Advanced belts

As I continue to progress in our martial art system, I often wonder, "what does it take to be at the next level?" Of course, techniques are one of the key components, but as I continue further up the rank I learn how much more other things come into play.

There are key elements to be figured out between the intermediate level and the advanced level. Basic concepts are fundamental but there comes a point where certain things begin to make a difference. It may sound funny but how to land a kick, especially a spinning kick was a key one for me. A key movement, something I had been told before, seen before but didn't really click, until recently.

There are many other things mentally that begin to make a difference as well. I believe that they must be different for each person. I'm sure there are some common elements, but as each individual progresses what they need to learn for themselves will be different from what I had to learn for me.

I'm not sure this is making much sense. It's hard to put into words what I'm trying to say without being very specific and I don't want to tell specifics because I believe they are individual. I don't want someone to think, "Oh, I can do that, I'm ready to be an advanced belt." Your journey will be yours and only yours as is mine.

One thing I will share is the understanding of the responsibility of being an advanced belt. Are you ready to teach? To be responsible for an entire class large or small? Are you sure that you have your techniques good enough to pass them on? Are you ready for people to watch you and compare themselves to you to see if they are doing something correct? Are you ready for the responsibility of leadership?

These are tough questions that must be answered before you test for our blue belt and the transition from orange to green prepares you for just that. Don't rush through the intermediate level because you physically can. Make sure you are ready mentally as well. The mental aspect of our system is just as important if not more so than the physical aspect.

As quoted in Spiderman, "Remember with great power, comes great responsibility". Leadership is great responsibility.

Keep training and wish me luck on my next test August 21. I'm testing for Blue.


Lisa

Change

***I'm not in martial arts to change it, I'm in martial arts for it to change me*** TJ Fernandez


When I began martial arts I never considered that it would really change me. I thought, oh I’ll learn how to kick or get out of someone’s grasp. I truly didn’t think it would change me all that much.

Now, as I look back I can see some of the changes in myself and all for the good.

1. I’m learning to lighten up a little. I’ve always been a very serious person. I would never do anything goofy in public! Well, I was pretty goofy in class tonight and I had a good time. Sometimes it is about having fun.

2. I’ve always been a goal setter. For me physical goals are harder than any others. It takes a deeper level of commitment from me to obtain them. I’ve been able to set goals for myself that I never thought were possible.

3. Recognizing the perfectionist in me reminds me that none of us are perfect. As I tell my kids all the time, “We all sin and fall short of the glory of God”. It’s ok if I try something and don’t get it the first, second or even third time. This has been a hard lesson.

4. Learning to laugh at myself without being embarrassed. Truthfully trying to do cartwheels at 44 is a bit embarrassing. But tonight when I finally did a few that felt pretty good, I was so excited. You would have thought I had won the lottery with all the jumping I did. It was fun.

5. Courage – is a funny thing. It takes a lot of courage for me to trust my body into doing some of the things we do. I’ve learned to take a deep breath and go for it. Some things are not near as bad as I make them out to be in my head.

6. Trust – learning to trust others telling you, “you can do this” is very difficult. Sometimes you have to have faith in your instructors. They often see things within you that you don’t. You have to trust them.

I’m sure there are lots of other things that have been changed about me but this is a good start. I hope martial arts is changing you too.

Lisa

Injuries

One of the most frustrating things for a martial artist training is an injury. If you are training hard, you are are likely to experience an injury. Do you know what to do if you have one?

If you have an injury such as a sprain, strain, muscle pull, or tear, immediate first aid can prevent complications and help you heal faster. One of the most important acronyms to remember if you get a sports injury is R.I.C.E. R.I.C.E. stands for Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation. Using these 4 immediate first aid measures can relieve pain, limit swelling and protect the injured tissues, all of which help speed healing.

If it is not better within 48 hours, call your doctor!

A bone bruise is different and ice should only be used to alleviate pain. You need to keep the blood circulating. Massaging the area and using compression works well. Use a brace to help with pressure. Bone bruises and take months to heal and are often the most painful type of injury.

General muscle soreness after working out is a result of the lactic acids being released in your body. You may have heard it before but, soaking in Epsom salt really helps. Try to keep your bath water as close to your body temperature as possible. This will enable you muscles to completely relax. If the water is too cold, your body has to work to warm up. If the water is too hot your body has to do the opposite in trying to cool down. Here are some of the benefits of an Epsom salt bath:

• improved heart and circulatory health, reducing irregular heartbeats, preventing hardening of the arteries, reducing blood clots and lowering blood pressure.
• Improved ability for the body to use insulin, reducing the incidence or severity of diabetes.
• Flushed toxins and heavy metals from the cells, easing muscle pain and helping the body to eliminate harmful substances.
• Improved nerve function by electrolyte regulation. Also, calcium is the main conductor for electrical current in the body, and magnesium is necessary to maintain proper calcium levels in the blood.
• Relieved stress. Excess adrenaline and stress are believed to drain magnesium, a natural stress reliever, from the body. Magnesium is necessary for the body to bind adequate amounts of serotonin, a mood-elevating chemical within the brain that creates a feeling of well being and relaxation.
• Reduced inflammation to relieve pain and muscle cramps.
• Improved oxygen use.
• Improved absorption of nutrients.
• Improved formation of joint proteins, brain tissue and mucin proteins.
• Prevention or easing of migraine headaches.

