Taking a stance on stances.

For those of you who may not have met me in person, I am what I like to call "wee," and what most people call, "short." I am barely over 5' tall, and honestly don't have much of a reach when it comes to punching.

Occasionally this can be an issue.. primarily when I'm fighting someone significantly taller than I am. Because I'm smaller, often my kicking range is similar to a "normal" person's punching range. As a result I've developed a stance that helps me to keep people at bay by allowing me to more easily kick and keep people the hell away from my face and torso.

My Current Stance

For the record, I'm the one on the right.

Now, those of you that have studied "traditional" martial arts will probably recognize the stance pretty quickly... it's a kind of modified "cat" or "tiger" stance. The beauty of the cat stance is that it allows you to leave your front leg free to kick and distance people, but with a slight shifting of your weight, you are now free to use the back leg and/or strike with the hands. If I'm fighting someone significantly larger than me, I will almost immediately fall back into this stance without thinking about it.

HOWEVER... it's not a great boxing stance. In this instance, my MMA instructor wanted all of us to spar so he could see where we are currently. Let's just say, I didn't land a lot of hits. 

What I'm Working On

Now, your boxing stance is a different matter all together. Hands are up at the face, shoulders are more squared towards your opponent, feet are hip distance apart (and facing the same direction), and—most significantly for me—weight is forward, making your head almost even with your lead foot.

For someone wee—like myself—this poses a problem. I don't have reach, so I am naturally reluctant to lean forward and give someone a nice target to punch. If you're quick, you can use the duck/bob method to keep yourself from getting hit while staying in range--but if not... you might want to start practicing your blocks.

Why is this important?

Well, you need to know what works for you well before you are in a situation where you are going to have to fight. If you are someone who is small, it's good to know HOW to box, and the principles of fighting. I spend a lot of time in JKD working on my blocks and legwork--but not as much on my strikes as I could have. Thus, I'm now working on my strikes by taking MMA and Escrima. It's not to say we don't kick... in fact we do a LOT of Thai kicks. But I know I need to work more on my boxing because eventually, I may have to fight someone who knows how to box, and as good as my kicks may be, if I get one good hit to the head, it's all done.

If you don't believe that knowing other styles (and how they fight) is important--ask an MMA fighter who does real matches. Getting too comfortable with one method of fighting will eventually lead to disaster because there are so many different ways someone can fight, and after a while you just get TOO comfortable in your ability to win. 

Remember: the thing about stances is that you can always change them if you need to.

..if it doesn't say Microaggression, it's not the real thing!

EDIT: I wrote this post a while back, but didn't publish it because it was cathartic enough just to put it all down on paper (so to speak). But after reading an email sent to an organization to which I belong—requesting the help of "strong men," to help with light physical labor—I felt I should publish it after all. Implicit validation of gender stereotypes is not cool in the dojo, social organizations, religious organizations, or anywhere else.   ~J.

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When I started learning martial arts, it was fairly common to hear a variation of the following phrase: "if you want to learn ballet, go study at [a different dojo]."  I used to let it stand, maybe give a little nervous laugh and then go on with my learning. After a time, I would maybe say something like, "you guys wouldn't last ten minutes in a ballet class." Now, I get mad.

Because ballet is primarily the realm of the female, the speaker is usually comparing the other [team, sport, etc] to girls.

Further, as it is also assumed that males in ballet are (primarily) homosexual, there is a further implied lack of masculinity. By saying people at a different dojo are studying ballet, the speaker is implying that they are lacking in the "manliness" needed for the practice of martial arts—the realm of Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris. 

As a woman in martial arts I find this infuriating. Even the likes of Ronda Rousey has been told to her face by a male interviewer that they don't think she could compete with a man (with hilarious results), or asked sexist questions her male counterparts never have to deal with. In my personal experience, I honestly believe that women in martial arts need to work almost twice as hard to gain even half the recognition of their skill—and comments like the one above (called microaggressions) are quite common. It is assumed that a woman in martial arts is there to learn self-defense rather than learning martial arts for their own sake. A woman can't even let her fists do the talking because often the speakers "don't fight girls."

Microaggressions like "I don't fight girls," or "we're not here to do ballet," or "maybe you should go home and play with your Barbies," are ignorant at best and harmful at worst. These statements reinforce the idea that females are weaker, and are not equal to their male counterparts. Focusing on self-defense only instead of overall skill reinforces rape-culture and the idea that a woman is responsible for attacks on her person (particularly by focusing on how you walk, how you dress, etc).  Even worse, when these kinds of statements are made in front of adolescent girls, it can damage their sense of self-worth—often the very reason that they are in the classes in the first place.

