Helped out in the kids' class on Tuesday (I'm there anyway, so I may as well contribute to the community I love by holding pads and such), but I skipped my own training because I had a cold. (Trying to minimise the potential to pass it on.)

Had a short class on Wednesday, which include a game which tested punching speed. Not my forte, but it's only by identifying and acknowledging one's weaknesses that one can begin to improve them, eh?

Our Saturday class today was tournament kumite training. I was literally dripping with sweat! It was great!!!!!

Of course, being the only brown belt in the class, the one kid sought me out for a round. He was clearly trying to prove something. The next round the sensei sought him out. He must have seen that he needed to learn some patience and humility

the school has been on spring break and i am out of town the end of april to early may - so i'm squeezing in a month's worth of classes in one week starting on weds because we pay monthly. should be interesting! i also am having the hardest time practicing spear - even outside i keep hitting things, the thing is so freaking long. we live on a hill so the outdoor space that is actualy flat is kind of small and terribly close to the house :P

I've not been posting much (work is crazy) but still training like mad - karate is my down-time and my stress relief! Son 1 and I graded in our kobudo class this week, I now have 4th kyu grades in sai and katana. The grading was tough compared to a karate grade, not so much physically (I didn't break a sweat, a karate grade would have me dripping), but a lot more of the material was vague - demonstrate a number of defences against different weapons, but being told the weapon and attack on the spot so you really need to think of something effective quickly. The free fighting section was terrifying, even wearing full body armour I hate fighting people with weapons (we used wooden bokken for the katana section but I had to use my metal sai)

Last week: four classes + participation in black belt testing.
This week, I've done two classes and will probably go once more at the weekend.

We were supposed to have a kata class on Saturday but it turned into a mawashi geri class. They took some awesome pictures too!

Awesome long weekend, including three morning sessions with the boys, Thursday evening class, private session with coach (such beautiful back takes and berimbola), grading prep session with the girls, grading prep with everyone, leg lock seminar and a hike to end it off!

The week ahead has me back to yoga after my routine was out of sync for a few weeks and normal routine most days! Grading in less than two weeks...

Our coach has pretty high standards, especially for blue belt and the syllabus is 4 pages long (with many items listed needing more than 1 variation of the item). When you first look at it, it's really intimidating but as I go through it, I realise I know most of it. Today I worked through 90% of it with my friend, checking with coach or one of the blue belts who was there when we were confused. Confusions generally were a result of us not realising what the move was called and finding we did know the move. Tomorrow we will run through the last of the list and then go over it all again next Friday in preparation for grading on Saturday. I'm trying not to stress about it, but it would be nice to grade before I turn 40 in July.

I now also roll in Brasilian Jiujitsu, which immediately follows Tang Soo Do. I managed to find my old Judogis in a closet and came prepared to get folded like a pretzel.

I've turned up to training five days this week, and finally finished learning the order of the movements of my newest form, which I started back at the end of April, according to posts in this very thread.

It's great I've got the order down! Next I need to learn how to perform it with style, grace and confidence!