It burns!

Martial arts status update! (Can I get a “w00t” from the three people who care?) I am excited because I sweated a lot this week and have some extremely minor injuries, thus making me feel like I worked hard. I have the beginnings of a few black-and-blue spots, a slightly strained muscle in my leg, and mat burn (which is like rug burn) below one knee. I mind the mat burn the most because it is kinda ugly. I probably shouldn’t wear shorts for the next few days. Or I can just stagger around pointing to it and hollering, “It burns! It burns!”

My technique list for first-degree yellow belt is pretty easy. It’s all jujitsu blocks and intermediate takedowns. But Mr. B. has been teaching me techniques from second- and third-degree yellow, mostly because I’m often the only student in class for two and a half hours and he and Ryan get bored watching me do the same things over and over. I would get bored watching me also, so for their sake I guess I am okay with that. Who am I kidding, I love learning new stuff! They taught me a few basic joint locks, some ground fighting stuff, and half of a bo kata, and let me try one or two black belt techniques.

My forms are also looking good. I’ve learned them fairly quickly because the kata at this school are much shorter than what I’m used to; some of the forms at Star Martial Arts seemed to go on for days. One was in slow motion. Days, I tell you. I’d do the form for you, but I haven’t practiced it in a long time; I would fall over during the “balance” section and you would just fall asleep.

The biggest issue for me since I started training in October has been break-falling. I think my break-falls have been getting a little better. We did aikido, judo and jujitsu throws at my old school, but I guess I just never learned how to fall out of them correctly. I’m still too tense most of the time when I hit the ground. So when I say my break-falls are getting better, I mean I’m just more used to the idea of falling. Although my comfort level really wasn’t improved when one of the kids dumped me flat on my back from a hip throw on Thursday. Oof. He’s shorter than I am so it wasn’t a terribly long way down, but when you land like that, it’s hard to slap well; all the force of the throw therefore gets converted into a throbbing sphere of pain at the base of your skull. Whee! (Possibly it would have helped if my kiais were stronger, but we won’t talk about that.)

I hope to test for first-degree yellow in a few weeks. I will be glad to move onto a more challenging level, but what I’m really looking forward to is third-degree and ground fighting goodness in a couple of months. Now, back to your regularly-scheduled non-blogging.