Can you say cardio?

One of the toughest parts of our color belt tests for me is the endurance/cardio.

My goal for this year is to increase my cardio ability while training for my blue belt techniques (Mr. Van set a pretty high standard). Tonight, I felt like I showed promise. It's hard to work in cardio when you homeschool 4 kids, help your husband with his business, and help with the administration of a martial arts school. I also do web work for my son's drum teacher. So you can imagine my days are pretty full and it's easy to let cardio go by because it's the hardest thing for me right now. Nevertheless, it's the key to losing the rest of the weight I want to loose. I've lost 20 pounds so far and would like to see 25 more go away this year. It's been slow progress, but progress nonetheless.

This brings me back to tonight. I've been training, although I must admit not to the consistency that I should, with Sensi TJ using Crossfit. For the most part it is body weight exercises that you do as fast as you can or other days it's a specific number. I was skeptical that I could even do them at first but I kept plugging away and I can tell I am making progress.

Tonight, Soke asked me to teach the open class. I was a little nervous because I've only taught one other open class for adults and tonight I had 2 black belts from other systems in my class as well. But, I had planned out what I wanted to do and I wanted to work on cardio! Osu!

Here is what we did:

Warm up: up two flights of steps and down 3 times, light stretches and front leg dynamic stretch. Because this was everyone's 2nd class of the evening we were already pretty warm.

Cardio: 8 sets of (35 kicks, 10 pushups, 10 situps, 10 squats)

(the kicks we did moving up and down the dojo are: front high kick, inside
crescent, outside crescent, side kick)

Cool down: lots of leg stretches using our belts to help pull the stretch

Ending: I showed some cool tips on the spear finger strike that Sensi Kendall had showed me earlier.

Time: 40 minutes

That's a total of 280 kicks (I think we actually did 285 because I forgot to stop a couple of times), 80 pushups, 80 situps, and 80 squats. How cool is that! I didn't know I could do 80 pushups! It's amazing what you can do when you push yourself.

Everyone did awesome! Truthfully, I was wiped out after this and boy are my legs letting me know I need to continue working on my cardio consistently! However, I was so excited that everyone actually enjoyed the class.

It's a good feeling when you lead a class and feel like you are helping others progress. I got a glimpse of why black belts get so much enjoyment from teaching and watching their students progress. That was pretty cool.

Happy training,
Lisa

How many female martial artist are there?

The ratios of men to women who practice martial arts is pretty high. The further up the ranking, the greater the ratio. Many have often wondered why. Are women not strong enough, tough enough or is it that they have nothing to prove? Is it the demands on our time? Who knows, but I can say it has nothing to do with strength, toughness or willingness to work hard.

Martial arts is our family sport and everyone in our family participates. Having 5 kids we decided to pick one sport that we could all participate in together. Martial arts was the perfect option. Consequently, working toward my black belt with my family has certainly helped me stay involved. I believe you have to reach a certain level in martial arts before you truly develop a passion and a love for it. If my family were not involved with me I’m not sure I would have developed that passion. Now, I’m at the point that I would continue even if they did not. It would be much harder but it has become my personal goal and not just a family thing.

I could not have begun this journey if my family were not behind me helping me and cheering me on. It answers one of my questions of why there are not more female martial artist. There simply isn’t time if you have a family that is involved in lots of other activities. It would seem easier if you are a female and have grown up in martial arts and you have a passion to continue and I hope all of the young girls training today will continue. In addition, I want to encourage you. If you are interested in beginning martial arts, start with your kids. You won’t believe how much fun you will have and how many friends that you will make.

To be truthful, sometimes thinking of obtaining my blackbelt is a daunting thought and I wonder if I’ll actually make it within Tao Hsieh Wu Shu. However, at those times I think of my friends like Angie Fitts and Allison Martin who are blackbelts. They are amazing women who have become an encouragement to me.

Allison is training for her Master’s belt that she will test for this summer. She will graduate from college and earn her Master’s belt in the same year! Wow! Go Allison, your martial arts family is cheering for you.

While I was thinking on all of these things I began researching how many people practice martial arts and have come up with some interesting figures. I am continuing to research and will update my blog as I determine new information. My figures are estimates based on ratios and I have listed my sources at the end of this article.

Today the U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimate: 308,475,584
on Jan 13, 2010 at 05:17 UTC

There are 18.1 million practicing martial artists in the US.

Approximately 600,000 of those are blackbelts (36,000 females based on 15:1 ratio)

Approximately 6000 people are Masters – 4^th Dan or above (360 females based on 15:1 ratio, I think this ratio should be higher)

Approximately 600 people are 9^th degree and above (I won’t venture to guess how many are female)

So if you are a black belt in a martial art system are are part of a very elite group within the US and if you are female an even greater elite group.

At our school Warriors For Christ, our colored belts have been given the remarkable opportunity to train with a 9^th degree black belt, Kyoshi Max Andrews for a specific number of classes. Just think, you are being trained by 1 of only 600 people in the US that has that qualification. What an honor for us!

Happy Training,

Lisa

Resources:

According to data from New York City-based research firm Simmons Market Research, an estimated 18.1 million Americans participated in karate or some other form of martial art at least once in the past year.

In the American Tang Soo Do Association there are 30,000 active students and 1000 black belts. I used this ratio to compute my figures. (Actually, my husband did the math for me!)

U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimate: 308,475,584
on Jan 13, 2010 at 05:17 UTC