Sporty shorties, Aussie Aussie Aussie (Oy! Oy! Oy!)

[blpurdom]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at y..., "Tabouli" <tabouli at u...> wrote:
> Then, in my mid twenties, I took up karate <snip> However, as I 
> rose through the ranks to brown belt, combat practice, never my 
> favorite bit, started getting positively scary.  Yep, being small 
> again.
> 
> Pitted against taller, younger, male opponents, as I often was, I 
> had to work three times as hard at dodging and getting in to punch 
> or kick, because their arms and legs were probably a foot longer 
> than mine!  You get bruises on your arms and legs from blocking 
> anyway, but by green belt I was starting to get thumped in the 
> stomach and shins and taking blows which *really hurt*, and I 
> began to quail every time combat practice (kumite) was mentioned.  

You don't even have to be much smaller than one's opponent.  I took 
a semester of karate in college for a PE credit, since my husband 
(at that time, my boyfriend) was a black belt and often ran the 
karate club trainings, for which we received extra credit (the 
highest-ranking person present ran the training).  I was often 
pitted against a fellow only a year older and several inches taller 
than me (I'm 5'3" and at the time I weighed barely 100 lbs.) but he 
was a brown belt and very aggressive.  I had dreadful bruises on my 
arms every time I was sparring with him for twenty minutes.  

Since I had a boyfriend who was a black belt, I frankly didn't feel 
much like continuing to torture myself by going up against this jerk 
every time I went to the club.  He was roommates with the Sensei's 
nephew, who was the US champion several years running at that time, 
and they enjoyed engaging in Pink Panther-style fights (i.e. 
Clouseau and Cato) in their apartment--the nephew put his roommate 
in the hospital more than once (the roommate was a glutton for 
punishment).  Somehow, I felt like he was taking it out on ME when I 
sparred with him.  Was it my fault he chose to live with the US 
Shotokan Karate champion?

My husband received his second-degree (Nidan) while he was in 
college (he'd gotten his first-degree when he was sixteen) and he 
continued training into his twenties, but then he started coming up 
against these truly gigantic guys from Penn (6'4" and 225 lbs) who 
were several inches taller than him and had about thirty pounds on 
him.  They didn't seem to feel the need to pull their punches or 
engage in any of the other accepted courtesies of the dojo, and my 
husband did his best to tolerate them, but it was getting very 
tiresome.  He still does kata at home some (he just bought himself a 
new gi last year) but he's not interested in going back to the local 
dojo at this time.  Karate is supposed to be a peaceful discipline, 
but some people just ruin it for everyone else.  The Sensei's 
nephew, Hiro, was actually always very nice to me when we sparred 
(he was only a couple of inches taller than me).  I think he knew 
his roommate was a jerk and he was trying to get him to see the 
light.  I have no idea whether it ever worked.

--Barb
(who loves to watch her husband doing kata...)