Russian martial arts
I keep meaning to post more here (or post at all, in fact), and then... not doing it. (I pour everything out in long stream-of-consciousness emails to poor 
kernezelda, instead *sheepish grin* ) And you know how it is - the longer you go without posting, the more you start feeling like you have to make some kind of big, important post to come back on, and the less likely you are to actually post. But I really don't want to lose this space, either, so I'm going to try to get over this feeling by just rambling the way I sometimes do in my emails to
kernezelda, and seeing what comes out. So I apologize in advance if the next few posts are (even?) more rambly than usual. What can I say - maybe it'll break through this weird writing block I've had the last few years?
So. Since I last posted here, I have decided that I would try yet again to get in better shape. And as always happens when I get into that sort of mood (which happens to me every few years or so, with variable success), this has TAKEN OVER MY LIFE, OMG. (I just can't ever seem to do these things half-way. Either I don't do anything at all, or I spend every single moment of my day thinking about it and obsessing about it to an unhealthy degree and feeling guilty about not doing more ("I'm so lazy! I only used the elliptical for an hour and a half yesterday instead of two hours! I have to do better today, or it will prove that I can't cut it!" *sigh* I hate my brain!), and of course I can't keep that up forever so I burn out and go back to not doing anything at all.)
My latest attempt to get fit involves taking a Russian martial arts class.
(When I tell people that I am taking a Russian martial arts class, they usually immediately think of Sambo, or, if they are a little more knowledgeable about the subject (which I really wasn’t, so it confused me when people brought this up) , they think of Systema. But this martial arts style is not connected at all to either of those. As far as I can tell, this is a completely separate style of martial arts which nobody else practices except for our small group of people, mostly Russian, and which is led by a Russian teacher. But it doesn’t necessarily feel "Russian" to me, somehow - what little I know so far of the philosophy it’s based on feels more Chinese than Russian to me. Sort of like a combination of several other martial arts styles, mostly Chinese, that has evolved into something all its own. But it’s led by a Russian master, and, as far as I can tell, he designed the style himself, so "Russian martial arts" it is.)
I think this class is really interesting, especially in all the ways that it's different from any and all of the other martial arts classes I've tried to take in the past, and I've already learned a lot from it even in the few months that I’ve been taking it, but whenever I try to tell people about it in person, their eyes immediately start glazing over, so heh, I guess that's as good at reason as any to inflict it on all of you, instead.
Generally, my experience with martial arts classes in the past has gone something like this: I start the class and really enjoy it, and for a few weeks, I attend faithfully and absolutely love it... And then they start teaching about how to fall, and I just. Can't. Do it. I can never fall on command - it feels somehow counter-intuitive for me to even try; I like having my feet solidly on the ground , thank you very much! - and then I tense up completely and feel all self-conscious about it, and soon after that I stop coming at all. The one martial arts class I stayed with the longest before this latest one was Tae Kwon Do, and I think that was mostly because they never actually tried to teach me how to fall. (And also, based on my experience with this latest martial arts class, I suspect that the Tae Kwon Do teacher probably took it waaaay too easy on me, so I ultimately didn't really learn all that much, even though I was in the class for at least a year or two.)
So that means that I've got some (very) minor experience with several different martial arts styles (karate, kung fu, Tae Kwon Do), and I've also looked into a few others, to see if they were a good fit for me (Jujitsu and Aikido, which as far as I can see are all about falling correctly, so... probably not good ones to start with if I am terrified of learning how to fall. *g*) And so far, I’ve seen aspects of each of them in this style, but really, ultimately, it is nothing like any of them, which is why I am comfortable calling it its own separate martial arts style.
There are classes held every day - mostly in the later evening (8-10 PM) on weekdays, and in the morning (7-9 AM) on weekend days. (Although there is also a session on Tuesday from 6-7:30 AM, which is one of the sessions I attend, because at the time I chose my schedule, I really wanted more morning classes so I could have my evenings free. I didn’t really think through how hard it can be to get up that early in the morning, though. I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up with sleep ever since.)
