eternaleponine

At the end of class today we were doing rotations of heavy bag and no-contact sparring with Master Paul. We did four rounds, I think, and after the third one he said to me, "Your sparring has really improved." I just said thank you, but inside I was doing a little dance of joy. Because sparring is probably the thing that I'm weakest at, and to get a compliment on it was just... awesome.

Of course, during the fourth round we both went for a punch at the same time and our fists collided, so we both had to drop and do ten push-ups, because that's our penalty if we make contact when we're not supposed to. Oops.

(We are ignoring the fact that I have the bruise on the side of my hand to prove that he hit me, not the other way around... "It takes two to make contact." :-P)

Speaking of bruises... my right thumb. The knuckle where it joins the hand all of a sudden looks slightly swollen. Now, I injured that thumb two years ago during the January from hell - I fell on the snow and bent it back, and it's occasionally ached since. A couple of weeks ago, Master Paul's wrist slammed into the knuckle when he was demonstrating a block for either step-sparring or self-defense, and it's been bruised and a bit achy since then, but it's been getting better. I have no idea why it decided to flare up again. I'm going to take the fact that I can move it without any problems as a sign that there's nothing seriously wrong with it, and just keep an eye (and ice) on it.

On a happier note, my belt display arrived today! And even better, the part of it that I didn't really like (a photo frame bit that's supposed to go at the top) but decided I could ignore in order to pay $12.99 instead of $39.99 for a thing to put my belts on, is actually a separate piece and so I can just not hang it up. Yay!

( My belts, let me show you them. )

I've started to develop this theory regarding the reason the belt colors progress the way they do in taekwondo. I'm pretty sure that they're roughly the same color as the bruises that you end up getting at that level of training.

White = No bruises
Yellow = Minor bruises
Green = Things are getting pretty grisly...

I'm sort of afraid of what's going to happen at blue on up. *g*

Seriously though, the one on my right ankle from last Friday's complete breaking fail has turned really gruesome (I took a picture but I'll spare you... at least for now). And my forearms... well, I'm honestly starting to wonder if someone at work is going to ask me if everything is okay at home. A friend did so jokingly today, but it really wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that the cause might be something untoward, even though in truth it's exactly the opposite. Both forearms have any number of really prominent bruises on them, and some of them I'm not even 100% sure how I got them!

Last night we did sparring without headgear, which was sort of a pity because if we'd been wearing it, I totally could have gotten R. in the head. But Master Paul decided we would take it easy, because if we put on full gear "You two will kill each other."

Which isn't entirely inaccurate.

Tonight we just did no-contact sparring, which really means minimal contact sparring, because we can't manage to not occasionally clip each other. Even Master Paul got me a couple of times, but nothing that left a mark... well, except where I got R.'s elbow. My feet, particularly the left one, seem to be magnetically attracted to elbows.

At least I'm not feeling as bad about sparring as I was a couple of weeks back. I don't know if I'm actually improving or if R. just sees how pissed off I get and gives me more opportunity to score, or what. We'll see how things go in the tournament when I'm facing off against people who are more my own size.

I'm kind of concerned about breaking at the tournament. When we did breaking earlier this week, I completely failed at it, and not in a "succeeded but hurt myself or otherwise did something dumb" way, but in a "the board(s) didn't break at all" way. I was trying side kick through two boards again, and well... I won't be doing that for competition. Because I can't do it.

My board holders admitted that the first attempt was probably as much their fault that the boards didn't break as mine, and after that, my legs went shaky and I knew it wasn't going to work. I should have just switched to something else, but oh well. (It was a rough week, and watching R. succeed on his first try didn't help.)

I have a week to get it figured out.

But we did have a visitor from Master Paul's old school that day – he seems to turn up on school vacation weeks – and he did a flying side kick OVER the heavy bag and through a board. Twice. I was impressed. But hey, he's a teenage boy. He hasn't learned yet that there are things that people aren't supposed to be able to do. ;-)

I am icing my foot. The idea of putting ice on any body part in the middle of the winter really isn't a very attractive one, but the ball of my right foot and put into the arch has been hurting for a while now, so I'm trying to calm it down again. Probably I should actually give it a break and maybe take a day or two off from TKD, but that's unlikely to happen.

( My foot is f***ing freezing. )