Kieran-Lilith

Yeah, we have it in Eugue-Ryu. I "officially" learned it last week. I knew it before then, but not "officially" in the kata I was supposed to learn it in. Eugue-Ryu has a lot of very deep stances, but we still have Sanchin and Neko-Dobi-Ashi.

Okay, I haven't had to partner with him since. Thank God. He knows what he's doing alright, but I learned my lesson about even remotely liking the idea of woking wiith him. He is the second highest ranking student in the dojo. There is nothing we can do about that, not really. He just lays off these days, me and my friends work together. I have higher rank now, I'm not totally helpless. And yes, I ahve a grip on pain. I have an unnatrually high tolerance for it, apparently. Higher than a lot of people in the dojo. And I still never, ever want to go through that techinique with him again. I was craddling my hand for a week after, and I need my hand for school. I could barely hold a pencil, and I could barely hold up my flute, let alone play it. He has control. That's why he can do what he did. He knew and understood. Oh, and if you asked me what he had said to me that night, I can still remember every word of it. He's not been at the dojo much, but I expect he'll be coming back once he gets time off of work. Then I'm prepared to work with him, but I know better now, I think, than to even remotely resist, not that I did much last time, but still.

Oh, I know this one. I dealt with it on Tuesday. It was odd. I had a seven year old boy standing in a demented stance, singing the Star Wars theme song, and dancing and bouncing. Really quite entertaining to watch. It distracted my other 9 kids I had to teach the kata to. So, he did push-ups, no problems after that....except from that kid, who went back to the Star Wars thing....

Okay, random update. I was asked (forcibly volunteered actually) to teach a group of kids their second kata. Oh boy. These kids were, for the most part, ages 6-8. Most of them couldn't tell left from right. So that was the first lesson. Then came footwork. Then came the kata. And...I discovered that two of them didn't know forward leaning stance. Ugh. Then I had one little boy who kept singing the Star Wars theme song and dancing/bouncing. Can't figure out for the life of me why, but he stopped after he had to do push-ups. But overall, it went much better than the last time. Thank you all for your advice.

Well, I think there's two different types to "pain". One is indeed, pain. It hurts because your injured. The other is "hurt". You're sore from training. Hurt is good, pain is bad. This is how Sensei tells us, anyway, and I'm still alive and uninjured (relatively, anyway.) I deal with pain by stopping what causes the pain, unless I can't. (Nasty night, first time with wrist techniques, advanced partner who has no patience and a record of being rather brutal vs. newly made yellow belt me. I stood no chance.) I deal with hurt by mentally abusing myself. Or, taking something Sensei said and abusing myself with that. Such as, most recently, he said anyone who couldn't stand still during stance training and wait for the next command was weak-minded. THAT is a direct assault to my precious ego. Heheh. Or, oddly enough, I'll start mentally saying one thing, over and over again. "Bacon and eggs, bacon and eggs"....very recent. I have yet to understand where it came from.

Okay, I've had my first run in with the idiots who mock the arts. Three days worth of the morons, for a whole class period each day. "Hey, can you show us some karate?" "Yes." "Show us!" "I am. I'm sitting here in control of myself instead of bashing your heads in, which I am fully capable of." "That's not karate. Karate is hitting people and knocking eachother out." "No. It's learning control, discipline, honor, and hard work, while on the side learning how to defend yourself and others." "Not cool. Show us real karate." "You've already seen it." "I bet she can't, that's why." "No, I could. If you want to see, you can come visit the dojo. Maybe Sensei will even let you participate." "No way." Hey, I tried. And I didn't bash their brains in. I was being good. 12 vs me, though, not fair, nor cool. Not nice. Oh well. As long as I avoid them, maybe I'll finally get some peace....(Note: The leader of these idiots had been trying to get me to go out with him for 3 years. I don't know if that applies or not, but hey, I don't think I will ever go out with him.)

During stance training, as I've discovered, my thoughts are, "Please, Sensei, let us stop. Sensei, have mercy upon us poor weaklings. Let us up!" When he does, and starts talking about how his Sensei trained him (with another person standing on his back while stance training....eep!) The thoughts go "Good and great and wonderful Sensei, we love your way, can we stay with that way, we love it, great and wonderful Sensei, please continue to have mercy upon us..." If you can't tell, I'm not good at stance training. It's really unpleasant for me. But I managed it! And a whole 1 1/2 long class afterwards too!

Sheesh, I feel like a child. 15 and a bit more than a month. I feel like a little kid.....

