Talk about backwards!

While I originally wasn't going to go to classes yesterday, I did anyway. It was an off week, since we had just had graduation, and I knew it'd be "fun week" (although fun week isn't fun, it just is doing drills and working on stuff without doing specific forms,etc.) Originally, I was going to go watch my son at soccer, but despite the glorious weather we've finally had after a dragged out winter and a massive Nor'Easter this past week, some of the fields were still flooded, so they cancelled soccer. (Drew was disappointed, for sure, and so was I!). Sandy asked if I was going, so I said sure, no reason not to now. I knew, after banging my bad knee on my desk very hard, that sparring would be out. So I didn't go to that class. Although when I got there, it looks like RA was teaching them ground fighting, and that's always fun.

Forms class was just doing drill and such, and some races with basic skills. While I had to slow down at a certain point because my asthma started kicking in, for two heavy Mommies, Sandy and I could keep up with the kids! :-) (Her even better than me!) We were partnered up, of course, so it worked out since we were the only two adults in the classes.

Weapons didn't yield a whole lot. We are starting with SJB again. My plan is to get the drills I need to know for red/black's 1st cycle down first (I think I have most of that down anyway pretty well), and I'll think about starting to learn doubles. Man, doubles are certainly harder! I know Sandy has another old style SJB, and maybe she'd be willing to sell it to me since she's got the nice new Dragon ones, and I'd rather have the old style ones. (Sandy? Name your reasonable price!) The alternative for leadership this cycle is Sam Dong Bong, but that's such a 2nd degree weapon that I'd just as soon skip that until I have to do it. I think I have enough weapons as is!

Finally, there was board breaking class. That class is usually pretty short, as it's a matter of doing some stretches and drills with your kick or hand break with pads, and then you go for it with your board. I waited until last to do my break, because I usually need two adults/teens to hold my board being the big girl that I am. Well, I was getting my foot in the right vicinity, but I kept hitting the board with my toe, which isn't right since it's supposed to be with the ball of my foot. For whatever bizarre reason, when I flex my toes of my right foot to break a board or whatever, my toes spread out. I can't flex and keep the toes together for some odd reason. I can do it with my left foot with no problem. While Jason K was helping, and giving some good pointers, I asked him to humor me, and see what would happen if I did the break with my left foot instead. He had no problem, assuring me that this was the time to play with the breaks and see what works, because we have about 2 months to figure it out, so now was as good a time as any to try something different. So, we lined up the board, and I took my practice shots. Hmm, that seemed to be more on target, strangely enough, at least with foot position. It took about 3-4 tries, but I finally broke the board-- with my left foot, no less! That's my OPPOSITE foot for breaking usually. Hey, I'm not going to question it, because if it works, it works! I think SW will be a little taken aback, but I think she'll agree that if it works, don't change it. It wasn't working the other way, and even Jason said that if it was the first time that I was breaking it with my left, and I got it after a few tries like I did, I should be in good shape as I practice during the cycle. So I was happy about that. Roundkicks, unlike run-jum-sidekicks, are more often done for testing breaks, so it's good that I figure this out now!

In looking ahead to the breaks that I can do for 1st degree promotion, most people do either a roundkick-reverse sidekick combo, or reverse punch-step forward reverse sidekick. Me, I'm looking at the other options, as there are 2 others. One is a back elbow-run jump side kick over one obstacle. I think I'm a little too old for that, and I had enough problems with the regular jump side kick that I don't think it's worth it. The other one sounds the best so far-- back elbow-jump front kick at face level. Front kicks have usually been pretty easy for me, and getting it to face level, even though I'm pretty tall--- yeah, I think I can do it with enough stretching. I don't know the proper way yet to do that, but in my imagination, it shouldn't be too bad.

But I should probably conquer this "backwards" roundkick first. ;-) It's not really backwards, if you think about it. After all, theoretically, you should be able to break with either foot if you are moving on your way up. Yes, you have one foot more dominant than the other, but I would think that as you go up in rank, the idea is that you are balanced and not one side dominant (like in weapons, right?), so doing something whereby you break with what is not traditionally your dominant side shouldn't be that bad. I think it'll just help so much more for me.

So, it was a good set of classes, and we'll see where we go. In Wha #2 is next, and I tend to recall I liked that one better than In Wha #1. Looking over the notes, some of it is coming back to me. It is a harder one to do, because I think there's a jump kick in it, but nothing impossible, since I've done it before. Yeah, I think learning double SJB will keep things interesting for me this cycle, since I'll be doing SJB for two cycles in a row due to rank.

Onto a new cycle, and one step closer to that black belt! :-)