Tuesday, July 3, 2007

my welcome letter

This is not my first blog, but the first time I will be dedicating a blog to my black belt journey. I have been studying a style known as Koro Ken (mind/spirit fist) that was created by Sensei Richard Morallo (koroken.com). It's origins lie in Goju Ryu and is a very beautiful, yet deadly, form of martial arts. My sensei, Sensei Jon Bottomms, is an incredible man who leads his students on this amazing journey. We talk about moving from hara, about kimei, about fajing. Never before have I gained so much insight into myself and what I was capable of doing with my body, mind and spirit. Now I am reaching the first end to this long journey with the training for my black belt. The shiai will be on August 22 and I'm definitely scared, definitely feeling that I won't be prepared, but am definitely, absolutely excited. Martial arts is my life, it's how I live my life, how I interact with people, how I do my job (massage therapy). If any of you who read this have any wisdom on black belt training, please feel free to comment. One of the obstacles, which occurs at the very end of the shiai, is doing 100 pushups. Not a huge hurdle, but one that will be difficult after performing for almost two hours straight. We do a lot of sparring, a lot of kehones, holding horse stance for five minutes of more, a lot of kata and bunkai. I will not be the only one testing, which is a good thing. Another woman and maybe two or three other young martial artists (middle teens) will be testing as well. The more the merrier. This test is not closed to the public, so there will be an audience. Oh, I'm so excited and the whole day I have been thinking how I can step up the training. I also have a husband and a two year old son, so making the time isn't always an option. I often find myself kicking up and down my driveway and doing kata on the grass as my son plays around me. He will often join me in his own way, which is so incredibly cute. Any other karate parents out there? How do you fit your martial arts training in with young children and spouses who do not do karate? My husband often just doesn't understand that I need to participate in more classes, but we're working on that....selfish me...

4 comments:

frotoe said...

Hey! You should keep up with this blog! there are a lot of Martial arts moms out there, me being one of them. I just got my black belt last october in Shorin Ryu Shidokan karate. My son has his 2nd degree. My daughter took it up until she was a 1st kyu brown belt and my husband doesn't take it at all. come visit my blog and check out the blog links- there are a lot of us! http://frotoe.blogspot.com

Perpetual Beginner said...

Frotoe is right, there are lots of us out here. Glad to have you on-line as well!

I'm a purple belt/san-kyu in Isshinryu, which is another "child" of Gojoryu karate, being based primarily of Gojoryu and Shorinryu styles. Unless something interferes, I should test for ni-kyu brown sometime this fall or early winter, and from there it's between a year and two years to black.

I have two boys (7 & 9), neither currently in karate, though my eldest dabbled for a while, and may yet come back. My husband does not currently take karate. It's definitely a juggling act to find the time to practice without cutting too deeply into family time.

Becky G said...

Welcome to the Martial Arts blogosphere! I'm also a karate mom. I am a shodan in Isshinryu (yes, I've met and trained with Perpetual beginner), and my son is a san-kyu--which is a third grade brown.

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