Life has been very busy lately, and I haven't been keeping up with blogs (mine or others') lately. As I tell people, quoting a favorite old boss of mine, I've been busier than a one-legged man at a butt-kicking contest.
Now, however, I'm on vacation. I kick back, read a few posts--and find that everybody is falling apart.
Hack Shaft, an energetic tae kwan do student, in November (on election night) got a second ACL injury. He's already gone through his operation. He's still got a great attitude, but I can't believe he's going through ACL reconstruction again.
And witty blogger Black Belt Mama is going to have, in effect, her ACL repair repaired in January. She's got a protruding sheath from the prior ACL surgery that needs fixing.
I feel for both of them--I was groaning out loud as I was getting caught up on their blogs. And it's a reminder that, while athletics and martial arts will help preserve our minds, bodies and spirits in the long run, we are running risks in the short run.
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
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.
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.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Mind Over Genes
There's an article in the NY Times this morning about a company offering a test claiming to help determine what kind of athletics would best suit a child - speed/power or endurance. It has to do with a variant of a gene that makes a protein found in fast-twitch muscles.
The article is full of caveats - there is an Olympic long-jumper from Spain who has the "wrong" gene variant for his sport, for instance, and hundreds of genes are probably involved in setting the foundations for successful athletes. And there are lots of cautionary quotes in the story about narrowing down a child's options for sports.
But I'm sure the website of the testing company, atlasgene.com, will get a million hits today.
In a way, I'd be curious to know if, by taking up martial arts late in life, I "wasted" a lot of potential - or whether, by contrast, I would have always run into pretty severe limitations.
But I also think it might undermine me psychologically to find out that, say, I don't really have the right gene variants for top fast-twitch muscles. Maybe it would make me work less hard on push-ups, for instance, making it easier to say, "Oh, I'll never be able to do enough."
The article is full of caveats - there is an Olympic long-jumper from Spain who has the "wrong" gene variant for his sport, for instance, and hundreds of genes are probably involved in setting the foundations for successful athletes. And there are lots of cautionary quotes in the story about narrowing down a child's options for sports.
But I'm sure the website of the testing company, atlasgene.com, will get a million hits today.
In a way, I'd be curious to know if, by taking up martial arts late in life, I "wasted" a lot of potential - or whether, by contrast, I would have always run into pretty severe limitations.
But I also think it might undermine me psychologically to find out that, say, I don't really have the right gene variants for top fast-twitch muscles. Maybe it would make me work less hard on push-ups, for instance, making it easier to say, "Oh, I'll never be able to do enough."
Saturday, November 15, 2008
Courage
I am trying out a new schedule for martial arts. After a stretch where crises at work and home really ate into my time for training, I'm now going four hours a week--an hour Tuesday night, two hours Friday night, and an hour on Saturday.
Last night, I had an hour of intermediate-advance grappling (a new thing for me and my school) and an hour of sparring.
The grappling was fun; I learned a new move, the Darse (Darce? Maybe Steve knows) choke, in which you can use someone's locked arms around your neck against them from side control (I know this is gibberish to traditional martial artists, apologies).
And in sparring, I had an important lesson.
Brandon, a second-degree black belt in my school, is my nemesis. I don't mean that phrase as in he's mean or out to get me or evil or anything. I like Brandon, he's a polite young man in his 20s. He's a great athlete, V-shaped torso, all that. He's really fast, and strong, and he's really, really a challenge for me in sparring.
(A digression: Once I was writing to my friend Wendy about how Brandon was just kicking my tail in an effort to prepare me for a tournament some years back. Her response was classic: "This is great. It's so much more important to get beaten up by a 20-year-old with a V-shaped torso than by paunchy middle-aged men in a meeting at work.")
So anyway, Friday night, Brandon several times would slip my jab, move in and throw a flurry of punches. While he's not throwing as hard as he can, the punches do hurt.
My quite natural reaction was to move - walk - backwards, lean away, do anything to get away from the punches.
What my sensei pointed out to me--and to all the other people in class who had the same reaction to his flurries--that we were just opening ourselves up for even more punishment by moving backwards. We were placing ourselves at the far end of his punches, where they have the most power. We were loosening our bodies instead of tightening them. We were opening up and making ourselves more vulnerable.
You can try to do other things, like move to the side. But what he told us to do was grab the mat with our feet, stand our ground, tuck our chin down, protect our head and torso with our arms, and keep our eyes open. When he's in close, his punches won't have as much power. Our bodies and defenses will be closed and tight. And we will be able to look for an opening. A single return punch, even if it doesn't land well, will tend to stop the flurry and make him instinctually move backwards, giving the defender a chance to breathe again. Also, standing your ground can allow you to lock up the person's arms so he can't keep punching.
This is great theory, it all makes sense. What it takes to put into practice is courage.
The characters above are, according to japanese.about.com, kanji for courage.
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Sparring
I had a good sparring session Friday night--it was fun, I learned stuff, and I did well.
