Yumi no Kami

Literally means Turtle in the Sea. This phrase is the inspiration for this post. On wednesday, I brought in my new timbei for the Head Sensei to see. Timbei is a turtle shield that, when paired with a short spear, becomes the least known okinawan weapon. It is this reason why I decided I needed to learn it. Its so rare that only 1 kata exists, and I'm not a fan of watching things die out like the dodo bird. So, this will be my weapon of choice, and I'm gonna make my own kata and kumitachi for it. Quite a few people were interested in the shield, so I had to explain it about 6 times. Wheezy kid held it, stared at it blankly, and said "Do you punch it?!" Bendy-chan looked like he had 3 heads and just replied..."Yaaa, go ahead and do that."

Tournament did not go well for me at all. Got 4th in empty hand, and didn't place in the others. It would seem that I got screwed over in pretty much every single event that I was a part of. It wasn't too good. Still a green belt in karate, and i'm sorta ok with that. Its a lot of stuff, and I would like to get ranked, but I don't think it will happen for a while. Besides, I'd rather get good at this shield then be ranked right now.

Aiki was awesome. Besides Bendy-chan and Goth Kid, I was the most experienced. And for the first time, Bailout was enjoyable to work with. She was very humble in the fact that she admitted to being scared of being thrown and doing a corner roll. I figure now, I don't look at her as a sensei in that class. She is a beginner...more so then I am. So, I felt the need to baby step her back into her rolls; letting her down slowly so she could control her fall. Whether it helped or not is another story, but I felt that as the "experienced" one, it was my place to do so. Bendy-chan blasted Spam in aiki for saying he was a brown belt in Iai, trying to correct Bendy-chan because she thought he was a brown belt in Aiki and was in the wrong spot of the line. Bendy-chan didn't get it, and Spam and I fixed the line as it was meant to be. No harm, no foul, I suppose.

I'm looking forward to working with my shield and spear. Gonna acquire a foam version to practice sparring. We'll see how that goes.

Boxing helps in these situations...

Well, not always but sometimes its nice to have had that part of my past. Aiki-jujutsu class was incredible. Well, kinda. We didn't really do much. I got to be an uke for Power Sensei and the Matiarch for their Nikajo Hanza Handachi stuff. I felt honored, and at the same time, pained because those moves are all sorts of joint-twisting sickness. After that, head sensei asked me to be his uke. He did idori on me eight times without break. To those who are unfamilar, idori is the move where the tori throws the uke over their head. Yeah, that was exciting. The main piece of my fancy was when Bendy-chan and I decided to run ikkajo hanza handachi the way we saw on a youtube video. It looked so crisp, clean, and professional. We tried it, and it was ok because it showed where we needed work. In aiki, I asked Bendy-chan to be my uke for a move that i didn't know the name to. I called it "Master Parker's Disco Dance." Well, it took her by surprise, and everyone laughed at her expense...and then was like "I wanna try that!!!" So, yeah, nice aiki class overall. Gotta do more of those hanza handachi warm ups.

Karate class was ok. Besides the fact that it was 70 degrees in the school, and not enough oxygen because of the little ones were sucking it out of the sky. Got to work on my set of kata, do "brachial notch" defense from Happy Sensei. *snort* Brachial Notch *snort* I think for Christmas, I'm gonna get him an anatomy atlas. The height of my boxing training (no, not really) was when Dobbleganger pulled out a goshinken and told her to evade her either chest swing or leg swing. People had a lot of trouble with this exercise, and Sarge was very confused by how to predict it. Well, 1st lesson of boxing...."watch their shoulders, watch their eyes." A novice will ALWAYS look where they wanna attack, and when you fight a seasoned opponent, their shoulders tell you where they are going. I told her to look at her eyes, and Sarge did perfectly. Seems trivial to me, but I was I suppose privelged with that knowledge previously.

Oh, for the sake of reference. I am now a Brown in Aiki-jujutsu, Brown with Stripe in Iai-jutsu, and a Green in Karate. Not to shabby. I am moving up the ladder slowly. Feels nice to be at a decent level.

Only thing to report from Iai was that Doc showed me Kata 5 & 6, and I was doing fairly well against head sensei in goshinken. I was able to block several of his strikes, but he was able to cut my fingers on one move, so yeah...need to work on that. lolz.

A kick in the head brings the New Jersey outta me....

Today was a bad day, in its truest form. I stayed up all night studying for 2 tests, which I think I did ok on. So, thats fine, but it left me on the side of sourness and bitterness all day. Then, I find out that Bendy-chan's school never refunded my credit card so I got sacked with a finance charge, adding on to my frustration. So, what could make this worse? Karate kumite, kiddies. I felt good sparring today in class, but I had to spar Doppleganger. Doppleganger has been a thorn in my side for months now; disregarding the rules of sparring by kicking/punching me in the balls or head. Today, Kyoshi told her to stay away from my head. Within seconds of this, she kicks me square in the temple. Not good. That immediately made me turn into "Batta: The Asshole from NJ." Upon the restart of the match, I went into extreme anger mood and started to destroy her; punching and kicking full force and not stopping. I made a snarky comment, and Kyoshi ended the match, making us both do 100 pushups. Never before was I disappointed in myself for lashing out, but also felt righteous for what I did. I destroyed this girl, whom thought that she was god's gift to martial arts. After the class, I apologized to kyoshi for my behavior, and sent an email apologizing again. Doppleganger didn't say a damn word for the rest of the class. She ran out as soon as class was finished. Prehaps, I "pounded" some sense into her.