Add 2 cups to your bath water and soak for 15-20 minutes. Rinse off after your soak. Try it at least once, you will be amazed at how good you feel.

I hope these things help you as they have helped me. Keep training hard!


****NOTE: I am not a medical doctor, these are things that have helped me. You should always contact your doctor for medical information****

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

What makes a martial artist?

Learning techniques does not make one a martial artist. Hmmm, that's a bold statement isn't it? But, it is true. I learned that lesson last night the hard way. I had one of the hardest classes I've ever had and left class distraught and frustrated. Let me explain what happened.

We were doing a class on self defense; real life scenarios. What do you do in a confrontation and at what point do you actually engage an attacker to defend yourself? Learning martial arts you have a responsibility to your attacker because of the knowledge that you have. Your job is to gain control of the situation and maintain control. Control could be walking away, diffusing the situation with words, or in worse case, gaining control using physical techniques to submission.

I was feeling uncomfortable, but thought to myself, "I can do this". I had been feeling pretty good about my training in the past 2 years, however God certainly has a way of humbling you.

Initially, each student squared off with another to practice the worse case scenarios. I was concerned about keeping control of my punches, kicks, etc and not hurting a fellow student. I was afraid emotion would take over and I would not pull back enough or if I kicked in the wrong place someone could be hurt. One kick to a knee can do tremendous damage. In the first situation, I simply walked away. That was easy to do since I was faced off with my son. The next couple of times I worked with the younger kids. Let me tell you, they kick pretty hard.

When faced with an adult male who tried to grab me my first thought was a wrist lock but his hands were so large I didn't get it and I just stopped. My mind went blank and I didn't know what to do. You would think that with all of the techniques that I had learned, something would take over automatically, it didn't. The tension in the room by this time was in a very heightened state and there was a lot of yelling and chaos. This is by design by our Master Instructor.

My last set ending up me being with two of our adult male students pretending they were going to take me with them. We had just finished discussing pressure points and my mind was focused on trying to get one of them with a pressure point and force the other to back off but I couldn't get my hands on either one. I was so focused on that one technique all I could do was move around and try to stay out of their grasp. One of them slipped behind me and put his arm around my neck in a tight choke hold cutting off some of my air. My mind panicked and went to the recces of a similar dark time in my childhood. I was no longer with other students but in the past and fear took over. I didn't have the wherewith all to say stop and all of my training went out the door. When Soke saw that I didn't know what to do, he paused us and told me to focus on one of the attackers and not both. He instructed me to do a hip throw on the one holding me. I heard him as if I was in a tunnel and tried to process what he was saying. I tried the hip throw which I've done many times. I couldn't even do it correctly. My brain had shut down at this point and pure panic and fear was there instead. I was able to get out of his grasp and thankfully at that moment class ended. I had to leave the room as emotion overtook me. You may have heard of females that have been abducted that knew martial arts and wondered why didn't they defend themselves? I know understood why with complete clarity.

Remember my opening statement, knowing the techniques doesn't make you a martial artist, applying what you have learned does. Martial arts is not only a physical art but a mental art as well. Can you keep control of yourself in order to control the situation? As a female, can you keep your confidence and your wits about you to control the situation? And for me, as a child from an abusive background can you control the panic and fear?

It was a tough lesson. This morning I can sit and think, "Why didn't I do this or that?". I am frustrated that I didn't perform any of the things that I have learned over the past two years. In our intermediate classes Sensi often tells us, "You have learned the technique, now it's time to do it with speed and fluidity."

Last night showed me that I have such a long way to go and I'm far from being what I consider for me, "a true martial artist".



Love and Merry Christmas,
Lisa

ps. (Scott, we need to finish our demolition downstairs and get the gym back together, I have some training to do!)

Overcoming fear

Have you ever tried something new to get over something you are afraid of? I use to do a lot of rock climbing. Sounds like fun right? Well, not if you are terrified of heights. The first time I went, my friends put me in a climbing harness, hooked me up with ropes and off I went. I actually did pretty good, because I was terrified of falling. Once I was about 50 feet in the air I found a ledge I could stand on and I was stuck! I was so afraid of falling all I could do was hang on and wonder what on earth I was going to do. My friends had to talk me down and it took some time. After that first climb, I learned that I had to climb up a few feet and then let go. This allowed me to gain the confidence that the ropes would hold if I slipped, and I could continue my climb.

So, what does this have to do with martial arts? Well, for me, the same holds true with ukemi. When you watch someone being thrown it looks painful! But, if you know ukemi it really doesn't. However, I have somewhat of a mental block on throwing myself on the ground. It takes me being thrown a couple of times for my brain to remember that I can do it and it really isn't bad. We were practicing a wrist lock into a throw the other night and the first time I had to be thrown I was really wondering if I was going to be able to do the roll correctly. After I had done it one time and realized I really can do this, I was fine. But, it took doing the first one for my brain to register, "hey, you can do this".


I write this to encourage you, if you are learning ukemi and it seems a little imtidating keep working on it. It gets easier the more that you do it and when you do land from a fall or throw you will find it really isn't as bad as it looks!


Keep practicing!

Lisa