[karatestuffs]

So recently I donated blood at school then decided to go to karate later that day. The classes were fine cause I just instructed but then we got to jiu jitsu. Of course we were doing takedowns and it was just constant standing up falling down for like 40 minutes.

As we got further into the class it was taking me a good 5 seconds to stand up each time and I remember thinking “the last time I had to put this much effort into standing up off the floor was literally my black belt test.”

So if you want a gauge for how hard the self defense portion of a black belt test will be, just imagine doing jiu jitsu after having donated a few pints of blood.

Or, as I joked with my dad, I was preparing for a fight in which I’m losing blood yet have to keep fighting.

[a-dragon-fitness-blog]

Tonight was my first Brazilian jujitsu class.

I’m 5’7 so my limbs aren’t super long so I’m at a huge disadvantage. But I’ll work on working my way around it.

Some awesome news though is at this gym it’s inexpensive and I can go as much as I want. At my old gym it was expensive and I could only go 2 days.

Some bad new. I did something to my little toe and it’s all purple and red haha. So there’s that.

[karatestuffs]

Updates!

Wow it’s been a hot second since I’ve been on Tumblr. So I couldn’t use karate as my gym alternate cause NYS regulations are dumb but it’s all good.

The internship went really well though I didn’t get to work with the fight choreographer.

Also! I got accepted to Niagara University which was my first choice and got offered a Trustee’s Scholarship for $23,000 a year which is insane and I’m so excited for the next four years. I’m going into Theater Design & Technology and maybe double majoring in Social Work.

All in all we’re thriving.

Karate is still great. I’ve been going slightly less cause school is a bit hectic (also I got my first job as a cashier at our local Cooperative Market).

Jujitsu is awesome and last class I was given the opportunity to work with two of our younger students which was great. I’m still very self conscious / nervous about teaching class but I do love helping the other Senseis as long as one of them takes charge. One of my senseis wants me to start teaching the younger kids alone which I would love to do.

[karatestuffs]

Updates!

So a few updates:

1. I might be able to use karate as an alternate gym for school next year so I don’t have to take gym class in school. The requirement is 32 hours per semester like honestly I get that in a month. 

2. My friend Ryder tested for his Junior Black Belt on Saturday and did really well, so now me and the two other boys I was originally testing with have all gotten our black belts. 

3. I got an internship at a theatre company for 7 weeks over the summer and hopefully, I’ll be able to work with their fight coordinator. 

[karatestuffs]

I’m a little bit salty cause Tumblr flagged a picture of a bruise on my arm I had posted a while ago as adult content. Wow, nice algorithm. Why would I be posting anything inappropriate on my martial arts blog? 

[basicbutterfly]

I’m taking my black belt in March…

G o D hELP mE

[tinyterrorbjj]

YOU GOT THIS!!!

GOOD LUCK :D

[karatestuffs]

Good Luck!!!

[karatestuffs]

Being Transgender at Karate

I just need to rant about some concerns I have at karate. For those of you who don’t know I’m female to male transgender and came out about 3 years ago, and to the main senseis at my dojo about 2 years ago. 

I’m at a weird place now because I've changed my name on my school records and transitioned literally everywhere except karate. Sometimes I genuinely dread going to class because I know I have to hear a name I no longer use. 

There wasn’t really a problem at school cause it’s loads of high schoolers and they understand, at least vauguely, what it is to be trans. I think it’s harder at karate cause there’s parents with young children that might not know how to explain or want this to be explained to their kids. Kids generally get it in a broad sense, but I just love eveyone at the dojo and I don’t want anything to change (even though I clearly do).

[karatestuffs]

As it’s been about 2 months since my test, I’m finally posting pictures from my test. I’ve been avoiding talking about it cause it’s difficult to communicate how important this is to me but also trying not to be weird about it. 

[karatestuffs]

Karate Dreams

Probably 80% of my dreams either take place at the dojo or will have my senseis show up in random places they shouldn’t be. Anyway, this was a particularly entertaining karate dream. 

For some reason I was going to another school within our group of dojos, (I’ve been there a few times for tournaments and jujitsu but not their standard classes).

So I walked in and they were testing my friend M for her second kyu brown belt even though she’s a green belt but they were like ‘she seemed ready’, but I had just given blood so I couldn’t spar her so I just yelled really loudly instead.

Then we went into warmups and I just warmed up with the other students cause even though I was a black belt I was too awkward to be with other black belts. Then they had this weird procession thing for ‘the best students’ from the week and they went and warmed up in a little separate section of the room. Throughout this dream, my completely rational justification for everything that was happening was ‘maybe this is just what this school is like, after all, of course, it’s not exactly like my dojo’. Plus nothing in this dream seemed to surprise anyone like yep apparently everything is totally normal. 

Then they were like ‘you have fifteen minutes until you have to be in class’ so I went out with this one girl who I randomly befriended and we sat with some other student in this little teepee thing for ten minutes and she was like ‘you should go to weapons class’ and one of the senseis from my school was teaching it so I was like ‘yeah totally I know him’. 

So the group of us walked down and everyone lines the sides of this gravel pathway and started doing this weird hula dance, and I was just following along and panicking like ‘oh no they’re gonna think I have no business being a black belt cause I don’t know what I’m doing” also questioning ‘is this just what weapons class is really supposed to be like and my school is just weird’. 