Out of these available times, each person chooses his or her own schedule of usually 4+ sessions a week (I started out with 3 sessions at first, but I think that was because he thought I was in very bad physical shape, and the teacher wanted me to take it easy at first. I have since moved on to 4 classes a week, and I still get the impression that most other people come more often than that), and once they have chosen a schedule, people are supposed to adhere to it, and let the teacher know if they make any changes. If they miss a class, they are supposed to make it up before or after they miss it. (So when I went to Barcelona for a week, that meant that I had to make up 4 classes after I came back. And before I went camping this weekend, I went to an extra class the week before to make up for it.)
The classes are always outside - rain or shine or snow. After years of going to the gym or exercising at home, I think it’s kind of awesome to have a reason to exercise outside on a regular basis. (Fresh air! Trees! Grass! Wild animals! Skunks! Mosquitoes! Playing in the mud! *g*) But, you know, I wonder how much my enthusiasm for being outside is based on the fact that I started going to these classes in late spring, and therefore haven’t yet had to deal with any snow, or cold temperatures. (You are not allowed to wear anything to the class that can scratch anybody else during sparring, which means nothing metal like, say, zippers allowed on any clothing, which as far as can tell means no winter jackets!) Boston is not *that* cold, but I imagine this can still get pretty uncomfortable in the winter. We’ll see, I guess.
Depending on the day , you usually have about 4-12 people in the class. (For some strange reason, there are usually fewer people in the Tuesday 6-7:30 AM class. *g*) Most of them have been coming for years now. There are a few more recent students, but only one or two have been there for about the same amount of time as me. That makes me the new girl, of course, and I feel like I am always playing catch-up, always the weakest, always with no idea what I’m doing. Which can be really frustrating, as you can imagine. (Which is one reason I keep sending whining emails to
kernezelda about how hard a time I’m having in the class; the other reasons being the early hour of the classes I chose to go to, and the fact that it meets at least 4 times a week, OMG, what was I thinking?! (This has apparently left
kernezelda under the impression that I hate the class, which I don’t. (Usually. *g*) I’m just having a hard time with it, because this is the hardest I’ve ever worked at any exercise class ever.))
The classes themselves are kind of awesome. It’s like being stuck in a Karate Kid movie! It feels much less formal and structured than the other martial arts classes I’ve taken. There is no belt system - for a school this small, where the master of the school can himself keep track of the level of all the students in the school, I guess there is no real need for a belt system. (ETA, just to be sure: by "belt system", I mean, regular tests where students move up from one color belt to another, as a way to keep track of their own progress.) It is very low tech - most of the exercises are done with a minimal amount of equipment, and for a lot of them, other people serve as the "equipment", like walking on your hands as your partner holds your legs up behind you, or jumping over each other like a game of leap frog. (I have so much trouble with that one! I keep feeling like I’m going to hurt someone if I try to do it.) There is a sense that we are using what is available around us to exercise, rather than relying on equipment, which I think is really cool.
(My favorite exercise so far was when we used a picnic table, and first we walked up over it facing forward, then we did it with our eyes closed, then we walked over it facing backward, then we did that with our eyes closed, then we jumped over it facing forward, etc., etc. It was really interesting how much difference it made to my balance to do something with my eyes closed vs doing the same thing with my eyes open, even when I was doing it backward, even though one would think that I wouldn’t have been able to see where I was going either way. I found it fascinating.)
And OK, I wanted to post more about my experience with the class, and also what I’ve learned about myself (and my limits, and my body in general) so far in this class, but this post is already waaaay too long, so I’d better stop now while I still can.
(And it’s been so long since I posted that I have actually forgotten how to code an LJ cut on Dreamwidth, which is obviously pretty important for this post, given that it never ends. I’m going to go look that up now. *g* I hope it works! *crosses fingers*)
ETA: Wow, working in Google Docs has messed up all my quotation marks! Does it always do that? How do I stop it? I think they are all fixed now. I hope so, at least.
ETA2: LJ post now locked, because it showed up on that google search I linked to before. *sigh* Thanks to
kernezelda for letting me know!
ETA3: And Google is now linking to a cached version of my post, so the full text of the post is right there for everyone to read. At this point, I think it might be safer to just unlock the post and hope nobody finds anything I said in it offensive, because... it really wasn't meant to be offensive! This is a positive post! Why am I feeling so self-conscious about it, anyway? *sigh*
ETA4: Edited slightly, to get rid of some overly identifying characteristics.
