When I'm 53

I turned 53 today. I went to work, and came home to a tasty home-cooked meal of roast chicken and dressing by my wife and daughter. I celebrated my birthday by doing 53 push-ups and 53 sit-ups.

I'm taking the day off tomorrow to take care of some things I just can never get to while I'm at work. Tomorrow I'll make up the martial arts class I missed tonight.

Black Belt Worries

My black belt test is less than two weeks away, and I'm concerned.

I basically have to do three things: 1) 50 pushups in excellent form. 2) 50 situps in a minute. 3) Show I can attack and defend in two 4-minute grappling matches.

I'm worried about the standards I will face for pushups and grappling.

I can do 50 pushups. But I do them with my hands wider than my shoulders. If the standard is to get my chest down to the floor--some judges want that, some don't--I probably won't pass. My shoulders don't move that way. If I had spent several years doing pushups with my hands right next to my torso, it would be easier to get my chest down to the floor, but that's not how I've been training.

I am not a natural grappler. I can't bend my knees as much as I need to really sit on my heels in the guard; I have difficulty remembering and instantly putting into action all the various moves, or even enough of the various moves. I just don't think like a grappler. I'm a much better grappler, I believe, than when I tested two and a half years ago. But again, it depends on the standard of the judges I'll be with.

Tonight, my sensei was telling me many things I need to do better at grappling--sit up in the guard, get out of the guard quickly, move back and push the legs to the side if his feet are in my hips, etc., etc.

The other thing looming over me is that I don't know when I'll be able to test again. I can't keep this pace up. I have, at 52, the most demanding job I've ever had. I am missing classes taking my daughter to visit colleges. I have another child generating a lot of worries for me. My wife misses seeing me because I'm either working or training.

So this feels a bit like a last chance to try for the black belt, for now at least.

Return of the Black Belt Candidate

I've gotten my sensei's permission, so I'm returning to the black belt test on Jan. 21.

It was a bit more than two years ago that I tore my ACL in the final moments of my black belt test, and between ACL diagnosis, surgery, recovery, and work/life overload, I haven't tested since then.

Two years ago I got hurt in the final minutes of the test. I had passed everything except grappling (a bit more on why grappling is part of the test later). My sensei says he's seeking to have my organization grandfather me on all parts of the test except the grappling, but it's been so long I might have to re-test on everything. Best to prepare for the worst case, he says.

I'm off work for two weeks, and I'm going to use this time, as much as I can, to sharpen my skills and improve my endurance. I'm going this morning to the local gym chain, which I had dropped out of earlier this year, so I can run on an elliptical machine on days when I don't have martial arts class (or in the morning before the evening classes). With no work, I can make lots of classes this week as well.

I was most worried about pushups on the pre-test I took Saturday. Pushups, as I've said, are the bane of my existence; to get in the door of the test, I have to do 50. My sensei wanted me to do 75 in the pretest. I did 74 good pushups, one bad pushup, and hit the ground--good enough to pass the pretest. I need to work on my situps, however (50 in a minute at the test), I wasn't getting down far enough.

If I do have to test for everything, there's a lot I need to memorize. Some of the self defense moves have changed a bit since I took my test.

While my school started out as a Shotokan karate school, it has become more of a mixed martial arts organization (no, we don't ground and pound each other in class), but it has retained elements of karate like the black belt test. The complete test for a 52-year-old is:

Do 50 pushups in good form without dropping to the ground
Do 50 situps in a minute
Show good form on punches and kicks using punching mits, kick pads and Muay Thai pads
Show good, quick execution of (I think) 8 self-defense moves
Kickbox five opponents in two minute rounds with only a few moments between rounds
Grapple two opponents in four-minute rounds.

I'll find out early next year whether I just need to do pushups, situps and grappling, or whether I need to do everything.

A 60th Anniversary; A Black Belt Test (Neither Were Mine)

Wow, it's been a while, and there have been a couple of milestones.

On June 14, I was in Virginia for my parents' 60th wedding anniversary, a real achievement. They were tired--heck, they're 88 and 89--so we just had a quiet dinner out. Their faculties are in decline--things like short-term memory and staying on task are difficult--but they're living on their own (with lots of help from my brother, who lives near them), they're enjoying life despite some ailments, and it was great to celebrate their big day with them.

Today I attended the black belt test of two of my friends. Neither passed. They were both disappointed of course.