Secondarily, dance as a sport and athletic pursuit, is being discounted. 

The idea here is that dance is not only a "girly" pursuit, it is also not something on par with martial arts. When discussing the intersection of martial arts and dance, it is important to note that there have been many crossovers from dance into martial arts--particularly the more traditional forms like Kung Fu and Wing Chun. Think of actors like Jackie Chan (who started in the Peking Circus) or Michelle Yeoh (who studied ballet and choreography). There are even entire styles of martial arts that are built around dance, like Capoeira or parts of systems that teach through dance-like moves like the Moro Moros (mock battles) in Escrima.  And yet... ballet... unmanly.

Look at pictures of male ballet dancers. Compare the physique of Carlos Acosta to Bruce Lee and tell me dancers guys don't WORK, often burning out well before they hit their 40's. 
Male dancers have to combine the flexibility of yoga with the strength of a body builder (or they can't lift their female counterparts). Besides gymnasts, the only other sports that require that combination are the martial arts. We have so much in common... why must we disparage?

So what is the answer?

If you are a student, and either another student or instructor makes a statement that makes you uncomfortable, ask to speak to your instructor in private and calmly explain why. Remember ... 

1. Remain calm.
2. Give them the benefit of the doubt. They probably didn't realize what they said could be offensive, or they would not have said it. 
3. This is about the event, and not about the person. Phrase your response in such a way that they understand you are not accusing them of being [racist, sexist, homophobic], but that they made a statement that is [racist, sexist, homophobic]. Be prepared to face push-back and be told they were "just joking." Often it is difficult for people to see outside of their privilege, and calling them on it will make them uncomfortable.
4. If you cannot come to a resolution, be prepared to walk away. You may not be able to do anything about it right away, and that sucks. But if someone makes repeated statements, you may need to have a hard think on whether or not that person is someone you want as a teacher.

As an instructor, I ask that you think before you make any statements that might be perceived as disparaging to a particular group. If you see a student or fellow instructor make a statement that is offensive, take them aside and talk to them about it using the steps above. It is our job as instructors to make sure that everyone in class feels safe, especially those most at risk. Since many women initially take martial arts for self-defense, it is possible they are already coming from a place of trauma. We need to do all we can to make sure that they—and ALL our students—feel that they are learning in a safe and caring environment... well as safe as an environment as you can get in a class where there's a high possibility you'll be sparring.

Learn how to rest; you already know how to push through

A friend of mine's daughter was recently diagnosed with possible stress fractures in her ankle. She's still in grade school, and is a competitive dancer, taking first place in a recent contest. She's a determined girl who LOVES to dance, but it looks like she's going to have to take a couple of weeks off so she can heal up. It's heartbreaking, because she wants to do what she loves, but what she loves doing is aggravating an injury. In this instance, resting is the best possible thing for her to do, because it will give her time to heal... but in a way, the resting hurts more than continuing to injure herself. 

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There are times when we want to "push through the pain," whether it is physical or emotional, because we want to keep doing what we love. The thought is, if we keep moving, we won't have time to hurt, but conversely, we also won't have time to heal. 

As my metals teacher used to say, "tempering metal makes it stronger." But she also used to warn that while the process of tempering makes the steel harder, it also makes it more brittle, and prone to breaking.The same is true if you over-work the metal with a hammer... it is harder, yes, but more brittle. Instead, you must anneal the metal, slowly heat it to a red hot state, and then work the metal so that you are working with the structure, aligning the crystals of the metal slowly and carefully. When you anneal metal, the metal is not quenched in water after the heating, it is instead hammered while hot, and then allowed to cool naturally. This keeps the metal strong, but not brittle.

Taking time for oneself, particularly to heal after injury, is often a luxury few can afford these days. We must go to work, go to school, continue on with our bisy backson* lives instead of taking time to make sure we are (in fact) ok. I've done this for years with my knee -- I know that there is a problem with my knee, but if I go to the doctor and put a name to it, I could be prevented from doing the activities that I love--that help keep me even-keeled.  So I put on a brace, take an anti-inflammatory, and hope for the best. Because I don't have TIME for that.

I've also done this with inter-personal relationships (past, present, and likely in the future). Shifting blame, making excuses, because if I take the time to diagnose the problem, I can only come to one logical conclusion--and I don't want to face what's really wrong, or the possibility what is broken cannot be fixed. It's easier to make excuses for a friend or loved one than it is to acknowledge that some time off is necessary for both people to gain perspective and do some healing. 

