Karate stuff

So, two months in, and I'm getting better! I know two ways to knock somebody to the ground; a couple combo moves for defensive attacks; a bit of rolling; I can do 40 pushups before I have to stop, breathe a bit, and do 20 more; and she only corrects me half the time now! The hardest part is putting things together smoothly. I know, for example, how side kick and how to forward punch, but landing the sidekick into the forward stance while punching and keeping my guard up at the same time is a lot harder than it looks when I don't have time to pause and think it through in the middle! Of course just as I learn something well enough to start forming muscle memory for it, we move on to something completely different (thanks, Monty Python) and I don't have time to really start getting good at anything. I just need to keep working hard and practise a lot.

The more I do things, the more confident I get though. I think my punches are less wimpy than they were.

I always struggle with the yelling thing. You need to yell "kya!" or make some "hyuh!" kind of noise every time you kick or punch, and by the time I've remembered all the moves properly I've forgotten to yell anything. Plus, I keep imagining my kindergarden teacher yelling "USE YOUR INDOOR VOICES!" so I'm not very good at being loud when I'm actually not confident in what I'm doing.

I'm starting to get a little muscle showing in my arms again, though, which is nice. I think it's all the pushups.

They use torture tactics at my dojo. Warm-ups consist of fooling you into thinking "I can do this, it's not too bad!" and quickly changing your mind to thinking "holy crap I'm going to fall over and pass out in a second!" For example, there are often sequences of walking from one end of the room to the other on your feet and hands with your bum straight up in the air, dropping into a pushup and walking backwards in the same fashion to the end of the room you started from. Then they're like "now come back and do two pushups! and then three!" and I want to cry a little. By the time they get to 10 I can hardly manage to walk back with my hands on the ground. Then it's reverse sit ups (lifting your legs) and jumping over ropes. As soon as you can't move anymore the actual training part starts. But I really feel so good after, and need someone kicking my butt because I don't motivate myself to exercise. And you can bet I sleep well that night.

In fact, I never have insomnia nights anymore. I think i've had two or three nights that I couldn't sleep in the last three months whereas it used to be every night or every other night.

ANyway, making some snack bars now, with hemp seeds, almonds, dates, honey and butter. nom nom! Maybe some chocolate chips since Chris suggested I melt chocolate on top but I'm too lazy :p