Things I learned today.

Posted on by

Lessons from a 31-year-old white belt:

  • Roundhouse kicks are more fun than side kicks. And that’s OK.
  • Jumping jacks are not my friend.
  • The instructor might say that we’re doing these slalom runs through the chairs to learn agility and it’s not a race so there’s no need to rush, but when you’re the lowest rank in the room and the highest-ranking red belt is suddenly two feet behind you on her second lap while you’re still trying to finish up lap 1, you pick up the pace a bit.
  • Running across the floor a half dozen times will loosen up a respiratory infection quite nicely. After that point you sound like a three-pack-a-day smoker for about two hours.
  • When trying to clear a respiratory infection it’s possible to sound worse than the smokers at the end of the drills.
  • No matter where you put your water bottle, you will inevitably be led to the other side of the room.
  • First form is in the shape of an I. So are second and third, but we don’t have to get to those anytime soon. Especially when we continue to look like a train wreck in first form.
  • The big toe is critical to balance, which is why I keep pulling all the muscles on top of it. Some day I will have toes of iron.
  • No matter how much you enjoyed class and what you learned, there’s not enough room to practice forms in the shower.
  • Hell, you can’t even get off more than a semi-decent front kick in the shower.
  • If you enjoy what you’re doing enough, not only do you forget it’s exercise, but people start to ask you if you had older brothers to fight. When you reply that no, you’re the oldest, you get odd looks. And that’s OK too.
  • It’s only 5 days until Monday, when I get to do it again.

5 thoughts on “Things I learned today.”

  1. i think you’re having too much fun with this tagging thing…lol
    i like how you tagged toes of iron though…it made me giggle..
    glad to see you’re having fun (i think..)
    :)

  2. I got an earful (kiddingly) from the gang at work, who all said the proper design for a tagcloud is your top 20 or 50 tags, not the whole freaking database. On the other hand, I’m not done tagging yet, so I’m OK with having anything I think of in there. Plus, I think I get my tagging habits from Neil Gaiman, who has some very, er, interesting tags on his site.

    Plus I want to talk about my toes of iron, when I achieve them ;)

  5. I had the same sort of thing when I studied Karate/Kempo as an adult, surrounded by little kids and teenagers.

    The really fun part? As the only adult in the room, the nearest person to spar with me was a 15-year-old boy who blushed every time he came near my chest area – which of course happens a lot when you’re trying to hit someone in their core area. It was quite funny, and a little sweet. The sensei often ended up taking pity on him and sparring with me himself, much to my own dismay – I always ended up with bruises from hitting his tree trunk arms and legs. Like rocks! Ow.

    And yeah, Roundhouse kicks rock!

Comments are closed.