This post was crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. You can comment here or there, if you wish.
kernezelda, instead *sheepish grin* ) And you know how it is - the longer you go without posting, the more you start feeling like you have to make some kind of big, important post to come back on, and the less likely you are to actually post. But I really don't want to lose this space, either, so I'm going to try to get over this feeling by just rambling the way I sometimes do in my emails to
kernezelda, and seeing what comes out. So I apologize in advance if the next few posts are (even?) more rambly than usual. What can I say - maybe it'll break through this weird writing block I've had the last few years?
So. Since I last posted here, I have decided that I would try yet again to get in better shape. And as always happens when I get into that sort of mood (which happens to me every few years or so, with variable success), this has TAKEN OVER MY LIFE, OMG. (I just can't ever seem to do these things half-way. Either I don't do anything at all, or I spend every single moment of my day thinking about it and obsessing about it to an unhealthy degree and feeling guilty about not doing more ("I'm so lazy! I only used the elliptical for an hour and a half yesterday instead of two hours! I have to do better today, or it will prove that I can't cut it!" *sigh* I hate my brain!), and of course I can't keep that up forever so I burn out and go back to not doing anything at all.)
My latest attempt to get fit involves taking a Russian martial arts class.
(When I tell people that I am taking a Russian martial arts class, they usually immediately think of Sambo, or, if they are a little more knowledgeable about the subject (which I really wasn’t, so it confused me when people brought this up) , they think of Systema. But this martial arts style is not connected at all to either of those. As far as I can tell, this is a completely separate style of martial arts which nobody else practices except for our small group of people, mostly Russian, and which is led by a Russian teacher. But it doesn’t necessarily feel "Russian" to me, somehow - what little I know so far of the philosophy it’s based on feels more Chinese than Russian to me. Sort of like a combination of several other martial arts styles, mostly Chinese, that has evolved into something all its own. But it’s led by a Russian master, and, as far as I can tell, he designed the style himself, so "Russian martial arts" it is.)
I think this class is really interesting, especially in all the ways that it's different from any and all of the other martial arts classes I've tried to take in the past, and I've already learned a lot from it even in the few months that I’ve been taking it, but whenever I try to tell people about it in person, their eyes immediately start glazing over, so heh, I guess that's as good at reason as any to inflict it on all of you, instead.
Generally, my experience with martial arts classes in the past has gone something like this: I start the class and really enjoy it, and for a few weeks, I attend faithfully and absolutely love it... And then they start teaching about how to fall, and I just. Can't. Do it. I can never fall on command - it feels somehow counter-intuitive for me to even try; I like having my feet solidly on the ground , thank you very much! - and then I tense up completely and feel all self-conscious about it, and soon after that I stop coming at all. The one martial arts class I stayed with the longest before this latest one was Tae Kwon Do, and I think that was mostly because they never actually tried to teach me how to fall. (And also, based on my experience with this latest martial arts class, I suspect that the Tae Kwon Do teacher probably took it waaaay too easy on me, so I ultimately didn't really learn all that much, even though I was in the class for at least a year or two.)
So that means that I've got some (very) minor experience with several different martial arts styles (karate, kung fu, Tae Kwon Do), and I've also looked into a few others, to see if they were a good fit for me (Jujitsu and Aikido, which as far as I can see are all about falling correctly, so... probably not good ones to start with if I am terrified of learning how to fall. *g*) And so far, I’ve seen aspects of each of them in this style, but really, ultimately, it is nothing like any of them, which is why I am comfortable calling it its own separate martial arts style.
There are classes held every day - mostly in the later evening (8-10 PM) on weekdays, and in the morning (7-9 AM) on weekend days. (Although there is also a session on Tuesday from 6-7:30 AM, which is one of the sessions I attend, because at the time I chose my schedule, I really wanted more morning classes so I could have my evenings free. I didn’t really think through how hard it can be to get up that early in the morning, though. I feel like I’ve been playing catch-up with sleep ever since.)
Out of these available times, each person chooses his or her own schedule of usually 4+ sessions a week (I started out with 3 sessions at first, but I think that was because he thought I was in very bad physical shape, and the teacher wanted me to take it easy at first. I have since moved on to 4 classes a week, and I still get the impression that most other people come more often than that), and once they have chosen a schedule, people are supposed to adhere to it, and let the teacher know if they make any changes. If they miss a class, they are supposed to make it up before or after they miss it. (So when I went to Barcelona for a week, that meant that I had to make up 4 classes after I came back. And before I went camping this weekend, I went to an extra class the week before to make up for it.)
