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Niagara Walk/Team Building and Power Weekend
Now that I've recovered from the worst of the soreness, and have a wee bit of time, I thought I'd put up a bit of a post about the Power Weekend experience.
Things kicked off two weeks before the actual test with the school's charity walk. Ros and I did the final day, a 25 km stretch from St. Catherines to Niagara Falls. This pic is from the first hour, with one of my adult training partners (at the right), one of the girls doing her first degree, her mom, and Ros.
Shortly after the pic above, Ros pulled ahead with a pack of kids and I didn't see her again until the end. Here she is leading the pack.
The day after the walk, all the black belt candidates do a Team Building day in the Niagara area. Here we all are on the steps of the Ten Thousand Buddhas temple where we'd stopped for a bit of meditation and calm.
They divided all the candidates into four teams named after superheroes. I scored Team Batman. Which was apparently where they put all the really tall people, and me. *g*
Power Weekend started with a Gratitude Ceremony, where the candidates and all of the school's other black belts come together to celebrate the things they are grateful for. It was a lovely start to the weekend.
Having lulled us with candles, they then proceeded to work us hard for four hours straight. We did pushups, situps, burpees and kicks until we were all ready to keel over. (The t-shirt I'm wearing here was still soaking wet from sweat when I got home on Sunday.) I'm told it was about midnight when we finished, but we couldn't tell. They took the clocks down from everywhere in the dojang we would concentrate on the moment, not on how much longer we had to go.
There were so many things that we did. They got us up in the middle of Friday night to do forms on the beach. It was a lovely warm night with the stars out, so it was a brilliant thing to do. We did a crossfit class first thing Saturday morning. We helped teach the kids classes after that. We did some fitness games and weapons forms in the park on Saturday afternoon. At 4:00 pm on Saturday, our families brought us food, and then we had 1 1/2 hours to sleep before the last stretch kicked off. That was sparring, self-defence, forms and musical forms.
The self-defence was probably the most intense piece. You're each led into a circle of ten black belts, some of whom have kicking pads. The people with the kicking pads push at you to keep you off balance; the others attack you. Vigorously. You have to break the attacks for three minutes. It's crazy, because you never have time to get your breath, and it really fires up your body's fight or flight response. Most of us (me included) ending up crying after it was over, but we all managed to fend off all the attacks. The hardest one for me was one of the bigger guys (he's about six foot and probably weigh 250 lbs) got me in a reverse bear hug I just couldn't break with our usual techniques. I finally took off the kid gloves and pinched him really hard in the inner thigh. If you're ever caught in a bad situation, that works every time.
Power Weekend ends on Sunday morning with a 5 km run for all the first degree candidates, and 6 km for all the higher belts. I've blown my knees for running, so I did the 6 km as a power walk with a friend doing her second degree who also has dodgy knees. As the runners finish, they're expected to go back and bring everyone left on the trail in. Carol and I were at the very end, so we had all the other candidates cheering us on behind us.
It was an amazing, exhilirating and utterly exhausting experience. (I did my first real class this morning, and my muscles still feel like they have no energy left.)
Things kicked off two weeks before the actual test with the school's charity walk. Ros and I did the final day, a 25 km stretch from St. Catherines to Niagara Falls. This pic is from the first hour, with one of my adult training partners (at the right), one of the girls doing her first degree, her mom, and Ros.
Shortly after the pic above, Ros pulled ahead with a pack of kids and I didn't see her again until the end. Here she is leading the pack.
The day after the walk, all the black belt candidates do a Team Building day in the Niagara area. Here we all are on the steps of the Ten Thousand Buddhas temple where we'd stopped for a bit of meditation and calm.
They divided all the candidates into four teams named after superheroes. I scored Team Batman. Which was apparently where they put all the really tall people, and me. *g*
Power Weekend started with a Gratitude Ceremony, where the candidates and all of the school's other black belts come together to celebrate the things they are grateful for. It was a lovely start to the weekend.
Having lulled us with candles, they then proceeded to work us hard for four hours straight. We did pushups, situps, burpees and kicks until we were all ready to keel over. (The t-shirt I'm wearing here was still soaking wet from sweat when I got home on Sunday.) I'm told it was about midnight when we finished, but we couldn't tell. They took the clocks down from everywhere in the dojang we would concentrate on the moment, not on how much longer we had to go.
There were so many things that we did. They got us up in the middle of Friday night to do forms on the beach. It was a lovely warm night with the stars out, so it was a brilliant thing to do. We did a crossfit class first thing Saturday morning. We helped teach the kids classes after that. We did some fitness games and weapons forms in the park on Saturday afternoon. At 4:00 pm on Saturday, our families brought us food, and then we had 1 1/2 hours to sleep before the last stretch kicked off. That was sparring, self-defence, forms and musical forms.
The self-defence was probably the most intense piece. You're each led into a circle of ten black belts, some of whom have kicking pads. The people with the kicking pads push at you to keep you off balance; the others attack you. Vigorously. You have to break the attacks for three minutes. It's crazy, because you never have time to get your breath, and it really fires up your body's fight or flight response. Most of us (me included) ending up crying after it was over, but we all managed to fend off all the attacks. The hardest one for me was one of the bigger guys (he's about six foot and probably weigh 250 lbs) got me in a reverse bear hug I just couldn't break with our usual techniques. I finally took off the kid gloves and pinched him really hard in the inner thigh. If you're ever caught in a bad situation, that works every time.
Power Weekend ends on Sunday morning with a 5 km run for all the first degree candidates, and 6 km for all the higher belts. I've blown my knees for running, so I did the 6 km as a power walk with a friend doing her second degree who also has dodgy knees. As the runners finish, they're expected to go back and bring everyone left on the trail in. Carol and I were at the very end, so we had all the other candidates cheering us on behind us.
It was an amazing, exhilirating and utterly exhausting experience. (I did my first real class this morning, and my muscles still feel like they have no energy left.)
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I'm impressed you got the better of the big bloke, nice technique, something to remember :) It doesn't have to look pretty does it? Where do you go to from here with your training?
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The fight scenario was funny. I got through my turn okay, and only lost it when I saw what the next person went through and saw her come off crying. (We weren't allowed to watch the people who went through before us, only the ones after us. And I was quite near the end.)
Pretty doesn't count at all in a real situation; effective counts. And the pinch is something I've practiced in class, but never put my full strength behind because it hurts like heck. I did not hold back during the test. ;)
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pinched him really hard in the inner thigh. If you're ever caught in a bad situation, that works every time.
Thanks for the tip.
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I'm always glad to pass on self-defense tips. I've got tons more if you're ever interested. It's a skill everyone should have.
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I was not Team Batman's mascot. In fact, I only realized how short I am compared to the others when I saw that picture. :D
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Congratulations!!!
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Rest and take care of yourself!
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