Update on our progress

My core is getting stronger.  Now after 9 weeks of training, I have gotten much better at the pre-class exercises: UPS (push legs to the ceiling while laying down), PIVOTS (laying on back shooting legs to ceiling while pivoting 180 degrees) and SHRIMPS (rolling on side, lock feet to mat, push rear out to form an “L” with the body, push arms out to push away from the invisible person, repeat on the other side to “shrimp” across the whole floor)

We have spent a great deal of time learning and understanding the small details of Palgae 6, Palgae 7, Grappling pattern and Stick disarms.

Grappling is interesting.  It is based in Jujitsu.  It looks a little bit like floor wrestling.  It ends with a choke hold which should be done hard enough to cause your partner to cough because they were chocked.  I have definitely gotten better in grappling but my body still doesn’t like it.  My neck & shoulders get completely tweaked.  I have now scheduled appointments with my Chiropractor every 3-weeks to put some of the bones back in place.  I still get my monthly massages and have now added massages through work about every other week to get about 3 massages a month.  I need to do everything I can to keep my body functioning properly.

I have a love/hate going on with Stick Disarms.  If I could just focus on learning the moves I would be ok.  I learn by mentally picturing the moves.  But….part of the program is See It/ Say It/ Do It which means we have to “SAY” the words as we are doing the activity which is supposed to help us learn.  I know this method works for children but for me it actually makes it harder to learn it and puts the mountain bigger.  I NOW have to learn words and actions and time them at the same moment.  I still haven’t memorized the words yet.  I’ve tried writing them down about 6 times and it still hasn’t stuck.  From a learning perspective, this is going to be my tough one to over come.  Raquel already has the words/action memorized.  Lupe is farther along them me but not quite to Raquel’s level.

Our Black Belt application package has to be turned in no later than August 2.  It has 10 essay questions in addition to our info sheet.  We also have to get a physical.  I got my physical a couple weeks ago and finally got my blood work done last weekend.  I now have to get the medical release form to my doctor to complete.  I have asked her to make sure she notes the issues with my knees so I can qualify for the “injured” group during testing.   Raquel has her appt for her physical tomorrow.  I’m taking the form with me so hopefully we can get it signed during the appt.  I’m confidant I can get the essay questions completed, but I’m dreading the challenge to get Raquel to complete them.  She has ½-day camps next week so I’ve set a schedule that Raquel needs to work for 1-1/2 hr each morning on her Black Belt Application and her Grade 3-4 Bridging book.  I REALLY REALLY hope she completes the time and makes daily progress.

This Saturday, July 10th is our first WCWMA Association training.  MASTER Ernie Reyes will be our instructor.  I’m looking forward to the training.  I’m just not necessarily excited about the time.  We have to be at Santa Clara University by 6:40am to be ready to start training at 7am for about 2 hrs.  We will have 10-12 Saturday association training session which is going to be challenging but fun.

More later… thanks for following our progress.

Cheryl

A lot of respect for working parents who earn Black Belts

Tonight we practiced Palgae 6 & 7 forms and I found my techniques were not as good as they were 6-weeks ago when we were practicing them in class every day for about a week.  Realistically to succeed we have to practice ALL the various forms and moves every week to perfect our skills which is very daunting to accomplish when you are a working parent who has a full time job, responsibilities to raise your child, maintain a house and still train 5-days a week AND then find time to practice ALL the skills.  Not to mention complete the Black Belt application packet with 10 essay questions and also learn and memorize the meaning of Mastery, the levels of mastery and all the other various Black Belt Life Skills.

To all you working parents who are First Degree Black Belts and above I salute you for your accomplishment.

Not a good training last night

Our training last night left me very unhappy and in pain.  It really slapped me in the face that I am a middle age woman with a very sedetary job that is trying to particapte in a program designed for children.  Children’s body react and recover very differently from a 48-year old woman. 

All my joints are so inflamed.  I was trying to bring the swelling down by icing both knees and my lower back last night but they are still not well today.  I have conditioning class in an hour and I’m dreading it.  I wish this was a case of sore muscle that I could just work through but its the joints which is a whole other story.

I had a good conversation with my massage therapist who was suggesting I add tai chi to my schedule.  I need to strengthen the whole body and doing cardio isn’t going to do that for me since it has so much fast movement I would just be inflamming my joints more not helping my body.

I’m not giving up but I have a lot of work to do to figure out how “I” can last this six month training without being injured and then would have to quit.

Till next time….

