "What... what just happened back there?" Sensei replied with "now do you see what I mean about him and his force of personality?" I tell you what though, we're both doing our homework! And I've lost 8 pounds... in a week. I don't even know. I guess it could be partially water weight, but I am drinking an insane amount of water now. Shihan Gary White trained under Don Buck, who trained under Mas Oyama. It's a pretty big opportunity to be taught by him... I don't know how often he teaches classes. He has a number of dojos that he goes to around the area, apparently. I'm really hoping I can take some lessons from him. I told him that I have no money for lessons and he said "we'll make it work." So we'll see what happens! But... I SURVIVED, YAY! And I think that this is going to lead to really great things... I'm going to have to learn to BEHAVE MYSELF now. Since that is probably not going to come very easily, I'm also working on my push-ups, because I have this sneaking suspicion that I am going to do a lot of them...

Darn, I wanted to pay a visit next time I was in SoCal! But I hope that this new phase of your life brings you a great deal of joy and fulfillment! Horses! You are in Oaklahoma, I do very highly recommend you think about getting into horses!

I have actually been entertaining the thought of never ranking up at all. Or perhaps not ranking up for a couple of years. For some reason, this really appeals to me. I still want to advance in my training. I just don't feel the need to have a set end-goal, and instead simply wish to always continue to train and improve.

My sensei, from who I am learning Kyokushin, is about 5'3" tall, just as I am. He used to beat much taller people in the little tournaments around here on a regular basis, back in the day. He focuses on punches instead of kicks, though of course he does those too.

Haha, I wonder how much time that took? All the nostalgic tributes are a lot more fun than the actual game was...

What if the couple was already established in a relationship, and the girlfriend of the sensei decided that she had an interest and wished to train under him?

I like to call mine "random panic." It is effective because it is so unpredictable that I don't even know what I'm going to do!

Haha, you'd have to take stock out in "Shout," JiuJitsuNation!

Hmmmmmm! Thanks, we'll have to look into that...

Well sure, and one of those people could rent that house! :}

I'd prefer to not have an audience either, but it's a public park, so people are free to stare. The breeze sure feels nice in the late evening.

So are you a transplant to India? What discipline are you involved in or interested in?

Heck, I know a woman who hears voices. I knew her for years before she told me.

You fight how you train. And if you never learn how it feels to really punch someone, to really be punched, to really block... I think the swimming analogy is a very good one. Me, I can make a pretty block or punch a bag well enough. It's a different story when sensei starts relentlessly hitting me. If I don't start effectively defending myself, he picks a spot and hits it over and over again until I learn. I don't know how I'd learn, truly learn, and be able to handle myself in a fight otherwise.

Kata teaches your body how to move, how to flow from one strike or block to the next. I've heard the same about Kyokushin. That whole kill or disable thing. But hopefully it never has to come up. I don't think I've ever met a veteran who lived through actual combat in a war that has been glad they did, or wanted to do it again.

Haha, sounds like you're pretty impressed with him already. But if you are looking to be forged, sounds like he has plenty of fire.

I think if you put a lot into it, you'll get a lot out of it, and hopefully won't get bored. Good luck!

Yes, very good point! I absolutely love it. :} If I'm wearing boots, I keep them on. If I'm wearing sandals, I take them off. Heh, I might rethink that. I have tough boot callouses but the arch of my foot is not calloused. I think Mas Oyama would tell me to suck it up, that dude ran around on mountainsides in the snow. heh.

Herros. :} I don't have a space to practice indoors, so I go over to the local park to do my kata. (Just one, as I only know one at the moment, hah!) My tally for the day: Pinan 1 katas executed: 15 (one backwards, yeah I don't know either.) Unintended audeince members: 6 (two adults, 4 small children. I am Jack's free entertainment., heh.) Sharp sticks found with toes: 2 Large sharp rocks found with arch of foot: 1 Bee stings: 0 (YESSSS!) We don't have a dojo, so we always train wherever we can find a space. Am I the only person who doesn't have access to a dojo here? Anyone else have a space of time where you ended up practicing out in public? I think I've seen some people doing Tai Chi out in Berkeley before, heh. I do enjoy it most of the time. It feels kind of freeing, and I love the outdoors. I did have to hurl that rock though! Stupid rock...

Hi there! Well I'm relatively new myself, but I'll say this- go with the school that has a good reputation. I am sure they have some sort of effective ranking system in place... but ranking as fast as possible is probably not the best goal to set. It wouldn't do you much good to be ranked as a black belt when you are easily defeated! There are no true shortcuts to this kind of knowledge. It takes training, practice, training, and practice. It takes a lot of time and energy and dedication. It takes blood, sweat, and tears. I don't know anything about Doshinkan, but I would say go for it. Get yourself a solid foundation in karate. In two year or so you will likely be going to college somewhere else, yes? If so, then by then you should know if that particular discipline works well for you, and you'll be able to decide whether to continue training in it, or picking a different discipline. You can learn something good from any discipline with a good reputation, after all. The absolute basics tend to be fairly similar from discipline to discipline as well, so think of it as giving yourself a little head start. you might find that you like it more than you thought you would. Me, I am learning Kyokushin, which certainly would cover your hard, intense workout requirement, and defense as well. I don't know how common it is any more, or if it can be found at all where you might go to college. Mine is certainly not the only discipline that works and trains hard, however! So those are my thoughts, as an admitted newbie. And welcome. :}