Then maybe five minutes later my sensei just comes skateboarding down the path with like combat boots and loads of random little weapons strapped to his person, and did some speech including the phrases “learn to fight with REAL weapons’ and “kick their broadway fighting asses” because he was very passionate about stage fighting not being real fighting. 

Then he just screams “you have fifteen seconds to find a weapon!” 

So we all go sprinting off and I follow this girl and I’m like “I’m sorry I don’t know where anything is” and she just laughs and runs into this hidden tent thing and starts rifling through her apparent secret stockpile of weapons for whenever he teaches this kind of class. 

So she’s got boxes of katanas and knives and stuff but she turns and just hands me a pair of sewing scissors. And me being my socially anxious self doesn’t ask for a better weapon which might be reasonable cause ya know she has katanas. 

Then I woke up. 

I have so many questions. How was he gonna teach a class of people with loads of makeshift weapons? What other classes were available because if they’re all like this I 10/10 want to go? How was I gonna fight people with literal shears?

[karatestuffs]

I promise I’ll update; it’s only been *looks at watch* 6 weeks since I tested. Oof. 

[karatestuffs]

Testing Tomorrow

It’s literally tomorrow. Oh my goodness. I’m equally so ready and not ready at all. I’ve done so much prep I know it’ll be fine, but at the same time the possibility of me just freezing is very high. I’m just not ready for anything to change. I’ve gotten so comfortable with being a kyu belt I almost don’t want anything to be different. This is all so weird and foreign. But I’ve fought for this, literally. Five years, 10-12 hours a week. I know I can do this I’m just nervous and want to get it over with. I’ll update at some point. 🥋

[karatestuffs]

T Minus 11 Days

I’m 11 days out till my black bet test. Honestly the doubt is getting to me. I finished working out my self defense moves and have been practicing them which is going well, and katas are fine. But sparring will be rough. I’ve had zero experiences that are comparable to having to spar 8-9 people in a row nonstop. I’m not ready for that. Also I’ve been trying to work my spinning and jump spinning kicks but they really aren’t improving too much and I still get out of breath a lot. And my master said something to the nature of “well she needs to practice them so I don’t feel to bad” so that’s was kinda rough to hear? but also completely true. I’ll work a heck load of jump spins this week outside of class. Yeah, I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that I’ll actually be a black belt in less than two weeks. It’s insanely surreal.

[karatestuffs]

Does anyone else go on “healthy streaks” after training? It’s like after a super hard workout you come home and are like “man I’m so healthy and awesome!” So you eat super healthy food for the rest of the day. It’s super cool until the next morning when it’s like never mind.

[karatestuffs]

Black Belt Test Date!!

Hi! So I’m really excited. We’ve been throwing around dates for my black belt test but it’s finally set for June 22nd. 

Additionally, my test has been pushed back a few months so the two other boys I’m testing with have time to prepare, but I finally expressed that I’d rather test alone so my master is letting me test alone for my adult black belt and I’m really happy.  

[karatestuffs]

Black Belt Self Defense Moves

I started working self-defense specifically for my black belt test. I get to choose the moves off of the attack so that’s pretty cool. I’m writing the moves here for future reference, though they may change within the next few weeks. Ignore the random terms I use, but we give moves nicknames. I’ll have more later. 

One arm grab - distraction, counterclockwise circle to pass, reach around to a standing guillotine. 

Two arm grab - distraction, both arms circle in, left wristwatch, left chicken wing, circle to guillotine same as one arm grab.

Lead arm punch - push block, transition, grab with left hand, palm strike to the jaw, right knee leg strike, clothesline to ground to jujitsu armbar.

Back arm punch - fan block then the same as lead arm punch.

Front two hand choke - step back with left leg, right arm jaw strike, peel left hand to wrist lock, throw, to ground wrist lock. 

[karatestuffs]

Tournament!

Okay, so the tournament went really well. I got there a few hours early to watch other divisions and support some kids from my dojo. 

So Katas were first and my division was myself and three girls. I was second in the lineup. The first girl was a green belt and she did the third kata, Saken, and was amazing. Then I went.

I am so genuinely proud of my kata. This is rare cause I have really high expectations of myself and in 4.5 years of karate I’ve only been proud of two katas I’ve ever done, this one being the second. I performed Avoidance kata our fifth and highest kata. We got scores and mine ranged between 8.6-8.8 with the scoring range being 8.0-8.9. So pretty good. I placed second after the green belt which is fine, I’m pretty happy. 

Then sparring. Oof. So I sparred that green belt again and she absolutely destroyed me. I lost 5-1. She has amazing speed and height on her kicks she was so good. So that put me in the bottom bracket then I won my second fight 5-0, so I got third. Brackets always kinda annoy me cause if I had fought the second girl first I would get second. I wish there was a kind of round robin where everyone fights everyone else. 

So yeah overall it was pretty fun. I learned a lot about what I need to work on and I’m pretty happy. 

[karatestuffs]

Tournament Day!

I’ve got a tournament today. My division starts in two hours. I’m pretty excited. I feel a weird lack of nerves, I’m just excited. I’m gonna do my best and that’s all I can do. The only pressure I feel is from other students in my dojo, just cause I feel like they all expect me to do really well, and for the few weeks after this someone will ask how I placed almost every class. I’ll update when I’m done and hopefully post some pictures as well.