Water Cooler Chat

Arianera

Glad to see everyone participating in this chat and glad you are enjoying your sparring.

I am not aware of any adults sparring at the school where I am currently training, though there may be sparring at the closed training sessions for instructors and upper ranked adults that I am not yet invited to. The adult Kempo practitioners I see regularly are mostly either the instructors (at least 2 of whom are still teaching despite chronic injuries) or relatively new students (2 white belts, 1 new yellow, me, 1 blue, 1 brown belt). There are also 2 adults studying Kung Fu. I have to admit, I'm not all that interested in sparring, at least not yet. Part of it is knowing that I am hopelessly slow and even at 5'7" smaller than the adults higher ranked than me and not willing to risk injuring myself during sparring.

trackercasey76

I feel like if I don't spar I'm not learning as much. Nothing drives the importance of blocking quite like getting kicked in the head.

Out_of_Bubblegum

trackercasey76 wrote: »

I feel like if I don't spar I'm not learning as much. Nothing drives the importance of blocking quite like getting kicked in the head.

That's it for me too. I am lucky that I started sparring when I was young and pretty reckless, so I was able to learn some really valuable lessons before I grew up and became cautious.

@Arianera‌ If you get the chance, I really recommend trying it - preferably with someone much higher rank than you. Usually the higher ranks have the best control, and will be able to teach you the most, and will be someone you are least likely to be injured by... you might find you enjoy it!

I'm a forms (Kata/Hyung/etc) guy myself. I love them. I spend hours every week working on them, and wish I had more time and stamina to keep working on them even more. To me, this is the art of the Martial Art... But there is something about sparring I don't think I will ever give up - the application of technique. The timing, distance, endurance, strategies, hiding techniques all blended together - it's like taking everything you've learned and making it all come together to work for you (or get punched and kicked in the head).

Arianera

@bwmalone I sparred occasionally in my first life as a martial artist (when I was studying and competing as a teen). Because the contacts available at the time didn't work well for me, I was always working blind. While sparring without my glasses is more realistic from a self-defense perspective it definitely added an additional challenge and I didn't enjoy the experience much.

I'll reconsider if the opportunity arises, but for now I'm happy just working to learn this new style.

kellypence

Last session last night before belt test on Saturday (going for red). Intense but fun. Sparred a bit at the end, which is always a fun mental exercise, as the "adult" class consists of kids from 12 up. I usually feel a bit (okay, a lot) like Kramer in the Seinfeld episode, a giant beating up kids. Last night pulled a very nice reverse choke (on a 12 year old) that I was both ashamed and proud of. Ashamed 'cause I've got like 2 feet and a heck of a lot of weight on the kid, but proud because technique-wise it was very clean. Of course he refused to tap, and I refused to tighten the choke hard enough to MAKE him tap, but I took him to the ground cleanly and got him irrevocably tied up before the Master told him he was tapped...Wish me luck on Sat...

lmp379

I have not been down to train in over a week, between family, work and snow storms. I feel a great workout coming up.

Good luck to everyone training for next testing or upcoming event!

Out_of_Bubblegum

@kellypence‌ I love those 'moments' of making something work, especially for the first time. It's one of the things I love about working with someone when I have an advantage is trying to work out new techniques/strategies. It gives me an opportunity to work out the hows and why's of it, while granting them more opportunity to find openings while I blunder through things. Good luck on your test!!

kellypence

bwmalone wrote: »

@kellypence‌ I love those 'moments' of making something work, especially for the first time. It's one of the things I love about working with someone when I have an advantage is trying to work out new techniques/strategies. It gives me an opportunity to work out the hows and why's of it, while granting them more opportunity to find openings while I blunder through things. Good luck on your test!!

Thanks, I feel pretty good going in. It's almost worse (though I totally love that we all do this together) that my husband and son test too. I have control issues and I stress more about them doing well than myself...

Spaghetti_Bender

I wish i had something to contribute, but haven't trained in almost two years. This year i WILL be doing some sort of training, since i miss it so much, and the gym gets boring after a while.

