Sunday, December 30, 2007

Karate goals for 2008

My goals in terms of what I'm to achieve/learn from karate in 2008:

  1. Better sparing. Specifically, I'd like better boxing skills.
  2. Self-defense. I'd like to learn the basics of street fighting / self-defense. I've learned some holds and grabs around and the dojo has moved from the old curriculum (12 baiscs) but is now adding some grappling skills. I'm not exactly sure what I'm looking for here but I would like to have more of a sense of self-defense.
  3. Martial Arts General Knowledge - I'd like to know the basics in terms of major movements, what's in style and what's being dropped. What are the big martial art bodies? The top ten martial artists that I should now? What are the striking vs non-striking martial arts? I'd like to recognize a bit about aikado, kung fu, kempo, judo. How different is Korean from Chinese from Japanese or are the national origins not really important? I'd like to get a working knowledge of the different schools and techniques.
  4. Flexibility. I'd like, with legs at shoulder width, be able to bend down and get both elbows on the ground.
  5. Endurance. If I'm going to spar better, I'll need more endurance. I'll target a fourteen minute two mile. And I'd like to get my waist from 34 to 33 (I had it at 32 about five years ago but that took an unsustainable discipline about eating plus lots of running and gym. The big problem: I love to eat. Especially deserts. Speaking of...gotta go...

Well, these are my ambitions. Check back in 12 months and I'll remember to fess up on how I did.

1 comment:

Tamsyn said...

Two years on, how did you do?