Mood: accident prone
Today in TKD we did some sparring. First I paired up with Dave and we did light contact kicking. Really good fun, we were a bit better this time at making contact without actually kicking the shit out of each other. Then Glen (it's always poor old Glen) put on body armour and we all took a turn at "sparring" with him for 90 seconds. He was just moving around a lot to get out of the way and blocking, while we had to try and kick him. Wow, that was so much fun!!! And surprisingly exhausting. I felt like a bit of a spaz (and managed to fall over too at one point) but hey, it was the first time I've ever done that so I was quite pleased with myself. I did at least manage to get a few good kicks in.
As usual I managed to come away with enormous bruises, another one in almost exactly the same spot as last time, where I caught Glen's elbow with the bottom of my shin. Ouch. In a weird way though, I kind of like coming home with all these war wounds. It makes me feel like a proper fighter! I mean, I never thought I would be able to do a class like that, take a painful knock, fall over, and then get up and carry on. I used to be a total wimp and I love the fact that I'm not any more. It’s not that I was totally wrapped up in cotton wool, as a kid, but...well yeah, actually I guess I really was. I broke both my arms (not at the same time!) when I was young so I think after that I was always really cautious about getting injured. Add to that the fact that in my teens and onwards I was quite a serious pianist and my parents were forever trying to make sure I didn't injure my arms or hands. For example, when I wanted to go ice skating they gave me horror stories about getting fingers chopped off with skate blades :-) I never rode a bike anywhere, and I never did any kind of sports. All in all I just wasn't very adventurous. So now, to feel like I can take a knock, get a painful bruise, but not let it bother me and keep training, is something of a revelation. Way hay, I am no longer a wuss!
Right, I'm off now to lie on the sofa with an ice pack on my leg :-)