While summer is now upon us, I'm starting to feel the pull of it more than I really have before. Maybe it's this new house I'm living in and the pool. I am using it more than I expected, and doing a lot more swimming (not laps, but chasing my son in the pool, swimming back and forth, diving for toys that made it to the bottom of the deep end, etc.) than expected. And for me due to my "voluptuousness", as my husband is kind enough to call it, I tend to float very easily, but if I want to swim underwater, well it takes more effort.
Anyway, what does this have to do with TKD? Well, I'm feeling a little bored and burnt out. Nothing new there. I was having a conversation after a bad day on Wednesday with VP, and even she said that since she got her 3rd degree back in April, she hasn't really been taking any classes and has just been teaching. She commended me for coming in for classes more than she was at this point, even if it was once a week! I'm having big problems with my knee again, and the only consistent part of it is when I have to do stances and bear weight on the one leg more than the other. Then again, the other knee is starting to bother me too, but I can grit and bear that one. Thus, it makes it a little hard to fully get into doing forms. Weapons are generally easy, even if I'm not practicing it much. I've done all of it, many times before, just have to get the flow of the strike lines down better, but that's not hard. My sparring, is okay as long as my knee hold up during the bout. That was evident again on Wednesday. Today, I only went to board breaking class. I hadn't worked on my foot break yet, and at the 3rd try, I got it. It's a #3 jump front kick. (Hey, at least it's not a run-jump-front kick, although I think I could do that more easily than the run-jump-sidekick.) I think I'm in good shape.
So stuff we are going over is pretty bland for me right now. I actually wish I had some more challenging stuff to do. I know that once I hit 1st degree, I'll be doing the same form for 2 years, but that's okay, because each cycle there's something different going on with weapons and board breaks, so that will keep things interesting. But add the knee problem into the picture, and well, I'm not very motivated.
And I'm so not motivated at the moment that I'm debating whether I should even consider participating in the local tournament in a month or not. I doubt I'll have my whole form in good enough shape, especially with my bad stances. I thought about doing only weapons, which IS allowed. But I know Sandy didn't like that idea because she felt that somehow it wouldn't be fair. Well, I've thought about that, but ultimately, sorry, it's about what I feel most comfortable with, and what's "legal" to do. Yeah, I could go in and do a half-ass job on my forms, but why would I spend good money to do that? Weapons only takes 20 seconds. If I only did weapons, then I better the odds for the few people that do weapons for points, and additionally, if I stepped out of forms and sparring, I better the odds for those who can do better than me. I dunno. I'll be thinking about it right up until the event, I'm sure. I'm not going to sign up until I am sure, even if that's the night before. I guess it's just a "we'll see" thing for now.
So, I'm not taking any breaks completely, simply because I am SO close to getting my black belt, that I just can't stop now. I am now wishing that I had done Boot Camp this week, so I could have the summer off, since I wasn't working this week. But instead, I just stayed away for a while. I think I needed the break. I still need a break, but I don't think I can do that until this time next year, just due to both getting my black belt, and competition reasons (I can only compete as a 30-something black belt for less than a year, so might as well take advantage of that, then reassess.)
Dang knee. Darn burnout.
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2 comments:
When you go for your black belt, will they test you for weapons?
Hey John--
Yes, they test on weapons too. In fact, when you hit the 1BR level, which I'm at, at some places this is where you first have to actually test for it. Because I've been doing them so long at testings when it wasn't required, I'm not too worried about it. The first cycles we have to do single numchaka/SJB drills. The second cycle, when you are eligible to actually get the black belt in hand, then you have to do short stick/BME. SJBs have never been my forte in the weapons foray, but with BME I'm sure I'll be fine. They test on form, weapons, sparring, and board breaks. In most cases, at least in my experience, it takes a lot to have to screw up on the first three, and if you didn't pass, it's because you couldn't get the board breaks. I'm not too worried about the board breaks. You have your choice of 4 combinations, and I've chosen a fairly easy one-- a reverse/back elbow and a jump-front kick. I've only attempted each of them at one class each, and in just learning them, I got the breaks in within 2-3 attempts. So I'm confident that come October, I'll be doing them in my sleep. ;-)
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