Today's chapter: karate-ka
8:53 p.m. :: 2003-03-21

Ack!!!!!!

I can't believe it.

On Monday, I am going to become a Karate-ka again.

I signed up with a Karate club just now.

So nervous and excited. Let me explain: when I was 12, back home in Finland, I decided to sign up for Karate classes. The memories of why that was are quite hazy, but I distinctly remember having been bullied and once even beaten up at school prior to my signing up...so I'm pretty certain I sought out Karate as means of self defence.

Of course it turned out to be a bit different; confidence building (so suddenly I wasn't bullied anymore anyway), fitness like no other sport I'd ever heard of (I developed such strong leg muscles over those first Karate years that to this DAY I can out-leg-press your standard male gym instructor) and something else....like being bitten by a Bug (pun unintended, yet strangely amusing). There is an X-factor to Martial Arts for sure. It's not just some 'sport'.

So, of course at age 12, Yellow Belt, I was hardly some master Karate-ka. It was a hobby. But I stayed for a couple of years more and got to Green belt. That's not so bad. Attended a few special training camps in the summer (and came back black and blue - nothing like full contact leg swipes for days on end to remove the dilemma of 'tan or not to tan').

Then, I don't know - some other things took priority and I finished practicing for the time being. I think the fact that my original club was heavily into getting all post-green belts to official national tournaments finally put the nail in the coffin for me. All the training became sparring ready for competitions. I didn't want to compete on some official level; I just wanted to carry on practicing as a hobby, so that was that.

About a year after I'd finished Karate (how old was I then? 15? 16?), I discovered Jiu-Jitsu. A blend of Judo and Karate, if I were to crudely describe it, this new discipline seemed seriously cool. I practiced for just about a year until I moved to a location from where it was hard to get to class and gave up.

Fast forward to Uni and the discovery of a Karate club practicing on campus. I convinced a couple of friends to sign up with me. I stayed in Uni for one semester, which was also the time I stayed in Karate - because almost immediately after, I moved to UK.

And that's another story.

But anyway. To Present Day. I have been trying to discover a way in which I could push myself beyond the not-yet-well-but-not-all-that-unwell-anymore-either comfort zone I seem to have gotten stuck in.

I know that I am unfit and overweight at the moment. I also know that I should get an independent hobby and try to start doing stuff that is a bit beyond that 'comfort zone'. There is a gym in the town I now live in, but the membership fee is a bit steep and it's positioned a bit too far away.....oh, and I also know that there are many other excuses why I haven't just joined.

This evening, there was a knock on the door. A super-slim woman with a perky smile stood on my doorstep and started: "We are going around town telling people about some new local fitness classes..."

I almost told her to go away, until she added: "......er, Karate classes, to be exact."

"Karate?"

I'm starting on MONDAY. I'm scared and excited. Scared because I am about as fit as a sausage and I know what kind of training is involved even at the basic level.....but excited because this could be really GOOD.

�

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What's left of it - the (selected and last few) entries:
New - 2005-02-11
Bye for now - 2003-04-21
butt - 2003-04-06
karate-ka - 2003-03-21
ridicilous - 2003-03-20