Still Standing

Well, I can't say as I made it through sparring class without injury, but I am still on two feet.

The injury was minor, but after a while it got to be some kind of cosmic joke--I stubbed my second toe on the left foot, next to the big toe.

Then that same toe was stepped on while we were warming up free sparring.

Then it was stepped on once more by someone else while I was refereeing a point fighting match.

Sheesh!

It's a pretty shade of purple today, and I intend to get it checked out tonight when I can get a ride--I'm also home with some kind of mild flu-like virus, and a bit too lightheaded to drive myself anywhere.

Anyhow, sparring was a very joyful experience for me, even with the bruising (and possible breaking) of a toe. I was on adrenaline the whole afternoon, but fell into a calm, rhythmic place once I warmed up and did some free sparring.

Now I just need to put into action all the mental notes I've taken watching class for the past 6+ months!

Time to grab some late lunch and take a nice, long nap...

Sparring, sweet sparring...

My Karate school has an intramural team tournament coming up in a week from Sunday, so Monday night sparring classes for adults have focused on tag-team strategy.

Needless to say, the fighting gets pretty intense, but with some goofy moments as well.

I did extensive taping of our class this past Monday:

http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=F44D11BC0DF6CA18

Check out #5 at 6:25 - the slide kick that was more slide than kick
Check out #6 at 5:30 - Ouch...

The tape of ground work was for the woman in the video. She, along with my instructor, are competing this week at the East-West Open, a "Martial Arts Olympics" held annually in St. Petersburg, Russia. Since some fights at that event include grappling, she's receiving a cram course in basic ground defense. I shot this so she has some study material to review.

Best of luck to both of them!

For Thursday's class we had a guest instructor who was well-versed in one of my favorite torture techniques, the slow-count kick. As a warm-up, we did a lot of stationary work, simply holding stances and fine-tuning them . Then we did slow-count kicks.

While working slow-count kicks, I idly remarked that it'd be interesting to combine stances with slow-count kicks; She took me up on the concept, and we did just that!

So imagine this for a strength exercise:

1. Begin in a fighting stance.
2. Rotate hips forward, squaring yourself up, then bend your rear leg and slowly squat until the rear knee touches the floor.
3. Raise up from the floor slowly and execute a slow-count front kick with the back leg.
4. Lower the kicking leg forward into a fighting stance on the opposite side.
5. Repeat, marching across the floor and back again. Slowly.

I hated it, and loved hating it...

On a side note, big thanks to Black Belt Mama for the free book. Should make for interesting, light reading before bedtime.

2 out of 3 ain't bad.

Today is week 16 since surgery, 8 more to go until no restrictions.

2/3'rds of the way, and feeling great!

That first week back was absolute murder on my quads, hams, and shoulders, but absolutely no complaining from my knee. I made it to classes Thursday evening, and though I could hardly walk Saturday morning, I went to a 30-minute class, primarily to loosen up all the stiffness. Last week my muscles complained far less, so I think my body is beginning to acclimate to my return.

At the end of Thursday's class we worked on some kicking drills, including an offensive side kick. No, it's not meant to offend, it's just an attacking style versus a defensive style.

From a fighting stance, the front foot crosses over the center line of attack as the rear foot steps behind the front. This leads to a natural chamber of the front leg for a side kick, and covers a lot of distance while delivering a powerful blow to your opponent.

My partner holding a large body shield was a 13-year old boy who plays football besides studying karate. Since the first side involved kicking with my left leg, I simply walked through the motions. My foot just touched the body shield, no hard kick at all. That was fine, just going through the motions.

Then we switched sides, and the instructor, Miss O, suggested she should probably hold the shield for me, knowing my past kicking ability.

The Kid, being reasonably good-sized, said not to worry--he's used to hard hits playing football...

...and promptly folded like a flying soft shell taco.

Miss O held the shield for me the remainder of the drill.

It's good to be back.

Old doc, new tricks

Thursday's visit with Dr. K went as expected. No surprises, and I'm cleared to begin running. Granted, in the chilly state I live in it's not been above freezing the entire month of January, and mornings are still dipping into the negative numbers even today. Combine that with a nasty cold I've been dealing with over a week, and I'm just not ready to head out for an early morning jog! I do promise to post some pictures when I do, however, since the mornings are so beautiful this time of year.

Having been through all this before, I had some fun with Dr. K and the medical student working with him. As I sat on the table with my legs dangling down, he asked "OK, which knee are we looking at today?" I told him to guess. "Well, they both look the same," he quipped.

I replied, "If you can't tell, then you must have done a pretty good job!" as I pointed to the left knee. Truth be told, they did look very similar in terms of minimized scarring. The only real give-away would be the slightly shorter patch of hair around the left knee and shin, still growing back from being shaved.

He demonstrated good surgical results to the student with a cursory Lachmann test and a pivot-shift test that months ago would have insulted the MCL sprain accompanying my torn ACL. We also chatted about the mechanics and root cause of injury to each knee, making for really rich conversation between surgeon, patient, and student.

At my 6-week appointment last year, I was asked if I had any more questions. "Sure," I said, "Am I going to be able to play drums??"
A puzzled Dr. K: "Well, I certainly don't see any reason you couldn't."
Me: "Great! 'Cause I can't play them at all!"
(insert rim shot: ba-dum bum)

This year: "Am I going to be able to pilot a plane?"
A year wiser Dr. K: "Could you do it before?"


See, you can teach an old Doc new tricks!