In our society we are told if there is "no pain," there is "no gain." That may be true. But continued pain—continued tempering—with no time to heal will only make one brittle and subject to breaking. It's a good philosophy for forging a sword... and for keeping one healthy.

Which is all to say....

I'm taking some time off to do some healing--about a month--to see where I am both physically and mentally after resting. Perhaps I will be able to resume what I was doing. Perhaps that will no longer be possible. I won't know until I come out the other side and take a good look at where I am, and where I want to be. 

If you get the opportunity, I highly recommend that you do the same. Maybe not on the same scale, but maybe you can set a night aside for just you--do some reading, binge watch some awful TV, go get a mani-pedi, go to the gym, whatever helps you relax, and reconnect with YOU. In the end, you're the only person you can really truly rely on. You want to make sure you're in good shape.

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* I cannot stress enough the beauty and wisdom that is the Tao of Pooh and Te of Piglet. I read both books annually, and have made my kids read them too. Even if you are not into "Eastern Religion," it's a good reminder of just how messed up our Western world looks to those on the outside. Take a look, I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Come as you are, as you were...

Sometimes, no matter how well thought out, no matter how awesome your routine, you are going to have to make adjustments.  I have a "go to" routine that I use when I'm called on to sub for a beginning yoga class, but I always make sure that I have some alternate poses or sequences in mind because you never know what's going to be waiting for you on the mat.

The past few classes I've taught have been overwhelmingly yogic in nature, and there is a certain expectation of what comes from a yoga class (beginning, intermediate OR advanced). Here are the things I hear most often from students:

• [the student] has not done yoga before
• [the student] hasn't done yoga in a while
• [the student] tried to do yoga, but [they] are not very flexible
• [the student] isn't very spiritual
• [the student] IS very spiritual and doesn't want any of that weird stuff
• [the student] doesn't have all the "required" equipment

And i'm sure that those are all valid concerns they have for themselves, but really, most of those aren't concerns that I have for them. 

It's ok if you haven't done yoga before, or not in a while. Thanks for letting me know so I can make sure to explain the poses in a greater detail. I use the Americanized or translated names for the poses to make sure we're all on the same page, but I understand if you are intimidated by the Sanskrit. 

Also, I understand it can be annoying if you want to do a certain pose and your body doesn't seem to want to bend that way, but it doesn't mean that 1) you're not flexible enough or 2) you will EVER be flexible enough--because sometimes it's not about your flexibility.

Sometimes, it's about how your body is made--down to the bones. If you are a short-waisted individual, you are going to find it very hard to do poses that involve rounding the back. It's not your fault, and no amount of stretching, or losing weight is likely to get you where you think you need to be. Like the Tin Man, you are just not designed to bend in that way.

Similarly, people often think that they need special equipment (mat, blanket, towel, blocks, straps, etc.) to perform a routine. Props and whatnot are nice, but many people find that they do not need the equipment. When you break it down to its component parts, you do not need to have all those things to do a simple routine. They're nice to have, and sometimes helpful, but it's not a situation where if you don't have the right equipment you cannot participate. Think of it more like flag football than pro football. 

Finally, concerning the spiritual nature of yoga... yoga is spiritual if you are. Personally, I don't teach the mantras to chant, or the meanings behind the various hand mudras. But that doesn't mean I don't view yoga as a spiritual practice for myself. Rather, I don't want to impose my beliefs on my students, so I guide them in general relaxation techniques instead. What you focus on when you go to your happy place is entirely your business.

When you come to my class, I expect that you come as you are—exactly as you are that day. Everyone has off days when they're not feeling particularly flexible or whatnot. That's ok. It's more important that respect what your body is capable of right at that very minute. There are days when my balance is awful, and I can't seem to reach my toes no matter what, but I still get on the mat.

That's why it's called a "practice."

Do you even lift, bro?

So I've been taking a weight training class at the college for the past month or so. It's been really eye opening (and caused more than a couple of sore muscle mornings). We have two different instructors, and they do a fantastic job of working us out in different ways. No matter what, though, they do communicate pretty well so we're not working the same set of muscles both classes. 

Our Tuesday teacher, Zach, gives us a set of exercises that move from station to station. After a group warm-up, we are given a sheet of paper that is divided into sets of exercises, we can start wherever we want, so long as we complete the whole page by the time we're done with class. While we're wandering around, trying to figure out which machine is the one for the shoulder press, and whether or not we should brave the barbells, Zach and the interns (that sounds like a band, doesn't it?) move around in the class, answering questions and correcting our form. Which is good, because when I'm working with dumbbells, I just seem to want to hyper-extend my shoulder. An example of one of his sheets is to the right.