Cheryl

Successful training day (May 3)

Today’s class started out a little rough for me but then it improved very quickly.

We had to lie on the ground and put our legs in the air and lift our butts up.  This move was sooo hard.  It hurt my back a lot.  KJN Joe was telling me to raise my legs higher but I knew there was no way I could. This is tied to my “core” so I need to do some research and see what other moves I can do to build it up without hurting my back.

Then the class got very interesting.  KJN Joe had us do a “Shrimp Crawl”.  This is where we lay on our backs and roll to one side; lock our feet on the ground, push our legs out which slides our butt up and causes us to “crawl”.  Repeat on the other side.

This next exercise was even crazier.  We lay on the ground with our feet up; used the legs of a partner as leverage to “rotate” ourselves around 180 degrees.  KJN Joe told us we could move faster if we lifted out butts up and try to rotate on our shoulders.  It was hard but enjoyable.

The class ended with KJN Joe teaching us the first three moves of Palgue 7.  It was so great being taught the small moves that are required to perform it well.  We’ve been doing Palgue 7 for about eight months and the “tweaks” were wonderful.

He said he was focusing on Palgue 7 to get us ready for the Tournament on June 5th.  I wish I had know the next Tournament was going to be June 5th.  Raquel & I are going to have to miss it.   (BUMMER) In January, I had signed up my Girl Scout Brownie Troop to go to Camporee which is June 5th /6th.  I’m the leader so I can’t back out of it.   Lupe will have to go and represent all of us.  I also found out that the candidates will get a training session with KJN Ernie Reyes Sr that day.  (Another bummer)

At the end of class, KJN Joe said the way to get better is to practice.  So I’m listening but my mind is going when?????    So now I know in addition to class almost every day we have to some carve out 15 min or so to practice every day. Hmmmmm   More figuring out.

Till next time… Cheryl

Attended the Spring 2010 Black Belt Testing

Personally being friends with seven of the 1^st Degree candidates and friends/acquaintances with all three 2^nd degree candidates and five of the 3^rd degree candidates made this Black Belt Test very meaningful.

I thought I learned a lot watching 1^st degree kids testing last time.  I learned about 200% more this time.  In additional to cheering everyone on, I focused on the “logistics” of the testing.  I know KJN Joe will prepare us to do well during the testing but the more I can figure out things ahead, the better it is for me.  (Part of the control freak in me)

My biggest aha this time is my endurance is still not what it needs to be.  Testing day is exhausting especially for the adults.

Here is the schedule they went through

• Arrive some time around 7:15am.
• Testing starts at 8am.
• Test for 2 hours straight with no break!
• Short break then some practice for the evening show.
• Watch the under 13 year, 1^st degree testing.
• ALL testers practiced for the evening show.
• Couple hour break
• Return around 4pm
• Wait for the show to start at 5pm.

The show was over 3-1/2 hrs long!  It didn’t end until close to 8:30pm.

The candidates then had to change and go out for the 1-hour conditioning test.  After the conditioning, they had their victory lap followed by testimonials.  They didn’t leave the field until after 11pm.   All the Santa Teresa Black Belts then went for a celebration meal together.  Since we were neither candidates nor Black Belts we didn’t feel we “earned” the right to attend.  We want to save that special event for our celebration of new Black Belts.

We got home just before midnight and were exhausted.  I was wiped out the whole next day.  I kept thinking I didn’t even do anything close to what the candidates were going through.  I have SO much more work to do.

In addition to our candidate class & sat conditioning class, I need to make sure I do some type of aerobic training every day.  I have to at least triple my endurance level.  I’m thinking I should still get up at 6am and workout at home.  I have a treadmill and Wii Active.  I also just ordered a power-walking video. I know I will be getting close when I can go to Sat conditioning training, then go straight into Sandy’s Sat Cardio class and at the end not be out of breath and dying.

My second aha is Raquel shouldn’t come watch us test in the morning.  She won’t start testing until 10am and doesn’t need to be there until 9:30am.  Being there for over 2 hours early may make it harder for her to last through to the conditioning test.  Once the test is closer we will have to do some coordination with my family and some friends to figure out how to get Raquel to the test and just be her “support” for the whole day.  This is the one down side to all of us testing.  None of us can support each other on the day of the test.  We each will have to have a family members or friend be our support.  The upside to all of us testing together is we will be together a lot.  Training is a big time commitment.  I don’t have to be one of those parents who never see their children when they are training since Raquel will be right along side me.

I so blessed with the new friendships I made with the new Black Belts.  I totally know they will be there to support us through our whole six months and be there for us on testing day.  Having that support is very comforting!