The classes are always outside - rain or shine or snow. After years of going to the gym or exercising at home, I think it’s kind of awesome to have a reason to exercise outside on a regular basis. (Fresh air! Trees! Grass! Wild animals! Skunks! Mosquitoes! Playing in the mud! *g*) But, you know, I wonder how much my enthusiasm for being outside is based on the fact that I started going to these classes in late spring, and therefore haven’t yet had to deal with any snow, or cold temperatures. (You are not allowed to wear anything to the class that can scratch anybody else during sparring, which means nothing metal like, say, zippers allowed on any clothing, which as far as can tell means no winter jackets!) Boston is not *that* cold, but I imagine this can still get pretty uncomfortable in the winter. We’ll see, I guess.
Depending on the day , you usually have about 4-12 people in the class. (For some strange reason, there are usually fewer people in the Tuesday 6-7:30 AM class. *g*) Most of them have been coming for years now. There are a few more recent students, but only one or two have been there for about the same amount of time as me. That makes me the new girl, of course, and I feel like I am always playing catch-up, always the weakest, always with no idea what I’m doing. Which can be really frustrating, as you can imagine. (Which is one reason I keep sending whining emails to
kernezelda about how hard a time I’m having in the class; the other reasons being the early hour of the classes I chose to go to, and the fact that it meets at least 4 times a week, OMG, what was I thinking?! (This has apparently left
kernezelda under the impression that I hate the class, which I don’t. (Usually. *g*) I’m just having a hard time with it, because this is the hardest I’ve ever worked at any exercise class ever.))
The classes themselves are kind of awesome. It’s like being stuck in a Karate Kid movie! It feels much less formal and structured than the other martial arts classes I’ve taken. There is no belt system - for a school this small, where the master of the school can himself keep track of the level of all the students in the school, I guess there is no real need for a belt system. (ETA, just to be sure: by "belt system", I mean, regular tests where students move up from one color belt to another, as a way to keep track of their own progress.) It is very low tech - most of the exercises are done with a minimal amount of equipment, and for a lot of them, other people serve as the "equipment", like walking on your hands as your partner holds your legs up behind you, or jumping over each other like a game of leap frog. (I have so much trouble with that one! I keep feeling like I’m going to hurt someone if I try to do it.) There is a sense that we are using what is available around us to exercise, rather than relying on equipment, which I think is really cool.
(My favorite exercise so far was when we used a picnic table, and first we walked up over it facing forward, then we did it with our eyes closed, then we walked over it facing backward, then we did that with our eyes closed, then we jumped over it facing forward, etc., etc. It was really interesting how much difference it made to my balance to do something with my eyes closed vs doing the same thing with my eyes open, even when I was doing it backward, even though one would think that I wouldn’t have been able to see where I was going either way. I found it fascinating.)
And OK, I wanted to post more about my experience with the class, and also what I’ve learned about myself (and my limits, and my body in general) so far in this class, but this post is already waaaay too long, so I’d better stop now while I still can.
(And it’s been so long since I posted that I have actually forgotten how to code an LJ cut on Dreamwidth, which is obviously pretty important for this post, given that it never ends. I’m going to go look that up now. *g* I hope it works! *crosses fingers*)
ETA: Wow, working in Google Docs has messed up all my quotation marks! Does it always do that? How do I stop it? I think they are all fixed now. I hope so, at least.
ETA2: LJ post now locked, because it showed up on that google search I linked to before. *sigh* Thanks to
kernezelda for letting me know!
ETA3: And Google is now linking to a cached version of my post, so the full text of the post is right there for everyone to read. At this point, I think it might be safer to just unlock the post and hope nobody finds anything I said in it offensive, because... it really wasn't meant to be offensive! This is a positive post! Why am I feeling so self-conscious about it, anyway? *sigh*
ETA4: Edited slightly, to get rid of some overly identifying characteristics.
This post was crossposted from Dreamwidth, where there are
comments. You can comment here or there, if you wish.