I had two opponents who particularly posed challenges. Anthony is maybe an inch taller than me at 6'3.5"; usually I have a reach advantage against opponents. I'd say he's late 30s or early 40s.
Mitch, a brown belt in his 40s, is a southpaw, very fast, technically very good, and has usually posed real difficulty for me in sparring. His punches and kicks seem to be coming from the wrong direction to me since he's mirroring my stance.
With both, I was trying to move my head while I threw my punches, which helps avoid getting dinged at the same time that you punch somebody. I do remember at least a couple of times when an opponent's punch sailed past my ear while my punch landed, which was a thrill.
With tall Anthony, I was trying to get inside at times. I would throw a jab while moving my head to the right, and step inside. Often at that point he would clinch me, but I worked on continuing to throw punches from the inside, or working to get a knee kick. Honestly, one of the things that helped me was that he was very tired, he was on his third hour of working out.
Sensei was showing Mitch and me that, as a righty-lefty pair, our power sides (right for me, left for him) were very open to attack, requiring us to be SURE to move our heads when throwing a power punch; and that we should try to position our front feet outside our opponent's front foot (which can lead to an interesting dance when you're both moving in the same direction).
It occurs to me that this is probably all too technical for people who pursue very different martial arts, but I guess one function of this post is to remind me to do these things in the future.
I was able to keep Mitch, who's a bit shorter than me, at the outside of my range with my punches and kicks; sensei mentioned this to me afterwards and I felt like a million bucks.
One thing I really need to work on is keeping my hands up, which can get tiring when you're wearing 16-ounce gloves. Often I hold my hands about at chin level when I'm sparring, which in our school (where you can punch to the head, though in class we do take it easy) is too low. I don't know why I do that, because in drills I do keep my hands up higher. A bad old habit, I guess, but one that I now know I need to work on.
I had two opponents who particularly posed challenges. Anthony is maybe an inch taller than me at 6'3.5"; usually I have a reach advantage against opponents. I'd say he's late 30s or early 40s.
Mitch, a brown belt in his 40s, is a southpaw, very fast, technically very good, and has usually posed real difficulty for me in sparring. His punches and kicks seem to be coming from the wrong direction to me since he's mirroring my stance.
With both, I was trying to move my head while I threw my punches, which helps avoid getting dinged at the same time that you punch somebody. I do remember at least a couple of times when an opponent's punch sailed past my ear while my punch landed, which was a thrill.
With tall Anthony, I was trying to get inside at times. I would throw a jab while moving my head to the right, and step inside. Often at that point he would clinch me, but I worked on continuing to throw punches from the inside, or working to get a knee kick. Honestly, one of the things that helped me was that he was very tired, he was on his third hour of working out.
Sensei was showing Mitch and me that, as a righty-lefty pair, our power sides (right for me, left for him) were very open to attack, requiring us to be SURE to move our heads when throwing a power punch; and that we should try to position our front feet outside our opponent's front foot (which can lead to an interesting dance when you're both moving in the same direction).
It occurs to me that this is probably all too technical for people who pursue very different martial arts, but I guess one function of this post is to remind me to do these things in the future.
I was able to keep Mitch, who's a bit shorter than me, at the outside of my range with my punches and kicks; sensei mentioned this to me afterwards and I felt like a million bucks.
One thing I really need to work on is keeping my hands up, which can get tiring when you're wearing 16-ounce gloves. Often I hold my hands about at chin level when I'm sparring, which in our school (where you can punch to the head, though in class we do take it easy) is too low. I don't know why I do that, because in drills I do keep my hands up higher. A bad old habit, I guess, but one that I now know I need to work on.
Friday, October 24, 2008
Black Belt Blues (apologies to the similarly named blog)
(You should know that Black Belt Blues is the name of a blog by a recoveree from ACL reconstruction, and an excellent place to visit.)
It's been a busy fall so far for me. Last weekend was the first time in six weeks that I haven't worked on a Sunday--but I did go to Virginia to take care of my parents. A tree had fallen on their porch--and on my Dad's beloved 20-year-old pickup truck. The pickup was crushed, the porch was heavily damaged.
So my Dad, at 88, went out to try and clean things up. Instead, he fell, impaled his arm on some wreckage, and got a nasty, nasty puncture wound.
So I went down to spend the weekend. He needed more stitches, and he needed reminders to take his antibiotics every day.
Between work, family and the trip to Virginia, I am pretty sure that last week was the first time since recovering from my ACL injury that I didn't attend a single martial arts class (apart from vacation weeks spent out of town). That's how busy it's been.
When I got back, I went to class on Tuesday--and found that two of my contemporaries, Warren and Larry, both 51, had gone to the black belt test on Sunday and had gotten their black belts. I was thrilled for them, and they were so happy.
I would be less than totally honest if I didn't also say I was feeling a bit blue that I wasn't there to get my belt with them. They both said I should have been there to get the belt also. Between work, hurting my shoulder and just not having time to train, I knew I wouldn't be able to test this past Sunday. With everything still going on, I do wonder when I'll be able to test.
