Life lessons from the dojo
I got roped into helping teach the kids' class yesterday, which was fun but also revealed that I really need to work on getting back my "I am in charge and you all need to listen to me" voice. Ah, well. Just another thing to add to the list.
246: Practice hard, and the medals will come naturally
We had a guest instructor yesterday, a coach for the Quebec competition team, who was teaching a kumite (combat) class. Towards the end of class, he was giving a little pep talk to the students, especially the ones who were discouraged that they hadn't received medals at a recent tournament. What he said was that the results of any one tournament aren't important. What's important is the long-term trend. Even more important, though, was training. If you train hard enough and put in the hours, the medals will come in due time. Medals are the consequence of training, not the goal of training. I thought this was very apt. Put in the hours, and the accolades will come. Keep your focus on the training.
247: Feel your opponent
I wasn't actually doing the kumite class since I wasn't sure how my ankle would handle it. Instead I joined a small group with our usual sensei to do some kick drills, followed by gohon kumite (5-step sparring), and finally an exercise called "sticky hands". It's very reminiscent of tai chi's "push hands". The goal is to feel your opponent's intentions rather than moving mechanically through the movements. It's utterly ridiculous when you don't know what you're doing and quite beautiful when you do. I'm... admittedly not very good at it yet. But the idea of intuiting and responding to your partner, opponent, or colleagues is solid. Definitely something we can all work on, I think.
248: Sometimes you need a boost
The kids' class that ends just before the adult class starts has a cute tradition: at the end of class, the sensei raises her hands and the kids all jump up and high-five her. Well, yesterday the guest sensei was having a bit of fun with one of the kids and kept raising his hand too high for her to reach. So I did what any reasonable, well-meaning adult would do: I picked her up as she jumped so she could do the highest high-five she's ever done. As a fellow short person, I definitely do not begrudge anyone for needing a little help to reach the high-up stuff. Or using any other tools they might need to reach their goals, for that matter.
246: Practice hard, and the medals will come naturally
We had a guest instructor yesterday, a coach for the Quebec competition team, who was teaching a kumite (combat) class. Towards the end of class, he was giving a little pep talk to the students, especially the ones who were discouraged that they hadn't received medals at a recent tournament. What he said was that the results of any one tournament aren't important. What's important is the long-term trend. Even more important, though, was training. If you train hard enough and put in the hours, the medals will come in due time. Medals are the consequence of training, not the goal of training. I thought this was very apt. Put in the hours, and the accolades will come. Keep your focus on the training.
247: Feel your opponent
I wasn't actually doing the kumite class since I wasn't sure how my ankle would handle it. Instead I joined a small group with our usual sensei to do some kick drills, followed by gohon kumite (5-step sparring), and finally an exercise called "sticky hands". It's very reminiscent of tai chi's "push hands". The goal is to feel your opponent's intentions rather than moving mechanically through the movements. It's utterly ridiculous when you don't know what you're doing and quite beautiful when you do. I'm... admittedly not very good at it yet. But the idea of intuiting and responding to your partner, opponent, or colleagues is solid. Definitely something we can all work on, I think.
248: Sometimes you need a boost
The kids' class that ends just before the adult class starts has a cute tradition: at the end of class, the sensei raises her hands and the kids all jump up and high-five her. Well, yesterday the guest sensei was having a bit of fun with one of the kids and kept raising his hand too high for her to reach. So I did what any reasonable, well-meaning adult would do: I picked her up as she jumped so she could do the highest high-five she's ever done. As a fellow short person, I definitely do not begrudge anyone for needing a little help to reach the high-up stuff. Or using any other tools they might need to reach their goals, for that matter.