Batta is back. w00tz

Its certainly been a while since I posted a blog. Been extremely busy with the chiro life. No time. Le sigh. (Plus, I forgot my username and password, that doesnt help either lol) But, here I am. First and foremost, my current rank is a Green belt in Aiki and Karate, and a Brown in Iai. I never thought I'd see the day. lol.

Lots of the little children have been rather on my nerves recently. Snotball hasn't been in class recently, which pretty much means that my karate attitude has spiked up by about 100 fold. Spam, a friend of mine since 6th grade, moved up here and is now in all three arts as well. He is currently yellow in karate, green in sword, and white in aiki. All colors of the rainbow there...yeah.

Bendy-chan and I have been figuring some stuff out for the tournament in april. I'm so excited. I am going to [try to] crush my competition. I'm actually banking on my kata, as Bendy is gonna help me with a kickass surprise. Bendy, as you prolly can tell by her name, keep falling apart in class. Whether its a finger out or a hip problem, something goes, and to be honest, it quite concerns me. I can fix up her no problem, but ya know.

The black belts in our school got the scent of arrogence growing in them. Its sooo bad that its hard to focus on anyhnig else. Bendy's Doobleganger thinks she can take me out in a fight, and its quite annoying to hear. I know that if I was allowed, I could just beat on her all day. Her new thing is cheap shots; punching me in the face in no contact sparring, ball shots during drills, etc., etc. My new way of dealing with it is to dive into her punches, so the head instructor has to yell at her. Could I punch her in the face? Sure. Do I want to? Yes. But, does that mean I should? No. I can continue to get her into trouble in my own way, and for some reason, thats infinitely more satisifing then just laying her out. Head instructor has been avoiding putting the two against in each other in sparring because he knows that she will do face contact to me, but he's gotta let us go at it sometime. Well, maybe he doesn't.

In the meantine....tournament training!!! *plays 'Rocky' music*

4am frustrations

So, here I am. Haven't been here in a while, but I'm back. Its 4am and Im brushing up on microbiology. But, thats not my issue. My issue is karate again. Its pissing me off. Yesterday, I went to class with Bendy-chan to karate and iai. Karate was a gorgeous waste of my damn time. Kyoshi spent time teaching lazy girl everything she shouldve known already, and Bendy-chan was being trained for her black belt. What did I do? Nothing. Tank and I stood there like idiots, and drilled stupid self defense wazas that I could never see myself doing. It pissed me off so bad. When is my yellow belt coming? Its been 6 fucking months. I'm going no where quick in that damn class. Iai was worse. There were only two students there, Bendy-chan and myself, and two instructors, Kyoshi and Sword Sensei. I thought "Oh, cool, we can get individual attention." But, nope, fuck that. Both of them went to help Bendy-chan with one of her new kumitachi while I spent a half a fucking hour practicing #1 cuts just to keep myself tired and unangry.

I can safely say it didn't work. I am just fuming. Even on days like yesterday, I'm regarded as no one. Its like I pay someone to ignore or tell me "I need to work on that." Of course I need to work on it!" But, FUCKING SHOW ME WHAT I'M DOING WRONG. So, I spent most of the night juggling whether or not I am going to come back. I was 95% quitting it yesterday, but I figured I would wait and try to cool down. Today, I'm 97% wanting to quit. Whats the point of staying? I mean, seriously. The man probably doesn't wanna put any effort into me b/c I'm obviously not gonna live up here, but thats no excuse to take my money away. He's rejected other students before, but for some reason, he wants me there. Probably b/c I'm Bendy-chan's ride, and he might actually have to get off his big, sweaty ass and teach if she wasn't able to attend.

Fuck that place. Bendy-chan said she was gonna speak to him for me being that she is the highest ranked student, and she's had his ear the longest. Being that I haven't been there long, whatever I say will probably go in one ear and out the other. Do I foresee anything changing? Fuck no. Its gonna be the same. It'll always be the same.

Can I some blue cheese with that?

Well, I'm all moved into my new blue, tilted house. After putting some brand new carpet down, rearranging, and waiting a week for the internets, I am here. What important happened during that time? I got ranked in Iai. I am now a Yonkyu in the art of killing. w00tz. Only took forever. Still not ranked in karate, however, Kyoshi hinted that it was because he didn't have any belts in stock. Joy.

So, I'm going tomorrow with Bendy-chan after classes. She is being taught her last kata for shodan, so its important she gets in with as much time as possible. Me? I'm gonna go there and look cool because thats what I do best. I doubt anything special is gonna happen to me tomorrow regardless. Just more of the same. We shall see.

Anywho, I'm out. Long day tomorrow. *tear*

Once again, we roll

Ok, my Aiki/Karate/Iai blog. I seriously need it because this shall be a great place to vent my frustrations.

So, here I am. I am on vacation back home in New Jersey, and tomorrow afternoon I head back to school. Saturday shall be my big return to karate class, and I am excited. Bendy-sama got ranked yesterday, and I'm extremely hapy for her. This is also a good thing because, according to her, I might get ranked on saturday. That would be nice being I've been waiting for quite a long while for Kyoshi to realize I exist in class. Been a white for 4 months now, and its driving me nuts. I wanna smack every little shodan I see. lol.

So, we shall see what happens on saturday. I shall go over my stuff regardless, however, I highly doubt I shall be ranked. Rawr.