I earned my 1st Dan back in January and haven’t looked back.  I won’t lie and tell you I love it 100% all the time.  I have moments where I need a break and I cut my schedule back knowing that in a couple weeks my body and mind will be begging to go back to  3-4 classes a week.

Lately my hips and hammies have been bothering me a lot.  Call it a sign of aging, I’m pretty close to 30 now (I know, haha).  I feel like Barbie must have when I used to try and make her do the middle splits, you know, the way she didn’t bend and I broke her legs off.   It’s not when I’m doing normal day to day stuff, but when I’m at taekwondo.  This is a problem.

Friday, Jenni and I went to yin yoga at the Detroit Flyhouse and I was a little apprehensive because some of the poses stretch things that don’t usually get stretched and I didn’t want to be sore the next day.  You know what though? It was the best thing I could have done.  We did frog pose and even though at the end of the bazillion minutes we held it I actually started laughing because I couldn’t understand why I would do something that hurt that bad.  My hip was screaming afterward but when I woke up on Saturday I didn’t have the lingering pain running down the back of my thigh or the shooting pain in my hip.

Win.

Belt Promotion testing went well.  The kids were so excited and adorable.  My dad called me out to do jump double back kicks on the bag.  Clearly, he doesn’t care about my performance anxiety.  At least now I can function instead of freezing like I used to do when I was a white belt.   Jeff cut his hand up breaking boards and I accidentally punched him in the face during self-defense, you know the usual. He’s one pretest down and 2 to go before he can test for 1st Dan.

Only a couple more months until we do it all again.

Check out Kil’s Taekwondo Livonia, pictures will be up shortly

On Monday I asked my dad to teach me the butterfly kick.  We looked up a video and he watched it with interest and then he got up, laughed and told me no.  No?!  I’m not exactly sure I know the meaning of the word.  He was half joking, of course, and spent about 2 minutes explaining how I would start. Then he said I’d need more mats.

Ahem…yes, I’m clumsy.

Well now the idea is planted in my pretty little head and I’m going to learn how to do it.  It’s really not all that impressive but we all need some type of goal right?  I found a beginning tutorial using BOB.

But what I really want to do is this, Butterfly Twist.

You’re laughing aren’t you?

© marialaitan.com

© Kate Wall

I had my second pretest today.  The last one before I will (fingers crossed) test for my first degree black belt.  Even more awesome is that my dad is finally (fingers crossed again) testing for his fourth degree on the same day.

I went to  my dad’s black belt testing for his first degree.   I remember standing in Grand Master’s school and being in total awe by the synchronization of the students doing their poomses.  The things that they had memorized and how confident they all looked.  It’s amazing to me that I will soon be testing for my black belt.

I’m also amazed by the amount of confidence that I’ve gained in tae kwon do.  I remember being near panic attacks before testing.  It wasn’t until after my (I think) blue belt testing that I became more comfortable.  Probably because at that testing I completely blanked on my poomses.  It was in front of a bunch of people and being video taped.  Needless to say I was completely mortified.   It was the worst case scenario and I lived through it.  It helps too, that I know what to expect, and  most of all, I’m  much more confident in my skills.

© Kate Wall

One of the questions that was asked of me today was “How has tae kwon do improved my life?”  My answer was  my health and that I get to spend more time with my Dad.  My health and spending time with my dad are definitely the most important but in retrospect I realized that there was a  hole in my life that tae kwon do fills.  It was something that I didn’t even realize was missing until I started kicking.

Tae kwon do is more than just poomses, blocking sets, kicking bags and sparring.  One day I will write a post about the numerous ways that tae kwon do has changed my life.

© marialaitan.com

Save the date on your calendar and come watch Master Roger’s student perform Korean Tae Kwon Do forms or dress comfortably and participate in class.  We’d love to see you there!

You can find the new location at:

31208  5 Mile Rd
Livonia, MI 48154

Let me start off by saying that I honestly don’t want to offend anyone over this because it is just a sport. And maybe if a certain team member for Pittsburgh played for the D I wouldn’t be as hostile.

