Sausage Power????

Sausage Power??

First Picture of my Brown Belt

   I thought I should give a Karate update since it's been a while for that. As I have stated before, not only do I have a passion for the art, but more importantly it doubles as my physiotherapy. It's been about a month since I've actively trained. (My dojo family was sick and then I was sick). Tuesday we did sausage power. Okay this sounds a whole lot more fun than it actually is. It's a really funny name for physical activity that is spawned from hell. Something that sounds so funny should NOT hurt so badly. Here is what it involves: Lay down on your back do 5 crunches (easy right) roll over on your stomach and do 5 push ups ( not so bad ) continue rolling and doing either sit ups or crunches until you reach the end of the dojo.... then roll back to start doing above mentioned excercises. I gave up counting the amount of push ups I did, I do know that the next day it was difficult to move my arms above my head with out major creekage.

Then I got to do weapons class the next day. I had a death grip on my weapon at all times (which is really not conducive to training as it's more of a flicking motion when striking, but by God I was NOT doing push ups again for dropping my weapon.) The mantra in my head was “I am a martial artist, I am a martial artist.” with a smattering of “why did I have to pick red oak for my weapons”. I even managed to avoid striking myself in the head with my bo which is always good.

Ready set...

Since I am now a brown belt, my new weapon is Sai. Looks kinda like an over grown salad fork. It's made out of metal and it's pretty heavy. Push ups aren't the only reason you don't want to drop these bad boys, if you want to keep your toes UN-shattered you better be able to handle your weapon. I mean considering I've struck myself (almost to the point of unconsciousness) with every weapon I have ever owned I'm doing okay, but I would hate to go to the ER with another Martial Art's injury. First thing to practice.... how to spin them around your head and strike. Wait. Hang on. Anything around my head is bad news, and considering the weight of the weapon and the crapiness in the neuro-motor skills of my left hand this is down right scary. Push ups were now a far away concern as I concentrated on spinning this shiny new weapon with out maiming myself permanently. I manged to ONLY hit the back of my head a few times and didn't produce blood or collapse on the dojo floor. (BTW that was my awesome thing for that day)

The Winning point

First Place

I should also say that my Daughter and I went to Kingston a couple of weeks ago and I placed in Kata and Weapons, but came in first in Sparring. I hate sparring. I guess I'm okay at it. Here is to trying things you hate and surprising yourself!