Kyokushin Karateka - my experiances ...

After joining for the karate class in October - I put in my 100 percent ... in observing and learning as much as possible. I always had wanted to learn karate and so this is the start of realizing a dream. It takes a lot of dedication, and perseverance, as at times you feel you cannot do anymore but you still go on ... its not that you have to, lets just say I just didn't want to give up ... so after a lot of body pain and muscle catches, I ended up getting used to the routine ... and its such a passion for me that I wake up at 5.50 in the morning on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, which may not be much for many, but if you consider that I did this only if I was going for a tour before, and never for my exams, it really proves how much I am in love with karate.

And as I started learning, I have to say it is the one place I find peace of mind and its great for me to get stress free, not to mention healthy and fresh ... and also my appetite has shot up and I did gain weight and crossed 50kg - an achievement, and that too healthy weight ... :D ...

In a way its like a dance form, with rythm and steps you repeat again and again till you perfect them, but also it is a lot more physically challenging.

On the grading day, the routine was really something :

• Starting with about 4km jogging.
• Then a set of warm up exercises with make the arch where u throw ur leg up in an arch, then in an arc from left to right, then reverse and so on - each 10 to 20 times in number
• Push ups, then arm rotation, wrist rotation and the usual routines.
• Then stretching exercises.
• Different punches, kicks, blocks, movements, stances each about 10 or 20 times.
• Katas (routines for each belt involving stances, kicks, punches, blocks etc).
• Sequences (which are again routines for each belt to perfect kicks and punches)
  
• Then there were ape walk, frog jump, duck walk, so on for about 150 meter each
• Then there was fighting - and well each fight lasts for barely a minute, but well I too had my first fighting experience with a brown belt girl, was really a great experience and I loved it (though I got a lot of kicks and punches and so did she :D )
  

... and surprisingly I didn't have much body pain after all that ... phew - awesome! That resulted in getting a double promotion to Orange senior.
And I still continue with the same passion I started out with!