That said, SHUT UP ABOUT CROSBY, NBC Pierre McGuire! For the love of GOD could you be a more biased commentator? We get you are a Pittsburgh fan. Awesome. Go announce for a Pittsburgh station not for the whole country. Hey I have an idea NBC, why didn’t you take games 3 and 4 in Pittsburgh. We’d be happy to have Versus cover when the games are at the Joe. Look, I know that most people, NHL Bettman included, don’t want to see the Wings win the Stanley Cup 2 years in a row. I would apologize that we have a skilled and talented team but I’M NOT SORRY.

We work hard.

You want some proof that Pierre Maguire is biased?

“Don’t you agree Edzo, that the Penguins aren’t in trouble until they lose on home ice?”

and…

“If Detroit is going to defend its title and stifle the ever-emerging Pittsburgh franchise, they will need to re-write history [referencing Oilers vs Rangers]. If not, this could be the beginning of a new dynasty in the NHL.”

“The making of dynasty requires star caliber players who are locked up to long-term contracts,” explained McGuire. “In the case of Pittsburgh, you have that with Malkin, Crosby, Jordan Staal and Marc-Andre Fleury. So you have a lot of the key components signed. Nothing is guaranteed because injuries and questionable calls come into play, but if you look at it right now, they’re on a path to success for a long time.”
via MLive

(I had a hard time finding the quotes from the game last night. If anyone has any to add please feel free.)

I’m all about having a favorite team, but c’mon, have some professionalism.

I’m also sick and tired of hearing about how the Wings will lose because they are old.

SERIOUSLY?!

What about the players we’ve brought up from Grand Rapids? You know the ones scoring goals. Like Abdelkader, you know the tall guy, scored the THIRD goal in the first two games of the series.

Or Ericsson who missed a game for an appendectomy.

I’m also sick and tired of hearing that we don’t have the goaltending.

WHAT?!

Have you seen Osgood standing on his head? We couldn’t get this far without him. Yes he didn’t have the best season, BUT he’s worked through it and playing at the top of his game now. Did you see he stopped 31 of 32 shots both games?  Those of you said that Fluery was a better goaltender…um really?

I’m not just a Wings fan that’s whining or complaining about the fact we don’t get the respect on national tv we deserve. Did you know that during Game 1 of the series (in game time ONLY) they said Crosby 76 times. That’s not including intermission, pregame or postgame. I know he’s talented (I still hate him), I’ve seen him out on the ice. But I’ve also heard (from Detroit radio stations) that Malkin is a better player than Crosby. It’s just too bad that Bettman has hand picked Crosby to be the face of the NHL.

And that’s just this hockey girl’s rant. It’s all about the Wing’s depth. In Detroit we don’t have much good going on right now, but we have the Wings.

For fun here it the fight at the end of the game between Malkin and Zetterburg.

Go Wings!

Facts & Figures Game 2

(Thanks Keith for the help with images )

Spar–verb (used without object)
1. (of boxers) to make the motions of attack and defense with the arms and fists, esp. as a part of training.
2. to box, esp. with light blows.
3. to strike or attack with the feet or spurs, as gamecocks do.
4. to bandy words; dispute.

–noun
5. a motion of sparring.
6. a boxing match.
7. a dispute.
via dictionary.com

Obviously they don’t go all out on me, but I’ll be damned if they let me dominate the match because I’m a girl.  I have no problems getting knocked around.  Because really, getting knocked around builds up my tolerance and helps  my offense.   I think you learn a great deal more by having to really fend for yourself.  And when you get that one awesome point, it makes it that much sweeter.

My Master Instructor, my dad, is the hardest on me.  Being a third degree blackbelt he obviously holds back, but not any more than he does on the guys in my class.  I’ve been kicked in the head numerous times by my dad and once in the face.  He’s a Master Instructor, he knows how to control the power of his kicks, so the shots don’t necessarily hurt physically just my pride.

I’m not going to lie, there are days this is extremely discouraging.  But in reality, I need to learn to take those hits.  I need to take them so my reflexes improve to block them.

Getting your ass kicked in a controlled setting is not a bad thing.  It builds strength, resilience, confidence, quickness and a sense of being a bad ass.

More girls need these things.  More girls should spar.  More girls should challenge their male counter parts in the ring, if only for practice.