Saturday, November 03, 2007

Black Belt Testing - Power Weekend Part2

sparing stance


john jumping


This morning was the culmination of the black belt testing. We all made it. Not a surprise but a big relief. Aieesa!



It was great. At the finish, it was fun and exciting. It was hard but frankly, there were much harder days of training along the way. The hardest days (for me) were the days with 6 sparing matches plus the timed 2 mile run.

For me, the best parts were doing a series of kata with the team and the sparing. Both represented the culmination of years of effort and demonstrating technique, teamwork, agility, skills, and reactions. The board breaking, partner drills, and physical training outside were fun but didn't have the emotional impact to me of the core curriculum materials of kata and sparing.








The sparing video below (of Jay and me, I'm in the short sleeves) was my final match of the day....I can't decide if I'm proud or ashamed of it but, since it's my only video, it's going up.






It is a great learning tool. I am moving alot, my hands are mostly up where they should be, it's mostly combinations ("punches in bunches") and we're in a nice flow.






On the side of what to improve, I'm mostly circling the wrong way (towards his power side), my kicking is stuck in a pattern of low single roundhouses, I'm never staying inside, I'm relying way too much on my jab, I seem to have forgotten how to hook, and I'm backing out instead of angling. And sometimes my hands are down which Jay seems pretty good at picking up on. This is btw, the first time I've seen a video of me sparing. I'm fascinated (obsessed?) by it.














1 comment:

Blackbeltmama said...

I can't even imagine what I would look like on video sparring. I shudder to think. . .

. . . especially the episode where I blew out my knee. Ugh.

Congrats on getting through your testing! You must feel so excited!