Don't Beat Yourself Up!

Some people just beat themselves up a lot. They are never happy with their performance and always think they should be doing better or working harder. In last nights karate class, I took this 'beating oneself up' thing a little too far and actually punched myself in the face!

You may well be wondering how on earth one can achieve that given the techniques available at white belt...

Well let me enlighten you! Pinan Shodan, towards the end of the kata when you are working your way towards the back of the hall. You've turned to do a soto uke, and then followed with a front kick and reverse punch with the left hand. You then take that left hand and do another soto uku with it. Your arm starts off in a horizontal position perpendicular to your body and to do a jodan soto uke all you need to do is rotate the forearm upwards, perpendicular to the body. I managed to rotate my arm backwards instead of upwards thus delivering a nice backfist to my right eye!

Unfortunately for me, I was kinda 'going for it' in this particular kata so I really spanked myself quite hard! It knocked me for six a bit and my eyes went all squiffy for a few minutes. The next morning I found a nice bruise just below my eyebrow :-)

It was a good class last night. Only three students turned up! So we got lots of personal attention from Garry and spent the entire session concentrating on Pinan Nidan and Shodan. I learned a lot, but the most important thing I learned - don't beat yourself up!