A brief explanation may be necessary here. My school (a large one in several eastern U.S. states) once was a Shotokan karate school, but it has since morphed into a mixed martial arts school. I just learned this week the school is actually dropping the gi top (there will still be a uniform, but the top won't be a gi). It has retained some elements of karate, such as belts and a big test for the black belt. We're tested for strength (men 50 and older must do 50 pushups in good form, and 50 situps in a minute); for form and power on punches and kicks; for knowledge, form and speed in self-defense moves from various grabs; for kickboxing skill, and grappling skill.

My friend the Hulk was being tested for grappling. Hulk is, as you might guess by the name, incredibly strong; he's in his late 50s and in amazing shape. From what I understand, he didn't pass grappling because he relied on his strength, and didn't demonstrate enough knowledge of grappling technique. He was pretty blue about it.

My friend Larry of the family that fights together, in his late 40s (he gets to do even more pushups and situps in the test) did well on the punches and kicks, but he said was so focused on form in his self-defense routines that he wasn't fast enough, according to the senseis judging him.

It's always easier to see as an outsider that a set-back can be a learning experience; it's much harder to feel that optimistic when the set-back happened to you. Still, I have confidence my friends will join me in September, when I hope to test again.

I have tested twice; what I have left is the pushups and situps (you always have those) and grappling, the test in which I got hurt.

Not Enough Time

It's hard finding time for everything.

I spent some time this morning researching pre-college art summer programs for my daughter, who's a sophomore and really gifted as an artist--not that I would be objective, but her teachers just grab me and rave about her.

My wife has labyrinthitis, which is an inner ear problem that affects balance and lasts for weeks. It's really knocking her out--I feel bad for how wiped out she is. And I need to fill in for her on various chores to keep the house running. From taking my daughter to the PSATs at 7:30 AM to doing another load of laundry at 10 PM, I was busy all day yesterday.

My arms in particular are tired this morning. I worked out from Tuesday through yesterday, Saturday: Gym work (per instructions of private trainer) Tuesday, which was largely core and upper body; Kickboxing Wednesday evening; Gym again (including 20 minutes on the elliptical) Thursday; Bag workout Friday; and Core martial arts Saturday. What I haven't done, despite all this: the "card workout" for push-ups my sensei wants me to do; crunches or sit-ups every day; and physical therapy for my knee (though some of the stuff I'm doing otherwise does have that physical therapy benefit).

I sort of want to work out at the gym today, because it's hard to get all my work done if I go to the gym three days from work. If I do make it to the gym today, I could take Monday for a rest day; or I could do card push-ups or physical therapy, with the idea that I'll be out of town Saturday and Sunday, and those will be my rest days this week.

I'll figure it out and muddle through.

Old Sensei

Yesterday I had a class with my Old Sensei.

When I say Old Sensei, I don't mean he's Mr. Miyagi's age. He's actually in his early thirties, I would guess. I just mean he was my sensei when I joined the school in early 2001, and he is transitioning out of the school--another sensei is taking over, New Sensei, who I would guess is also in his early 30s.

It was good to take a class from Old Sensei. I've always thought of him as the world's strongest rubber band--he's so incredibly flexible--and he has beautiful form. I actually did a few kicks with my left leg by mistake, I was so caught up in the class.

"It's good to sweat again, isn't it?" he asked me after class. He also joked with me about my lack of a suntan--I was wearing shorts, and he said he thought I was wearing white pants. I mostly say out of the sun because I had skin cancer once on my ankle, which was actually one of my motivations for taking up martial arts in middle age.

Today I worked on physical therapy for my knee at home, and plan to do some crunches and sit-ups and slow karate kicks before bed.

Tired!

I'm not accustomed yet to working out so vigorously in the evening, so it was hard falling asleep after my return to karate class, and I had trouble falling and staying asleep. So yesterday, the day after my return, I was exhausted. I think I'll adjust with time and be able to fall asleep quicly and well--I did in the past.

One of the good changes about class is that we do more push-ups and more sit-ups/crunches than before--I had been thinking about staying after class to do more, but it's part of the routine now. So in total, we did 75 push-ups--55 at the start of class, in the pattern of 10 push-ups, followed by a rest while counting to 10, then nine push-ups, followed by a nine count, etc.--then two sets of 10 slowly at the end of class. I did the initial 55 with my arms wide, and the final 10 with my arms close to my sides.

And after doing as many sit-ups (feet and bent legs held down by a partner) as possible in 60 seconds (52 for me), we did I think 40 crunches at the end of class, working on both middle and oblique muscles.

So I may be able to get a pretty full resistance training workout by adding tricep raises on a chair and (this will be new to me) pull-ups after class. Maybe some neck work too, though we do some calisthenics related to the neck at the start of class.