soreness is my friend

Today my back is sore, my pecs are sore and I feel just a little physically tired. For the past three days I've been going like a madwoman and all I've been able to think about is bunkai and kata and holding horse stance. It's so exciting, but I've never been so consumed by karate before! It's really quite fascinating. It's been so hot here in so. VT that training has been quite a sweaty event, but I love it!

You know, I wasn't going to keep up with this blog since I already have another one. But, this is all about my martial arts, which I don't do in the other one specifically. Anyway, I'm finding that I need a place to put my worries, my excitement, that are all for martial arts, specifically martial artists who are also mothers. That poses such a challenge, at least for me. Where to find the time to go to the dojo, how to practice with your two year old running around you. It certainly makes you appreciate the times you go...

Today was the first day I felt confident that I was ready for the shodan shiai. In class I just felt to strong with all my material. I have all the kata down with just a little tweaking here and there, the kehones are strong (just have to go through all the Japanese names a few more times...). The only thing I'm concerned about are the bunkai for all the kata. I have never been taught the bunkai for the last three kata, but I've decided not to worry too much about it. What is important is that I have the older bunkai down cold. One of my challenges in my martial arts path has been to trust my self-defense techniques, more like trusting that they will work. There's been a certain timidity about those moves, mostly because I don't want to hurt my dojo mates. But, if you trust yourself you won't hurt others. If you focus you won't hurt others. There is so much going on all at the same time, it's amazing!!!

Okay, it's taken my two days to write this, mostly because I haven't had a chunk of time to just write. So, I send this off into space...