Ouch!

Just home from my regular Thursday night sparring class and I have a few sore bits. One of our club members is preparing for her shodun grading in December so sparring class is just that for 45 minutes, one and a half minute fights, swap partners and fight again...that's about 20-25 fights - allowing for swap times. Everyone is pretty knackered by the end.

Usually we’ll do some kihons as a warm up then some foot work techniques, or pad work, or maybe sparring techniques – just hands, or just feet. But for the next couple of months it’s going to be sparring, sparring, and more sparring. Which is great for me as my next grading is my first sparring one and is 15 fights at the end of the grading – so this is the best preparation I could hope for.

I do however have a bag of frozen peas on my lap as I type this (one-handed) and am icing my thumbs one at a time. They are a definite weakness with me. Not keeping my fists tight and catching the thumb when blocking kicks. Ouch! My big toe isn’t feeling too good either. I tried to sweep someone, but somehow just buggered my toe instead.

I’m the lowest graded person there most nights and am not that great at it – yet! The guys could just wipe the floor with me any time they choose to – fortunately they are not like that and teach me as I spar. That said, they do like to sweep me and it’s not many fights that I don’t have to get up of the floor once or twice, or thank them for not taking my head of with a kick that I didn’t see fast enough to block or move from.

It’s the girls (women) that whack you the hardest though, as they don’t hold back anything. Di’s punches are ooahffy (the noise I make when they connect with my stomach) and Zoë’s kicks are just plain ghastly. I’m hobbling around with a dead thigh thinking ‘No, no, not another one in the same place – move yourself woman!’. I’m not very light on my feet yet! Always that yet! I will improve. I am improving!

Instructions tonight included: “keep side on’, ‘hands up’, ‘move in and out’, ‘duck’, ‘punch straight – don’t whack’, ‘kick higher’, ‘retract your leg faster’, ‘close your fists’, etc, etc.

All good fun.