A Sandy Day

We had beach training today. That means the dojo met at the beach at 9AM, trained for 1-1 ½ hours then had a cookout and played Volleyball or played with the kids.

It was beautiful out today. When its weather like this, my boys play outside from the minute they wake up until they go to bed. I walked outside to gather them up and I was met with the crisp smell of fall. It must’ve been about 60-65 degrees.

I walked up to them and said, “MMMM! Smell that? Know what that’s the smell of?” to which Son#2 says, “Christmas?”

He could be very correct. Christmas is more often than not 60-65 degrees out. Blech.

Anyway, off to the beach we went and as I haven’t been training much, I’ve been worried about how I would hold out. The kids always love it when we do our Kata (form) in the water. There’s nothing quite like kicking, punching and turning while trying to keep your balance in water that is sometimes knee deep, but as the tide rushes back out, ends up ankle deep. It is fun, but challenging.

At the end, we dismiss the kids and then the adults throw one another. If they post pictures on our dojo website, I’ll post a link. Being the only woman, I was pretty much thrown like a ragdoll, while never really getting the entire concept myself. At the end, my Sensei was explaining that tackling my opponent was just not going to work. Throwing my 5’2” frame against a man’s 6’ frame is just not going to do it. So suddenly, I was having to do extra rounds to practice. Kind of humiliating, but I think I have it down now.

Bottom line: I need a gun.