As you can see, it follows a kind of circuit training, where we complete each round of exercises within the square a set number of times. I have to tell you, I honestly prefer to do two rounds of 15 to 3 rounds of 10... but I only do that when we're running out of time.  At the completion of the set, we move into cool-down mode and stretch out the muscles before headed back into the world... often drenched in sweat.

Thursdays we have Josh, who is a RIPPED trainer, and also teaches kickboxing and a couple of other HIIT type classes. When we work with Josh, we're not in small groups moving from machine to machine, it's more of a group-exercise setting, where we're all moving together. I like this as well, because seeing the instructor do the exercises helps me correct my form. There is a similar structure in that we move through several series of exercises, often starting  with a set number, and then decreasing as we move through our sets (so 3 sets per series, starting with 15, then 10, then 8).  Series can be different depending on what we're targeting, but most often have a "core" component. So even if you're on biceps, your set of four exercises is going to end with ... a 30 second plank (or boat, or something similar). Which is good, because often we forget we need a strong core to do the exercises.

The downside to this is we are limited to the hand weights, and don't really get to use the machines or the barbells. BUT the upside is we're all working together so we can encourage each other as we work through the exercises, and we can see what we're supposed to be doing since our instructor is working with us as well. And just like Tuesdays, we often leave after our cool-down... drenched in sweat.

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Which is all to say, last week we had a small class so instead of doing our usual cardio, I opted to focus more on the strengthening. So our workout looked a little different than normal..

warm-up
Happy (3:54) - marching, arm circles, leg curls (butt-kicks), hip circles (I like to move the hip circles into figure 8 movements, like hula dancers do), bench-press arms combined with high knees (still fairly low impact)

weight circuit (3 sets of 10)

• SET 1 [arms]: standing bicep curls, lateral raises, standing hammer curls, tricep curls
• SET 2 [legs]: weighted lunges, weighted (goblet) squats, donkey kicks (I didn't specify weights with those, but people with ankle weights had some fun)
• SET 3 [core]: 30 sec. plank, weighted sit-ups (dumbbell behind head), rowing the boat (boat pose, weight becomes the "oar" with which you row the boat, touching on either side of the body, two touches is one row)

there were 2 minute breaks between sets for water and general recovery.

yoga
we did a series of four Sun Salutation A for the International Day of Yoga. 

This was followed by a full body stretch, hitting legs, arms and core with a VERY nice 5 minute savasana at the end.

Rhianna, Kanye and Paul McCartney make pretty good cool-down music, as it turns out

Second week of cardio-yoga classes, and we're still going strong. There was a much smaller turnout, but I think that was largely due to it being the first week of summer vacay, and not that I had inadvertently scared people off. :-) 

For this week we skipped the extended leg kicks and went with JUST knees--especially on the roundhouses.

Here is this week's playlist and exercises:

(warm-up)
All About That Bass (3:06) - verse 1: knee touch into wide knee touch, bridge: forward lunges, chorus : cross-arm knee touch (opposite elbow/knee), verse 2: knee touch into wide knee touch, bridge: forward lunges, chorus: cross-arm knee touch
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, march instead of knee-touch, to up the intensity, hop into the knee touch

Song 2 (2:02) - alternating for approx. 30 sec a piece: jabs, cross, uppercuts, and roundhouse/hook punches (in succession)
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, punch every other beat, to up the intensity, march as you punch. leg positions can either be a squat or same leg forward

[brief rest]

(cardio)
Shake It Off (3:38) - verse 1: jab/cross combo, bridge: hook punch, chorus: chain punch while marching/uppercuts at "shake it off", verse  2: jab/cross combo, bridge: hook punch, chorus: chain punch while marching/uppercuts at "shake it off", walk during "hey, hey portion," cheerleader chant: knee/front kick, chorus: chain punch while marching/uppercuts at "shake it off"
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, keep a horse stance during punches, to up the intensity, scissor hop legs during cross punches and hop into the kicks

Uptown Funk (4:31) - intro: walk, verse 1: knee/front kick, bridge: side kicks, tag: chain punch to the beat (will get faster), chorus: thai knee/roundhouse,  verse 2: knee/front kick, bridge: side kicks, tag: chain punch to the beat (will get faster), chorus: thai knee/roundhouse, "funk you up": squats, chorus: thai knee/roundhouse
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, just throw knees and don't kick, to "up" the intensity, add punches to the kicks (same leg/arm)

