Elizabeth Earned Her Blue!!

The Juniors class at the dojo had their belt test a few weeks ago and Elizabeth passed! She received her new blue belt last night. Very proud of her, she did an awesome job.

Here are some pictures from their testing:

All geared up and ready to spar.

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All done sparring!

Her awesome Juniors class with her most awesome teachers!

Fighting stance with a kiai!

Yellow Belt

I found out last night that I did pass onto my yellow belt and I'm very excited about that! There were four of us that tested and we all passed onto the next level. We won't receive our belts until next week but it's nice to know now. I always get so nervous that I won't pass. I was very pleased with my sparring this time. I've been doing more of the fitness kickboxing and resistance bands and getting in to train more so I'm sure that all helped. I felt much stronger and better able to get in there and fight back. My kata wasn't the greatest, it never is. Kata seems like it should be so easy, it's just memorizing forms. It's the one area I just don't do so hot in though, I chalk it up to lack of grace :)
Rob and I were talking about karate the other night and discussing how one of the great things about it is that you learn to get hit. Seems a bit silly but how many of us are afraid of getting punched? I know I was, I'm not one for pain. But one skill I'm learning is how to take a punch or a kick and not whimp out. I love that! Last night was great because we got to work on actual kickboxing. We had to wear our boxing gloves and head gear and actually try and hit each other in the face. In Enshin there are no face punches so haven't ever really gotten punched in the head. Have been kicked a couple times but they were light :) So, while we weren't really making direct contact to the face it was still good to see I could get hit in the head and not freak out. Of course we were going light, we like each other, don't want to hurt anyone :)
Anyway, really enjoying myself. It's been fun to learn new things about myself. Thought I knew myself so well :) LOL I am definitely looking forward to wearing that yellow next week!!

It's Over

Phew! Testing is OVER! I never did use the spinning back kick. I think Rob was a little disappointed in that since he let me practice on him so much :) But I did get a couple other good kicks in and managed to get the black belt down. Pretty sure she gave in at the last second though :P I was just super worked up over the kata. Once that was over all the tension went away. Nathaniel also did really well in his sparring. All the kids did really well. We won't know if we passed until Thursday night so keeping ours fingers crossed. As usual it was fun to watch the guys test. They just get so crazy! It's great to see how far everyone has come. So for now, no more stress until the April/May test! LOL

Nervous

I'm sitting here making myself sick with nervousness. Tonight is another belt test at the dojo. Nathaniel will be testing also. He's sitting here nonchalantly smacking away at lunch totally unconcerned while I'm trying to choke something down so I don't pass out tonight :) Ug, nothing sounds good. I'm so nervous because I'm not as prepared for this one. I don't feel I've got my kata down. Totally my fault for waiting until this week to practice it like crazy. I don't feel I've picked up much more from my training either and that has me frustrated. I can't get over my fear of kicking my opponent and them seeing it in time to sweep my other leg. Since I have hurt my neck twice now on the same back throw I'm a little nervous about going over backward. I have to leave my other leg unprotected when I kick, especially anything higher then the thigh and I just don't like it. Sensei wants me to practice head kicks while I'm sparring. HAHA. I just laughed at her. For one, not that flexible yet and another, I'm just not fast enough. Sigh. But if I want to move on to the higher belts I'm going to have to do more then just punch and the occasional roundhouse to the other person's thigh. I practiced a different kick over and over last night on Rob. He's so good to me :) He just held one of our couch cushions while I did a spinning back kick over and over and over on him until I almost fell over from gettting dizzy! Now, if I can just do it tonight while sparring that would be great :) So, anyway just sitting here making myself sick :) LOL One of the other students just laughs at me cause she's like It's just a blue belt. Yeah, just a blue belt, with a room full of people watching you spar someone else. Ug. Maybe I could ask everyone to step outside LOL!!

Recent Events

I'm not keeping up with my blog very well right now. I don't have a great place to sit and do it, have to sit on my bed and it's not the most comfortable spot to blog :P

First big event was Jonathan's 9th Birthday on July 18. He got to spend the day at Day Camp and after we went to my Dad's for ice cream cake and presents. The following day we were supposed to do the Spaghetti Factory and watch WALL-E but the stomach flu hit and he was sick :( We made up for it last night. Good movie, we recommend it. Anyway, here are some pics from his little family party.

