Red Right Ankle

There’s nothing wrong with taking a day off from karate, but that doesn’t mean it won’t be frustrating.

I finally walked back into the dojo last week. My four solid months of work travel kept me away from karate for far too long. I’ve been working out, I’ve lost weight, I have no excuse to stay away from martial arts. Plus my school is attending Karate College 2012 and I want to attend … that will be easier with training.

Of course, my body has different ideas. I am lighter thanks to (mostly) watching what I eat. I have good upper body strength and reasonable endurance thanks to a (somewhat) regular workout schedule (hotel workout centers help in this regard).

That doesn’t mean I’m 100% ready to execute every spinning-hop-back-axe-hook-kick that comes my way.

Parts of my back still don’t like me, so the whole spinning-while-kicking thing doesn’t always workout. I’m not exactly limber, so kicks to an opponents’ head require I first kick them in the knee so they crouch down in pain.

I know the moves, but I have to do them more to be fluid. It’s there, but it’s not always natural.

This morning my right ankle woke me up before the alarm clock. No, I’m not staring at a swollen mass of bruises … just a slightly red ankle with minor twinges of “take it easy or else” sliding up my shins. I know the drill: ibuprofen, soak, rest. I could attend another karate class tonight, but I would push too hard and end up on the sidelines. Better to trade tonight’s karate class for a weights workout and try again on Thursday.

One of the six principles of Sajido is ‘patience’ …

pa·tience [pey-shuhns] – noun
1. the quality of being patient, as the bearing of provocation, annoyance, misfortune, or pain, without complaint, loss of temper, irritation, or the like.
2. an ability or willingness to suppress restlessness or annoyance when confronted with delay.

So here I am, being patient. It took months for me to get back into the dojo. Two more days isn’t so bad.


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