More to come….

Black Belt Candidate Training Begins….

Today was the first day of Black Belt Candidate Training, it was the conditioning class.

This wasn’t really my first time attending the conditioning class.  As Red & Red 1 belts, we went to about five conditioning trainings during the last candidate training session.  It was the best thing we could have done.  I got to understand how it all worked without being in the limelight.  KJN Joe did pay attention to us but minimally which was good.  It helped me see how much work I needed to do to make it through those trainings.  My saving grace came in when SBN Sandy offered an 8-week boot camp @6am M/W/F which started March 1 to April 23.  Boot camp was tough but very satisfying.  We did bands on Mon, stations on Wed and weights on Fri.  As a warm-up, she had us jog to Sushi Boat & back before we started exercising.  I had to power walk because of my knees but I still improved.

During the last candidate session, my time for the 1-mile power walk was over 17 minutes.  Today, I completed the 1-mile power walk in 14:33 min!!  I’ve set a goal of getting to at least a 12 min/mile or less when we finish in October.

I know I will always be last doing the 1-mile.  I wish it wasn’t true but the reality of the abuse I have given my body the last 48 years especially my weight has caused me to have almost no cartilage in one knee and very little in the other and arthritis in both knees.  But… the cool part about being last is the team work.  No person finishes alone.  I had more than 25 fellow candidates and BB friends come join me to the finishing line.  It’s very motivating to have that much support.

We then had another 20-25 minutes of push ups, sit ups, squats, walking lunges, burbies and jogging (power walking).  I was so proud I actually did better than other new candidates in push-ups & sit-ups (Thanks Sandy).  I would then fall behind on squats, lunges & burbies.

My face was the color of a tomato when we were done but on the inside I wasn’t dying.

Now the next hurdle is to make it through one of KJN Joe’s candidate training classes.  I still haven’t figured out how to go all out to the level KJN Joe wants and not blow out my knees and not be able to walk.  This coming week will be a lot of figuring out for me.  We will have training Mon, Tue, Thur, Fri plus sparring one day… then repeat to conditioning on Saturday again –all for almost six months.  We test sometime in Oct. (I think)

I’m so blessed to be on this amazing life changing journey with my daughter Raquel and my soul mate Lupe!

Until next time…  Cheryl

Watched Fall 2009 Black Belt Testing

This last weekend (Oct 2009) was West Coast World Martial Art’s Fall Black Belt testing.  In the morning, we went and watched the 16-year old and under kids test.  We wanted to support my friend’s daughter and also get a feel for the Black Belt testing.

I’m soooo glad I went.  I realized I have learned about 80% of the techniques.  I just need to master them before next fall and I know I can!  Seeing the testing first hand helped calm my fears of the test.  Now I understand the basic process, I’ve seen the venue, know how they test so when I’m out there it won’t be quite so overwhelming.

I still plan on going and watching the spring 2010 testers especially the adults so I can see the differences between Adults & Kids.

The adults start testing at 8am and the kids test around 10am.  I’m bummed that I won’t be testing side-by-side with Raquel but now I understand how they do it.  They put all common ages together.  Raquel will be in the 9-year-old group which looked like the youngest age group testing.  I don’t think it is possible in the WCWMA program to start any earlier than 4 and they prefer closer to 5 years old.  Raquel started when she was 4 in May of 2006.  She turned 5 that July.  When she wants to, she has amazing focus and concentration especially for an 8-yr old.

After the morning tests, the families had to leave and the candidates practiced for the show for the next few hours.  They then had about 3 hr break before the evening show at 5:30pm.  During the show, each candidate goes out and does some of the curriculum.  They don’t each do all the tests but one group will do Palgae 6 and another will do Palgae 7, etc.

The amazing part of the show is the board breaking.  During the morning test, every candidate was allowed one attempt to break their board.  Some did break it and some didn’t.  During the show EVERYONE was given unlimited opportunities to break their board until ALL had completed the task.  In some cases, it was down to one or two candidates still trying.  The whole audience was cheering them on and a big roar of excitement when they did.

One of the things I want to make sure for our testing especially during the show is that two of our Santa Teresa Instructors hold boards for each of us especially for Raquel.  Many KJN & SBN are out their holding and in many cases the candidates didn’t know the person.  I want someone who has been training with me all along to help me.    We had a board breaking seminar last month and I successfully broke 3 boards and twice I broke them on the first try so I have a basic understanding of what I need to do to break the boards.  During the seminar, it took Raquel about 15 tries to break the board so if it is going to take her that many tries during the testing, I want someone she trusts out there telling her she can do it.

