annuin: (Devi)
So PreZ passed his karate promotion test that he took a week and a half ago, and he was presented with his new yellow belt on Monday. He did well, so I expected him to pass.

The grading was interesting to watch, as there were two people trying for black belts as well, which are always pretty severe gradings (though so are the 2nd to 1st kyu brown belt gradings, but black's even worse). The lower belt you are/are testing for, the more little bits you get to sit down through, especially after kihon (basics/warm-up) as the ido-geiko (moving through stances) gets more complicated, you're allowed to sit them out, and the same for the more advanced kata that are required for higher belts. Black belts also come with high physical requirements, including at least 100 good/proper push-ups, and 15 rounds of 2 minute full contact sparring (with various tournament rules exceptions, like punching to the face etc.), generally with fresh or relatively fresh partners (which is why the dojo likes to have many brown and black belts come and help with the gradings). The rounds of sparring for black belt are pretty much all consecutive, and this comes after you've already done your kihon, ido-geiko, kata and the push-ups... and sparring, especially moderate to full contact, really takes it out of you physically.

Of the two people going for their black belts, one wasn't really up to par, which was noticeable during his push-ups, as eventually his arms weren't moving at all, it was just his butt going up and down in the air, which I doubt really qualifies as a decent push-up. He also didn't do too well during the later sparring rounds. He didn't pass his grading, which apparantly is the second time that he's tried to get his black belt (which at $300 a pop, is an expensive thing as well). The thing with, especially, the black belt gradings, is that you have to train for those suckers months in advance, and train for what is essentially an endurance event. You already have to have your 1st kyu brown belt for at least a year before shihan will even allow you to try and grade for your sho-dan (and you need his approval to grade for the higher belts, especially the ones that come with a minimum wait period), but you definitely need to be on top of your game physically as well, otherwise it's just not going to happen.

I feel bad for the guy though, as it's a good 3-4+ hours of continuous gruelling exercise, which he'd already done once before and failed, and now he'd failed again. However, if you've been at the dojo long enough to get to the point where you can grade for sho-dan, you know what's expected of you, and you should prepare for that... it's not like this kind of thing blindsides you. There are a couple of female 1st kyu belts who are already kickstarting or planning out their training to grade in September or December for their sho-dan.

Me, I'm just going to try and grade for my blue belt in December ;) I have my own endurance event scheduled for July as it is.

ER

Mar. 14th, 2005 07:11 pm
annuin: (Default)
Unless you're bleeding profusely, or look sufficiently horrible, I suggest avoiding the ER. Especially with things that are going to get classed low priority on the triage ranklist.

Otherwise you too might spend a good 5 hours waiting, like we did. At least there's an Au Bon Pain in the hospital.

Upside, when we FINALLY got the x-ray, it at least verified that nothing was broken. They gave him a pair of crutches so he's more mobile with less pain, and a phone number for the Orthopedics department if it doesn't feel any better in a week to ten days, and then we were on our merry way.
annuin: (Apparrliss)
Another promotion test...



And it looks like another trip to the doctor tomorrow. This is a worrying trend :P

This time it's his foot. He was fine when we left the dojo, though it was a bit sore. More sore after we left the Baskin Robbins/Subway/Dunkin Donuts near the dojo, and hobbling-badly sore from the train station home.

Now it's hopping-on-one-leg-through-the-apartment sore. I'll probably either get him to put on some tiger balm or one of the hot/cold/soothing pads that we still have (ah, the freebies they give you at karate tournaments...), but I'm not sure that it'll really make much of a difference. Hopefully it's not a fracture, like last September, when he fractured a rib which meant no training for 4-6 weeks.
annuin: (Default)
Sunday afternoon will mean a couple of hours at the karate dojo as PreZ goes to grade for his yellow belt. I'll be there as moral support, though I'm already not looking forward to needing to get up in about 7 hours.

Neverwinter Nights has its claws in PreZ, hence he's still awake :P

That said, I only stopped playing the Sims 2: University about an hour ago...
annuin: (Default)
My first karate class in about 2 months. I'm sore as hell already, in part due to the large amounts of walking today, to the midwife's office and back, and then tottering around midtown in the maternity Gap and H&M with Kit.

The soreness will of course only be worse tomorrow, when the parts other than my legs start to chime in loudly.

Lunch at the Irish pub near prezPreZ's work, which was really yummy. Kit met us for lunch which was cool... as was the weather. Fucking freezing again today, though not as cold as it was on Tuesday, which had windchill in the negative fahrenheit even, which isn't a temperature we reach that frequently here, even in winter. Lunch for me was the chicken pot pie, which tempted me last time and which was lovely and had a delicious flaky crust. I was tempted to get the fish and chips again like last time, which was phenomenal, but refrained and decided to try something else instead. PreZ had the shepard's pie, which he's had once before and loved. Kit got a burger and a huge plate of homestyle fries which looked awesome too.

And now I must go collapse into bed.



* Okay, I have no kingdom, but I'd still love a massage

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annuin: (Default)
Marieke

May 2011

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