Getting Back on my Feet

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Return to Karate

Today I took my first real karate class in months. During Covid my training had become sporadic (at best). We had some scattered zoom classes, I practiced at home as best I could and inbetween lockdowns we did distanced classes. Our classes are still distanced, but it's still nice to be finally training again. Mostly I did review and marvelled again at how much better my body is at remembering than my brain.

Anyone who has trained martial arts for a time (or anything similar) is probably familiar with this concept. I call it "muscle memory". I am sure there are other terms out there. Our style of karate is kata-heavy (kata=patterns). And while I did make some minor mistakes, I was able to work through several kata without really thinking through the steps that much. This is because when I've done them enough times, it's like my body remembers for me. It knows the next step intuitively and will perform it even if I can't fully visualize it.

And it felt great.

I've taken breaks from martial arts before. I've missed a few months here and there through my time, but only once did I take years off. It was when I moved and started graduate school and just let myself not train. Money and time were a factor, but as my Sensei pointed out to me, if it's important we find the time and I didn't find the time. Once I went back to training after those four years, I vowed never to completely leave martial arts ever again and I haven't. Especially since my muscle memory may have survived a few months of weak training, it did not survive those four years of no training.

Mostly I just wanted to express how happy I am to have settled into a new home and returned to my training, even with covid still changing how we do things. The pandemic isn't over, but it's nice to have some pieces of my life falling back into place.

Sewing

Another hobby of mine that I've been neglecting is my sewing. I've slowly been getting back into that, too. I purchased a series of Disney princess silhouette patterns a while ago. I completed the Cinderella one. In order to make them unique to me, I've been following the pattern, but adding my own colour scheme. I'm finally working on the second one, Rapunzel. The colour scheme I chose is yellow/orange/red based on her golden hair and sun logo. I still have a long way to go. If you're wondering about the lines, I used heat erase pens to help me grid and track my stitches.

 

I hope all is well with you and that even though this isn't all over yet, hopefully you are finding ways to move forward and carry on.

Thanks for reading.

Mel


*Here are a couple articles on muscle memory if you're curious:

Muscle Memory: What is it & How to Use It

The Amazing Phenomenon of Muscle Memory


PS: I did try that Kung Fu school and they weren't for me, oh well. They were nice and all but their schedule didn't fit mine.

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