Out_of_Bubblegum

You're still welcome here at the water cooler - what did you train in previously, @Tat2dDude_0105‌? Have you scoped out any new schools/classes yet?

Arianera

Welcome @Tat2dDude_0105 Hope you find a new school soon.

@kellypence Does your whole family test in the same session? My son and I have gotten onto different testing cycles, which I like because it means that on the nights he is testing, I can just be a paparazzi Mom and not worry about missing something because I am concentrating on my own test.

Family class this morning. Not the best class. My son had a tough time in the sparring session immediately before (he's fine, but was still reeling from getting bopped in the nose accidentally). And by the end of class, I was being a mush-brain and having a hard time translating what we were supposed to do into physical action. But that is the point of practice. There are good days and hard days, and the act of going is the reward

rayfu75

The next two weeks are going to be miserable. No carbs to cut 10 lbs ...ugh I should not have taken the holidays off. Need to make weight for a tournament or move up to heavy weight, which I really don't want to do.

Arianera

Good luck @rayfu75 It's hard when external deadlines get it the way of slow and steady

kellypence

@arianera Our school separates the "kids" (under 12s) and "adults" (12 and over) for both classes and tests. It's nice, because class is held every night, 6-7 for kids, 7:15-8:45 for adults, Sat morning is a combined class so it's very flexible, we can go whenever we want. We have a 3 month testing cycle for everyone. Kids' test is 10-12:30, Adults 12:30-3 (or longer, depending on how long the tests take). So we get to watch the kids test, then do our own. It's stressful, because I worry about him getting through his forms (my stomach is always in knots until he's finished), but then they do one steps/self-defense, sparring, and breaking so I can relax a little before our test.

We all did really well, my son is now green with one stripe and my husband and I are red belts. Got to break a board with a punch, which was super fun!

Out_of_Bubblegum

@rayfu75‌ Heavyweight div is no joke, for sure... Good luck in your weightloss!

@kellypence‌ Congratulations to you and your family!!

rayfu75

@kellypence that sounds really cool. Do you find that you have less stress when you are up to test since you've watched the kids prior?

@arianera I messed myself up by not taking my diet the slow and steady route a month or two out. Now it's crunch time and I'm hungry lol.

@bwmalone heavyweight sure is rough. I'm 5'5 so any division I am in I'm always the shorter competitor. I've had the most success at medium heavy which is 195 with my gi on. I'm always up for the challenge to fight bigger opponents but would rather save that for the open divisions after I fight in my normal weight division. My goal is to get to the middle weight division which is 181lbs with the gi on. Maybe by years end I can get there.

Out_of_Bubblegum

@rayfu75‌ I've never competed that heavy .. but it's been 15 years since I've been in competition, and before I gained weight. I prefer to fight @ 150, which is what I'm aiming to get back to.

kellypence

@rayfu75 In a way, yes. I generally am not worried about myself at all, I know I know my stuff, and it's all about just relaxing and surviving 3-4 hours of intense effort. Our tests have the same structure every time, so we know in general what's coming, the Masters just change up little things, like which advanced kicks they want to see us try to kill ourselves with (thank goodness for Karate Kid, I've got the jump front kick down, but 360 inside/outside crescent kick still needs a bit of work). Good luck on your cut!

Arianera

Laid back class last night. Looks like Sensei A's schedule has changed so he can no longer teach on Monday nights for the next while. Class with Mrs. Sensei is also good, but she tends to go easy on the "VIP" members asking for clean technique rather than high intensity exertion. Both are valuable in the long run, but I was hoping for something a bit more strenuous yesterday.

Spaghetti_Bender

I used to train in WTF TKD. Did that for about a year and a half..........and my son was training with me as well. We both were blue belts, but had to stop training due to financial reasons. It was a great school, and my instructors were awesome.......but in WTF TKD, the focus is mostly kicking and not enough punching IMO. SO, this year i'll be looking around for something that incorporates both. I have it narrowed down to Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Karate, or Krav Maga.