(cardio/yoga):  
elastic heart (4:17) - sun salutation, modified variation: extended mountain, swan dive, forward fold, half-lift, forward fold, lunge, low plank, modified chatarunga (knees, stomach, chest lowered). From here repeat sequence of: cobra, table-top, child's pose about 8 times. Rotate to supine for a series of 8 "penguins" or oblique crunches/heel touches. Raise legs to ceiling for straight leg crunches (one set of 10). Lower to boat, hold series of 3 boat poses for 15 seconds each. Flip over and rest in child's pose before next song.
modifications: fists for wrists/dolphin pose for table-top, you can add/remove additional poses as needed to "up" the level.

FourFiveSeconds (3:08) - begin in table-top, and move between cat/cow for a series of 8, moving at your own breath. Extend alternating leg/arms for balancing tabletop pose, series of 4 (2 each side), holding pose for 15 to 20 seconds. Rest in child's pose for 15-20 seconds. Come up to easy seat, and then move into seated side bend position moving between sides using your breath (inhale on up, exhale into the stretch).
modifications: you can modify balancing tabletop to include a crunch by meeting elbow and knee on the exhale, and extending out to balancing tabletop on the inhale.

(yoga/cool-down)
Krishna rising (15:00) - I tend to vary this a bit, as I will tailor the stretching to problem areas for students. The important bit here is to leave about 3 to 5 minutes for savasana.

Sometimes you just have to do yoga to Beastie Boys

This Saturday was my first fitness class--completely on my own, not affiliated with TW Wellness--at my Dojo.  I've done cardio and yoga within the structure of my martial arts classes (as warm-ups and cool downs), but this was a straight-up cardio and yoga class. And I have to say.... we had a GREAT time! I would like to thank the ladies that turned out for the class, as we all learned a lot from each other.

For those that are interested, here is the exercise list (with songs), so you can get a feel for the format and tempo. We did have to skip a couple of workouts I had planned for time constraints, but I think as we get more familiar with the format and songs, we'll be able to cut the instruction time between songs down to a minimum. We also had a couple of students who needed modifications for recent surgeries, so we took some things out that I had planned.

(warm-up)
All About That Bass (3:06) - verse 1: knee touch into wide knee touch, bridge: forward lunges, chorus : cross-arm knee touch (opposite elbow/knee), verse 2: knee touch into wide knee touch, bridge: forward lunges, chorus: cross-arm knee touch
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, march instead of knee-touch, to up the intensity, hop into the knee touch

You Really Got Me (2:15) - verse 1: jabs, verse 2: cross, instrumental: uppercuts, verse 3: roundhouse/hook punches
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, punch every other beat, to up the intensity, march as you punch. leg positions can either be a squat or same leg forward

(cardio)
Shake It Off (3:38) - verse 1: jab/cross combo, bridge: hook punch, chorus: chain punch while marching/uppercuts at "shake it off", verse  2: jab/cross combo, bridge: hook punch, chorus: chain punch while marching/uppercuts at "shake it off", walk during "hey, hey portion," cheerleader chant: knee/front kick, chorus: chain punch while marching/uppercuts at "shake it off"
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, keep a horse stance during punches, to up the intensity, scissor hop legs during cross punches and hop into the kicks

Uptown Funk (4:31) - intro: walk, verse 1: knee/front kick, bridge: side kicks, tag: chain punch to the beat (will get faster), chorus: thai knee/roundhouse,  verse 2: knee/front kick, bridge: side kicks, tag: chain punch to the beat (will get faster), chorus: thai knee/roundhouse, "funk you up": squats, chorus: thai knee/roundhouse
modifications: to "lower" the intensity, just throw knees and don't kick, to "up" the intensity, add punches to the kicks (same leg/arm)

(cardio/yoga):  
Intergalactic (3:31) - sun salutation, simple variation: extended mountain, swan dive, forward fold, half-lift, forward fold, lunge, plank, chatarunga, cobra, down-dog/dolphin, walk legs to hands, forward fold, half-lift, extended mountain (repeat from start)
modifications: fists for wrists/dolphin pose for plank and down-dog, you can add/remove additional poses as needed to "up" the level.

(yoga/cool-down)
Krishna rising (15:00) - I tend to vary this a bit, as I will tailor the stretching to problem areas for students. The important bit here is to leave about 3 to 5 minutes for savasana.