A Chase of Two T-Shirts

This week concluded a goal that I unknowingly gave myself. The story related to a previous accomplishment. The journey spanned 3 months to more than a year, depending on from when it should be counted. The rewards came in the form of two tee-shirts.

T-Shirt #1

In October 2011 a friend asked me to join her group to participate in a mud-related event. I quickly signed up. Took advantage of the opportunity to do the activity with a willing group (these groups seemed always hard to find). But I pushed training for it to start in mid-January 2012 as I was busier preparing for a trip to three countries that left in November 2011. It gave me about 2.5 months of concentrated training.

I related my experience here.  I have only worn the t-shirt and headband twice since. I think both still has a hint of mud smell(!!) even after being washed They were great souvenirs for what we've accomplished.

(I unsuccessfully tried, but still trying to form a group of minimum 8 people whom feels they cannot finish this event. It will be an inspiring reason to do it again. We will all surely gain valuable experiences from it. My only requests were that we train for it, I can show you how, and that we stay together during the event - to help each other forward as a team.  With relative fitness and without major health complications, anyone can do this - REALLY! Please contact me if you or friends are interested.)

T-Shirt #2

In early 2011 I bought class passes to finally learn self-defence properly. I attended my first training in September 2011, and the second session around February 2012. I couldn't focus on it before Feb due to other priorities that consumed my time. But I knew from day one I chose the right style to learn. Now I try to attend once a week.

I chose Krav Maga coz it was the only style that interested me since the 90s (high school). But I didn't know what it was called until 2010. I never felt the need to learn how to physically protect myself from attacks. I considered myself already street-smart, and male friends taught me some basic evasive/escape manoeuvres. I was always "safe".... except when I travelled alone. Most situations I faced were non-threatening and verbally de-escalated. Before training, thankfully I had only been almost-assaulted once (a hero came to my rescue immediately when he noticed the situation before I did).

Had I been trained for self-defence before my November trip (mentioned above), I don't know if (and I don't think) I would have reacted differently, or if I could have protected myself better.... If you don't know what I'm talking about here, peruse through my posts between December 2011 and January 2012. The situations then were physically and mentally harrassing, but I was not in danger. A few people assumed my experiences then was the reason I decided to learn self defence. It was not. :-)

The main reason I did this training was to help prepare me to achieve t-shirt #1. For functional fitness - might as well learn a new skill like self defence in the process. The second reason was maybe to pass on the knowledge, if the opportunity was presented.

I mentioned some of my experiences in previous blogs. I still struggle to bring out the fighter in me. Many times I wished I could be lazy, and/or assume faith in humanity/men; and let/expect a man (or others) to protect me, 24-7. Nowadays I am always covered in bruises. Two male friends I brought to my club saw a different side of me that they found interesting and/or scary(!!?). Some colleagues are wary of me now too (jokingly?) after understanding what I am learning. Krav Maga moves are aggressive. They could be quite lethal when used and very effective. I'm happy with my choice, but I hope to never use the techniques learned.

When I was being graded the instructor had to ask me to "growl" just to show my aggression, so I did a soft "ggrrr", hahahah ack! I was convinced he was getting frustrated with me for being soft! Later I toughened up when I had to spar with 6-8 men at the end of the grading. I lost count, but I remember half of them were the instructors!!! My left thigh nearly gave up (cramped and pulverised!!) at the end of it! I think most of them (especially the 3-4 students being graded I sparred with) aimed for my left leg when kicking thinking they were being gentler/kinder - good intentions. But they were ALL kicking me on the same leg!! They used their dominant right leg, against my left leg!! I was thankful when I was getting roundhouses aiming for my head!!! About 3 I weakly blocked, had little strength left against all of them men, so I copped the head "grazes". Thankfully most of them were being thrown at me by the instructors (so not too painful)! Controlled fighting/sparring was very tiring!!!! It really gave me a taste of how hard fighting and counter-attacking could be when I didn't know what was going to be thrown at me!!! I felt so vulnerable against their strength! So my learned skills were really for survival enough to escape further harm in real life situations! ACK! :-)

I was so glad I passed! REALLY! I thought I messed up. I had never gone through any form of grading before where I had to "choreograph" movements of my whole body. For someone clumsy like me, it was nerve-wracking! I only tripped over my own feet once, and even then maybe it wasn't obvious, woohoo!

I did a little jump when I was presented my t-shirt. I didn't know about it until I considered being graded. Again, a nice reminder of the achievement :-). I accepted my "punch in the gut" (!! ugh! ack hahah!) by one of the instructors, congratulated the rest of the students, rushed home using public transport (this was a test of strength too - the whole hour, my thighs especially, were screaming!), and thankfully managed to drop myself into the spa 5 minutes before it closed (wearing my one-piece-bathers inside out hahahah!) where I stayed for 20 minutes.