After the show, the candidates then had to do their final test which is conditioning.  This part had me very worried especially with my knees.  I can’t run.  I can’t do burpies.  I’ve now learned that “injured” people can still pass the conditioning test they just have to do different tasks so hopefully even though I will be training with my “class” I will be able to strength my muscles that I will need during my version of the test.  To ensure we are physically ready, we have decided to join the Saturday Black Belt conditioning training now instead of waiting until we are candidates in May.

During the whole day, the natural planning person in me was figuring out the logistics of the day.  Lupe & I will start testing around 8am.  We know Raquel will want to watch us so we will need to get my parents to come that early and take care of Raquel while watching us test.  I want to make sure we get some good photos during the testing so I need to arrange another friend to take pictures.  I’ve already talked to my friend Henry.  He is a Black Belt in Taekwondo and is also loves taking pictures.  I figured he would be the best person to take our photos.   The final planning will be the down time between the morning and evening.  All advice we have received is to plan on staying at the testing site.  Bring food, drink, shade etc to “camp out” for the day.

It was an amazing day for my education and also giving us a chance to support the current candidates from our school.

Till next time……

Bad knees

I recently went to a Sports’s Medicine Doctor to help me figure out what is going on with my knees.

The Doctor said I have arthritis in both knees.  They took an x-ray and the doctor said most of the cartilage on my left knee is gone and its almost bone to bone and a big percentage of my right knee cartilage is gone.

He was very positive and encouraging towards me earning my black belt.   I will just have to adjust for my lack of knee ability and go at my best vs. a 20-years old’s best

My current treatment is icing 20-minutes every day, and taking an anti inflammatory med.  He also recommended I go into PT a few time to learn some stretch that may help.  He said PT can’t fix them just help reduce the pain.

I’ve also just started taking a powder supplement Cherisse recommended that seems to be helping too.

I will have to adjust my Martial Art Forms.  I just can’t do the front & cat stance the “proper” way.  I will have to be more up right and a lot less knee bending.

A couple weeks ago we did 20 minutes of form training in class and I was trying to do them the proper way.  I was in so much pain at the end of class I could barely stand during mediation and I was fighting tears.  That was when it really hit me and I realized I will just have to do it my personal best and not try to be “the best”.

Completed Pre-test #1 for Red Belt

We just finished our first pre-test to go from Red to Red 1.   Overall we did well.   Pre-testing is designed to help me know what areas I need to focus on.  Based on today’s test I need a lot more work on Palgae 7 and need to keep practicing Palgae 6.

Both Raquel & I forgot big parts of Palgae 6 but luckily right before the test we worked with Keirsten & Patrick to help us remember the moves.  This allowed me to perform the form well during the testing.  But…. it has made me realize I need to keep practicing it outside of class, which is challenging to find the time to do so.

Our instructor asked who knew Palgae 7 and was willing to try it.  Of the six Red Belt Pre-testers, Raquel & I were the only ones willing.    We ended up trying it with two more advanced pre-testers.  I thought I knew at least ¼ of the form, but when I started I made a mistake and then the form left my brain.  I was only able to do a couple more moves and then had to step out.  Raquel was amazing she finished 100% of the ¼ she knew.  I’m very proud that we were both willing to try the form especially considering the bleachers were full of parents watching their kids so we had a big audience.

I also struggled with the third kicking combo.  I was going to ask someone to write it down for me next class, but I just searched the school’s web site and actually found the words.   So now I need to memorize it.  The moves just don’t make logical sense to me.  Left slide side kick, right back kick, right slide side kick, left back kick, right back kick, right pop up side kick

So again … we felt we did well considering we are two months into six months of Red Belt classes.

Here were the moves we knew and performed acceptably (always room for improvement)

• Palgae 6
• Kicking Technique #1
• Kicking Technique #2
• Sparring Techniques  
  • Fake front kick, round house
  • Front leg round kick, one low, one high
  • Round house, wheel kick
  • Front leg round kick, double high
  • Slide hook kick
  • Slide hook kick, round house kic
• One step attacks 9 & 10
• Five Self Defense moves 
• All 15 moves of Sparring form

 Next Pre-test is planned for October.  My goal is to KNOW all the techniques even if I don’t perform them as well as they should be done.  This will then lead well into testing for RED 1 this December.

 

Till next time…..

Cheryl

Studio Photos – May 2009