A week later Rob's company, Cognex, paid for a day at Oaks Park, an amusement park down in Sellwood. They had Buster's BBQ come cater our lunch. That is some really good food! We had to sit around for about an hour after before going back on the rides. I was sure I'd have sick kids all over but they did great. Nathaniel and Jonathan are big enough now to ride all the big scary rides and they went on them all! I can't do it anymore, the mini roller coaster is my limit now :) Seth even got to go on a few rides, mostly the carousel. We had a great day and stayed there for about 8 hours since we had no where else to go. We were homeless again for a few days.

Seth really likes snow cones now :)

Thursday of last week was the belt testing at the dojo. I had attended enough classes that I could test if I wanted. The kids were testing again too but Nathaniel didn't have enough lessons. It takes more and more the higher you go. He was asked to help lead warm ups so I have a few pics of him doing that. Three of his classmates tested for their orange belts and I'm sure they earned them, they did a great job!

Nathaniel helping with warm-ups.

This is his class. Senpai Devon is on the left, Senpai Lance is on the right.

The kids thought it would be fun to tackle Senpai Lance. Senpai Devon got in on the action also.

Following the kids were the adults. I was only going for my low blue belt but I was so stinkin nervous. I've never tried to earn anything in sports before so this was important to me. They had some former students come in to help with the testing so the dojo was packed, it was so fun to see. Warm ups wore me out, because we were testing we had to show off :) Next we had to demonstrate our kata. First thing I did was screw up three of the moves. I was so mad. Fortunately they have us do the kata twice and I did much better the second time around. If I had done really bad they would have let me do it again so I wasn't too worried. Following that we had to use the Sabaki pads to show that we could do some pad work and follow directions. I like doing that so I wasn't too worried about that.

This is me working with Senpai Trish.

Last was the sparring. Since I was the lowest belt testing I got to go first. I had asked Sensei Heather who would be my partner but she just gave me this mischievous look and said she'd let me know when I got up there. I didn't think anything of it. As a white belt I'm only required to spar one 1-minute round. That's all I was expecting, and maybe a few rounds later with the higher belts testing but that would be their test not mine. I got on the mat and saw that Senpai Trish was my partner. I love Trish, she's helped me with most of my training. Of course, she also knows all my weaknesses!! I did get her down at one point but I went down with her having lost my balance. In a real Sabaki challenge I would have lost the point. So we got through the round and I was glad it was over. It's amazing how just one minute of that completely wipes you out. So I was headed over to sit when Heather threw her little secret at me. Alex, a black belt, had come to help with the testing. I was told right then that I would sparring her as part of my test. Rob said the look on my face was pretty funny, total shock. I was worried for about 5 seconds then realized Alex wasn't there to kill me. She was there to test me. So I relaxed and had fun with it. You'll see in the video the first thing she does is a smooth roundhouse kick to my head.

I cannot see those coming. That is my goal is to learn to recognize those and block them and use it to my advantage. That is my biggest weakness right now is not being able to see the kicks coming. At least it wasn't a hard kick. She was fun, I was glad for the opportunity. Sensai Heather told me later that she did it cause she knew I could do more then a white belt. That makes me feel good. I'm too hard on myself, feel like I should be able to do so much more and I get frustrated when I miss the blocks or forget how to throw someone. There were three others testing that night. They all did really well. Lance, Heather's husband, was testing for his brown belt. He sparred eight 1-minute rounds. I can't imagine, I was wiped out after two. He was a lot of fun to watch. We both showed up yesterday morning for kickboxing and he was limping. Those guys get pretty intense when they spar each other :) I came home from kickboxing and went straight back to bed. I was feeling pretty good yesterday morning and was surprised I wasn't more sore but by evening I was feeling it. Every muscle in my back and around my ribs was just aching. Feeling much better today. I'm pretty sure I earned my belt. Have to wait for them to grade everything, had a written test also. Will be nice to see some blue around my waist instead of all white :) I have really enjoyed karate. Lots of bumps and bruises and some nights I come home just exhausted with knees and feet hurting. But there is great satisfaction in knowing I did what was required of me, that I could push my body and make it perform the moves.

