Day 24

Well, there were only three people in class today, including me. So, Master Miller made us work alot on our kicks. We focused on keeping our knee up and snapping the kick. It was a very informative class! I did notice one point of interest while he was instructing us. He told us that we should practice our kicks in our daily lives (for example in the kitchen closing drawers) to help us be as comfortable with our feet as we are with our hands. I found this interesting because the majority of women I have spoken to are more hesitant to use their fists than they are to use their legs. So, I saw directly today how physical experiences are different for males and females (not that this wasn't evident before, but this is a specific experiences that I acknowledged). For instance, I'm a whole lot more comfortable using my feet than my hands and I have several reasons for feeling this way. For starters, if I can pick something up with my feet, I do. So, I depend on my feet/legs more than most. Since I believed I didn't have as much upperbody strength, I compensated by using my legs when wrestling with friends. I also noticed, early on, that in altercations in fictional shows on t.v. the women being attacked (and some of the men for that matter) could have escaped if they'd only used their legs, so I tended to do more things with my legs upon that observation. I also wonder if perhaps men have a similar experience with the upperbody. So, if men believe that their upperbody is their strength, then they may both consciously and subconsciously utilize the upperbody more often than the legs. Of course this is not a polished thought, just a meditation on possibilities pertinant to my thesis. I also received a comment of someone who attempted to provide and explanation on this subject, which went something like, "Regarding kicking.. For obvious reasons, women are generally stronger and quite flexible from the waist down. Thus their kicking technique tends to be more polished." If the commentor could explain what he/she thought the "obvious reasons" were, I would be really interested in knowing!

Well, I'm going to leave it here. I think I did some beneficial brainstorming this evening and now I can actually do Yoga for the first time in almost a month. There have been a few times where I've said I was going to do yoga and didn't, because I remember something I forgot to do for school. But this time, I think it's really going to happen! Good night!

Day 23

Well, I had a bit of a celebratory weekend. After the competition me and my boyfriend went out for dinner and drinks. I was so happy to unwind after several weeks of schoolwork without a break that I bought some more liquor to celebrate at home. Now, I'm used to drinking wine and not liquor. Needless to say, I drank more than I should have. I didn't feel bad that night (although I did black out a few times), but certainly paid for it in the morning. I spent a good 5 hours or more puking. Fun stuff. So, my point is that I didn't run on Monday or go to the gym. I will also have to forfeit my morning run on Friday as I have an early meeting with a professor at the college, but I plan to make up the run Saturday, as well as my missed gym day. So, I won't be missing too much. And I'll stay away from liquor for a while (although it wasn't the liquor I puked up, which was interesting).

In class today, we mainly worked on forms. Master Miller and some of the other class mates were helping me with my new form, Kee Cho Hyung Sam Bo. I'm still having a little difficulty, but I now have more time to practice and don't have to worry about preparing for a competition, so I should be more focused! I already feel more focused. Pauline wasn't there today, she also didn't come to the competition because she's been sick. I think everyone at the dojang got the same bout of sickness. Interesting. Other than forms, we really didnt' do much else. We did one kicking drill. Anway, I really need to practice this form. It's just not coming along as smoothly as the others did. But I think with a little practice I should be ok.

Well, dont' have much more to add. I'll be back Thursday though!

Competition

Competition was saturday. As I've mentioned, I only competed in forms, as I have not had practice defending while sparing. So, for the comp. I did Kee Cho Hyung Ee Bo, which is the second form. I did well. Got two 8.5's and a 7.5. I was the only one in my division, which means I won first place, but of course that doesn't mean much. But just to point out that I didn't see anyone, not even the black belts receive a 10 or a 9. So, I think I did really well. One of the red belts told me she thought I did better than anyone at the competition, including the black belts. That was quite a complement! Didn't quite know how to take it. I did notice that my movements are sharper than most. I don't want to sound cocky, but that was something I worked on specifically and have seemed to pull through on. The floors at this dojang were wood, which made my forms feel different. When my feet got a little sweaty they would start to stick to the floor and cause my foot to drag roughly across the floor. This caused me to wabble just for one second at the end of my form. Regardless, I think I did very well.

There weren't many adults at the competition, and there were a few females. Most of them were children though. I think if I would have sparred, I would have sparred one of the yellowbelts who was a division bellow me (age wise). Apparently, when she went to spar the female redbelt in my class she just stood there and didn't really fight back. She must have been scared. Anway, I watched alot of the little girls fight too. They did really well. There were alot of little kids crying. It's kinda strange watching little kids beat each other up. I did notice that the girls tended to use their legs more, which has been a common theme I've heard from other women with martial arts experience. I didn't really see too much evidence of the frailty myth, except for the girl just standing there, but then again, she may have just learned (she was only a yellowbelt like me. She'd been practicing for a month longer than I had).

Well, that's about all I have to report. I enjoyed the competition and looked forward to another one. Can't afford the next one coming up, since I have to pay for testing for this month. Perhaps the one after!