Taking stock

All of my classes wrapped up for the year toward the middle of December, so now I'm in the long limbo of waiting for them to start up again in mid-January (oh, and hanging around my parents' house in New Brunswick being pretty slack). But hey, that's a good time to look back and think about what I've learned and where I want to go, right? 

It's been a good year. I started taking kung fu in May, sticking around after kickboxing for Sonia's "Fight Like Mulan" class and turning my hour and a half of training on Saturdays into three hours. I guess I just couldn't resist mucking around with swords. Kung fu is a whole other animal from the other things I study: no sparring, not a lot of application. We mostly learn forms and practice them. But it's been really good for working on coordination, ambidexterity, and balance - and also precision. It's also a new experience learning and practicing the forms. I have no idea if it'll help me with kata, but I've been running through them in the living room at my parents' house while I'm here for Christmas, and there's something satisfying about it. 

Kung fu functions as a kind of cooldown from kickboxing, but also as an extension of the workout. There have been times we've started practicing the four blocks we've learned at the start of class and I'll put my hand up for a face block and see that it's trembling from the exertion of the last hour and a half. . . and I'll just keep on going. (I do have to watch myself: once I start training, I have a tendency to want to keep going. I'll leave class on Saturday on the bike, and purposefully take a longer route home because I have gotten myself into active mode and I don't want to stop. Today, at the UNB pool, I started thinking, "what if I got out of kung fu on Saturdays and went over to the Carleton pool to put in a kilometre or so of swimming?" and then reminded myself that that is probably a terrible idea.) 

And I've found myself trying to apply the stuff I learn in kung fu during sparring in kickboxing - and I think sometimes I've even almost made it work. I have noticed an overall real learning leap in sparring: I'm starting to switch levels, chain up combos, and work with other people's openings better. 

I also got to go be a part of SLAPS this spring, training for a weekend out at the Raven's Knoll with the Siling Labuyo Arnis guys. That was a whole lot of fun, and also made me feel like I'm one of that crew, even though I haven't been able to actually train with them for a while. I need to get in on sparring - and their monthly krabi krabong classes - with them some more. 

I kept on training through July and August with Sonia and a couple of the other hardcore kickboxing students, meeting in Vincent Massey Park to practice. I don't know if I learned more than I might have otherwise - but there were a few techniques and drills that I think Sonia might not have pulled out with the larger class; and it also just made me feel more like a senior student (I think I kind of am one of the longer-term students in the group now, along with Kylee and Rachel and Minna). 

In September I took a couple of kenjutsu classes at Ottawa Aikikai - I was there as a companion for a friend who wanted to try it and wanted someone who was familiar with the martial arts scene to be a support human - and realized that if I had more days in a week, maybe, I could take on another martial art. I really enjoyed the classes and the folks at the dojo seemed awesome. But I actually do have to do some other things with my spare time, like climb, play D&D, do storytelling, and occasionally sleep. 

And of course, there was getting my blue belt in judo at the end of October: I honestly feel like my judo has gotten better and cleaner since then, like I subconsciously decided, okay, Kate, you're a blue belt, act like one. I'm still weak and messy, yeah, but I'm less messy. It helps to have our newest member, Maria, with us: she's a crazy-fit brown belt from the UK who's been away from judo for 15 years and wanted to get back into it. She joined our club just when I needed someone near my size who was just that much better than me. And the blue belt, somehow, made me feel like a black belt was, at least a little bit, possible. Like I could maybe actually get a black belt one day. And that would be the most amazing thing.  

Wrapped the year up with an end-of-year dinner with Wutan Canada - it was nice to have another chance to meet up with the parent school. Another case, though, of "if there were more days in a week" - I technically could train with them on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but that would result in my training five days a week and that's probably excessive. 

Besides, I do have the goal for next year of also getting my climbing back out of the hole it's been in. I can't really do that if all I do in my training time is martial arts. 

Next year. What do I want out of next year?

I don't expect a brown belt in judo yet: not this year. I have a lot to learn and I have a level of physical fitness I need to be at just to pass the tests (and there will be a belt test for the brown belt, I think, where there hasn't been for the others). My core needs to be a lot stronger. I also need to start really remembering the different throws and their names, which is going to involve homework. And I also want to focus on getting faster and more intentional, particularly with uchikomi. Here's hoping Maria sticks with us and Marcel comes back: I need people my size if I'm going to actually learn to enter properly. The last couple of classes of the year I got to work with Jean and the combination of 260+ pounds and black belt was great to work with. Uchikomi with Ella (13 years old and about 110 pounds) is like uchikomi with a body pillow. 

I know that Gary-sensei says we're going to be doing more randori in the new year and although I'm a bit nervous about how utterly exhausting that's going to be, I know from my experiences in kickboxing and arnis that sparring is the fastest way to learn and get better. So I plan to throw myself (lol) into randori. It's probably the only way I'll develop an ability to see an opening and go for it, rather than just trying to get into position for throws and getting tossed.

I plan to hit the mat a lot in 2024. Literally. Hit the mat. With my back. And also kata. If I want a brown belt I need to work on kata.

I'd like to move up in kung fu to working with Kaylee and Rachel on the broadsword stuff. That means memorizing the Six Fundamentals and the Four Roads. I think I mostly have the fundamentals down, but it's harder to practice the sword work at home, when you don't have a lot of space. Maybe I should use the gym space in my building. That'd confuse the calisthenics guys that show up there.

For everything, I need to get more flexible and balanced. Better control over everything from the waist down, and lighter feet (I really need to stop planting them). Or maybe it's not so much lighter feet as it is better use of them - and that has to do with better control and strength, again, from the waist down. And core. I would like to get more regular with the GMB mobility programs I've been doing.

And finally - it's not martial arts, but I want to climb better. The fitness in general will help with martial arts - core strength, balance, grip strength, all that - but I also would just like to get back up where I used to be in climbing. I was on a fantastic climbing trip to Greece this fall where I remembered all over again how much I love the people and the places that climbing exposes me to, and I'm tired of feeling self-conscious about my abilities (and my body). 

That means finding more time and overcoming a certain amount of ADHD paralysis: my plan, to start, is to take a two-hour lunch break at least one day a week and duck over to Coyote to boulder. I've done a couple of things to make that easier: I've already bought a ten-punch pass (ideally, if I find I'm sticking with it I'll buy a membership so I don't feel like I have to get The Most out of a session, and it's okay to drop in for 45 minutes or so if I don't have a ton of time). And I plan to go out and buy a backpack for my boxing gear and a backpack for my climbing gear and leave them packed, so I can just grab them and go without having to empty my regular backpack of all my work stuff. The idea is to make a habit of it and to make it as easy as I can. I want to get stronger in 2024. If I'm going to go for that brown belt, I need to. And all the other stuff that comes with that, like climbing harder, punching faster, and learning cool moves? Icing on the cake.