Tonight, I go to sparring class. We'll see how much of a hindrance my lack of consistent conditioning poses.
It's been a busy fall so far for me. Last weekend was the first time in six weeks that I haven't worked on a Sunday--but I did go to Virginia to take care of my parents. A tree had fallen on their porch--and on my Dad's beloved 20-year-old pickup truck. The pickup was crushed, the porch was heavily damaged.
So my Dad, at 88, went out to try and clean things up. Instead, he fell, impaled his arm on some wreckage, and got a nasty, nasty puncture wound.
So I went down to spend the weekend. He needed more stitches, and he needed reminders to take his antibiotics every day.
Between work, family and the trip to Virginia, I am pretty sure that last week was the first time since recovering from my ACL injury that I didn't attend a single martial arts class (apart from vacation weeks spent out of town). That's how busy it's been.
When I got back, I went to class on Tuesday--and found that two of my contemporaries, Warren and Larry, both 51, had gone to the black belt test on Sunday and had gotten their black belts. I was thrilled for them, and they were so happy.
I would be less than totally honest if I didn't also say I was feeling a bit blue that I wasn't there to get my belt with them. They both said I should have been there to get the belt also. Between work, hurting my shoulder and just not having time to train, I knew I wouldn't be able to test this past Sunday. With everything still going on, I do wonder when I'll be able to test.
Tonight, I go to sparring class. We'll see how much of a hindrance my lack of consistent conditioning poses.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Shoulder Improving; Dance As Exercise
After my doctor visit, resulting in the torn labrum diagnosis, I spoke with some friends from my martial arts school who said this particular doctor is something of an alarmist. So I have been planning to visit another orthopedic doctor, but haven't had time to see one yet--the financial crisis is having me working six days a week and long hours each day. (My own view is that we're going to see what the Great Depression would have been like had regulators back then known more and acted faster.)
Due to this work demand, and due to my desire to also spend time with family despite all this work, I also haven't been able to make many of my classes. And in class, I've been mostly avoiding using my left shoulder whenever possible--not doing two-handed push-ups, for instance.
The good news is that the shoulder is getting better, whether due to this benign neglect or in spite of it. I actually recently started doing two-handed push-ups again, and my shoulder didn't hurt. I'm not going nuts and doing tons of push-ups, I don't want to push the envelope. I stopped Saturday at 50.
If things continue this way, I may not need that second doctor visit (or a $300 co-pay for an MRI) at all.
This past week I was only at two hour-long martial arts classes. The week before, only three hours. That's not enough to improve, and not enough to maintain a very high state of cardio, but It's enough, I hope to keep the rust off me.
And some of my off day time with family involves fun, moderate exercise.
On a couple of Wednesday nights, for instance, my wife and I have gone to dance class. The first 45 minutes we work on salsa--which really gets your feet moving--and then next 45 we work on a different dance--tango one night, waltz the other. According to this interesting calorie calculator, half an hour of salsa would burn (at my weight) 210 calories, and half an hour of waltz or tango would burn 140 calories. (I'm not calculating the whole 45 minutes because of instruction time.)
While this is only moderate exercise, there's a lot of evidence that moderate exercise leads to huge health gains--indeed, this article in Science Daily says there are huge health benefits to regular moderate exercise. I wouldn't use dancing to prepare for a tournament or black belt test, but if your goal is to be healthy, regular moderate exercise, from what I read, is really great.
Plus, dancing is fun.
Due to this work demand, and due to my desire to also spend time with family despite all this work, I also haven't been able to make many of my classes. And in class, I've been mostly avoiding using my left shoulder whenever possible--not doing two-handed push-ups, for instance.
The good news is that the shoulder is getting better, whether due to this benign neglect or in spite of it. I actually recently started doing two-handed push-ups again, and my shoulder didn't hurt. I'm not going nuts and doing tons of push-ups, I don't want to push the envelope. I stopped Saturday at 50.
If things continue this way, I may not need that second doctor visit (or a $300 co-pay for an MRI) at all.
This past week I was only at two hour-long martial arts classes. The week before, only three hours. That's not enough to improve, and not enough to maintain a very high state of cardio, but It's enough, I hope to keep the rust off me.
And some of my off day time with family involves fun, moderate exercise.
On a couple of Wednesday nights, for instance, my wife and I have gone to dance class. The first 45 minutes we work on salsa--which really gets your feet moving--and then next 45 we work on a different dance--tango one night, waltz the other. According to this interesting calorie calculator, half an hour of salsa would burn (at my weight) 210 calories, and half an hour of waltz or tango would burn 140 calories. (I'm not calculating the whole 45 minutes because of instruction time.)
While this is only moderate exercise, there's a lot of evidence that moderate exercise leads to huge health gains--indeed, this article in Science Daily says there are huge health benefits to regular moderate exercise. I wouldn't use dancing to prepare for a tournament or black belt test, but if your goal is to be healthy, regular moderate exercise, from what I read, is really great.
Plus, dancing is fun.
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