High Blue

Nathaniel received his high blue belt the other night. Such a great accomplishment :) Last month he had to spar Logan, a fellow student, and one of his instructors. Then he had to take a written exam. He passed both tests so was able to move up a belt. It's funny because he went from a blue to a high blue belt. What's the difference? The high blue has a black stripe. He is pretty proud of himself.

Sparring for the first time!

Last night was belt testing time at the dojo for both the kids and the adults. Nathaniel tested for his high blue. He did great on the sparring and passed that portion of the test. We are waiting to hear how he did on the written test. I'm so mad at myself for not bringing a camera with me. He looked so good!

Following the kids were the adults. Sensai Heather asked if I would spar the higher belts despite having only done this like what? Five weeks? I, of course, said yes. Why not? I was assured the whole purpose was so the higher belts could prove they had control when dealing with a lower belt. I had so much FUN! I sucked, but it was fun :)

Melody was the first I had to spar. The rounds were only a minute long but dang it feels like a long time when you are getting punched and trying to punch and kick back! About 30 seconds into the round she grabbed my arm to do, I think, hiki mawashi, a two hand pull around. Usually from there you can knock your opponent to the ground. Well, I pulled back or something to get our of her grip and a good part of my sleeve ripped away from the seam!!! Took us both by surprise and it let me get out of her grip :) After that she couldn't attack my left side because of the rip! Actually no one could, no fabric for anyone to grab! My first round wasn't bad. However, as soon as they yelled "Hajime" (begin) anything I had learned left my head. It was purely try and block and try and get a shot in. I really don't remember what happened except for the rip and I know Melody landed a solid kick into my shin! Thank goodness for shin pads :)

After watching a few more rounds I was up again against Nathaniel (not my Nathaniel). Nathaniel is TALL and he is all legs. Nathaniel also knows how to use his legs in sparring. Twice his foot ended up on my shoulder tapping my head (we do wear head gear). I never once saw it coming, even if I did I probably could not have blocked it :P That was a little unnerving! All I could think was thank goodness I'm a white belt, he had to go easy on me. I've seen him use that move on the other higher belts and it's just amazing. I was so mad because twice I managed to grab his gi to try and do a hiki mawashi but my dang nails were too long and I bent back the nail on both my middle fingers and had to let go cause it hurt. So, bye bye long nails, at least at testing time :) After that round I was shaking so bad I could barely clip my nails (I had one more round so thought I'd better take care of them). I was surprised by that, I didn't feel like I should be shaking.

Last round was with Senpai Trish. She has been teaching me most of what I know. She was testing for her brown belt. It was fun to go up against her but once again, the ref yelled "Hajime" and all knowledge left the building. I don't even remember what happened during that round except she grabbed my right arm and that sleeve tore also!! I could not believe it. By the time I was all done I looked like I had gotten badly beat up, if you were just looking at my gi. There I was the newest white belt all in tatters! It was pretty funny. I had to assure Melody I'm a seamstress and can take care of it, she was feeling bad.

The rest of the rounds were just fun to watch. I had a great time cheering each person on when it was their turn to test. It was awesome to see the moves they used on each other, especially the higher belts, we had a couple testing for their brown. But oh my gosh, so exhausting. You get to that level and you have to spar 7 different rounds in a row with only 30 secs in between to catch your breath. I can't imagine, the 3 rounds I did were spread out and only one minute each and I woke up just wiped out. I can't imagine how the others were feeling this morning. I woke up at 4 am and just could not stop thinking about all the mistakes I made. I was told I did really well for a white belt but still I feel so clumsy. So laid there for an hour this morning going over the rounds. I had gotten a couple hiki mawashis in but then couldn't remember how to throw my opponent. We practice this every week but I just could not remember. When we practice it's very slow and I just did not have time to think when sparring. I remembered how to knock someone down at 4:30 am :) So, now I am very excited about my belt test which isn't until August, thank goodness. Gives me three more months to learn :)

My gi after sparring last night. Melody did the big rip. Then Trish got the other side.