Lol. Oh, there I go again. Heh. I'm getting better, at least! As my green belt friend loathes my laughter during class, I do mountain climbers or pushups before the next class to "teach me a lesson". I have yet to learn the lesson. I still laugh. It's all still so funny. But I think Sensei taught me my lesson this time. Popped a bunch of joints out of place in my wrist. I deserved it. No focus, I was laughing, yup, deserved it. The only that works for me so far is breathing. Breathe in, breathe out. Slow, calm, usually works, unless it's just to funny for me to not laugh.

Cool! Did you have fun wearing the giant gi? I did the same thing...and promptly fell over for the rest of the lesson. But everyone thought it was funny to see such an enthused white belt.

I've done it before. But I'm orange now, which, actually, is a big difference. Besides that, I'm in the more advanced class instead of the beginners, and that automatically gives me a sort of rank over most everyone in the kids class. Well, some blue belts and the rest of the orange belts and below, anyway. Anyway, yes, yellow belts can run a group. But I think Sensei must have been pretty desperate/crazy. The kids did learn the kata, though! I had to get a little help, but still! The nikyu was teaching blue belts Sankyu kata, the sankyu was teaching the more advanced white belts ichikyu, the gokyu was teaching the yellow belts nikyu kata, the rokyu was teaching the orange belts pinan shodan, and that left me. So, I got to teach the very beginners, the ones without gis, ichikyu kata while I was nothing more than a yellow belt myself. Henceforth, they decided to be little brats.

What are the greatest lessons you've learned in your dojo? Mine would probably be "Anything worth doing is worth doing 100%! (Sir!)" And Do what you know is right. Oddly enough, they both stem off the same story. Story behind it, would be nobody was really working hard or concentrating, which is precisely what we were working on. Focus. If we weren't focused, chances are, your partner was getting hurt. Sensei stopped us all, and he was rather angry. He asked us how many of us believed that anything worth doing was worth doing 100%. Everybody raised their hands. So he told us to say it. We did, quietly. He told us we couldn't possibly mean it, and we had to be louder. We were louder. He said it still wasn't good enough, shout it at the top of our lungs. You could literally hear the whole dojo inhale for about three seconds...nobody said a word, until I opened my big mouth and shouted it it as loud a I possibly could. Sensei knows I believe it. And I know to do what's right, and to do it with all I have. It's still kinda funny that I yelled it all by myself, though. Everybody else was too scared.

Yes. My mother is joining the school in a month or two. Somebody wish me luck, she's going to have to get used to me being able to tell her what to do. Oh boy. Somebody wish me luck.

Absolutely. I can't figure out how to work any other computer anyway...Apple computer, wonderful, no viruses, it makes SENSE, and it comes in lots of colors!

It's funny to me. The definition of 5 years old as I've learned it is: Hyperactive, annoying, super energy filled, hyper, crazy, impossible to control, cute only when sleeping, brats. I don't wanna even try to take out the five year olds. Those kids are scary.

It sounds amusing. My Sensei doesn't seem to mind my constant laughter. It's a few of the other higher ranks that care. Sensei thinks it's really quite amusing when I'm grappling, get pinned, don't feel pain, and so start laughing. (That wasn't my fault, the other Sensei was tickling me!) He seems to find it a perfectly normal, albeit a little odd, thing. Most people are beginning to agree with him though. I still laugh like I'm 4 our something, I'm 15!

Yeah, same here, ShotokanKid. I laugh...during training....training with a BB.....

Awesome...note to self: Do not listen to idiot green belt who says I'm screwing up when Sensei just said I had it right....

Ummm....I'm no help....I may be a girl, but i have a black gi....thank you, Sensei....

What's your dojo like, Zeox? Sensei said his dojo was one of those where only the strongest made it out, and the weak disappeared. Does your dojo follow that, or is it more...toned down, to say the least?

Ummm....I can't help much.....I'm just as bad off....my teachers in kindergarten actually thought there might be something mentally unstable about me because I laughed so much....I've gotten no better, either. It's really bad because I'll even laugh inside the dojo. It bothers my friends who insist absolute control must be displayed in the dojo, and they tell me to shut up. It doesn't bother Sensei though...he seems to think it's amusing....I still have a 5 year old's laugh.

3 more, actually. I'm in.

Sadly enough, I can read and understand it....the Star Wars thing is cool though, I was watching it.....good hw break....

In where? The sign in page thing?

Lol. Type in the little box thing "create" and click the little ant thing. Now, I've managed to do something interesting, and I'm not sure how. I've somehow managed to log on to an existing members account without being even remotely creative, and I don't know how I managed it....huh...go figure....confused....I'll try and find out more about this place, it's getting addicting...