Skip to main content

Another benefit of martial arts



In addition to providing the social interaction that leads to the plot of this year’s NaNoWriMo project (which I’m referring to as the steampunk panama canal community band evolutionary psychology novel) and the frame for the zombie novel, karate has other uses. Oh, besides teaching me to defend myself, improving my character, and being not a bad workout.

Three weeks ago I started taking Chinese Poles at circus school. Strangely, I keep pulling my left hip adductor. Well, maybe I only pulled it once and then aggravated it the second week. The third week, I stretched a lot before class and it was fine.

We’ve learned a few moves: how to climb the pole (hand-over-hand, using our insteps to start though the non-beginners use their toes); koala, where you hang on for dear life once you get to the top of the pole; Buddha, where you stick one leg out from koala straight to the side, and put the same side’s arm in front of the pole, and stick both arms out; and gargoyle, where you do pretty much the same thing except hang onto the pole with your thighs. I should scan the drawings from my notebook so this makes sense.

Anyway, the second week we practiced those skills and learned two new ones: knee hook, where you put one leg straight and swing the other through and hook the back side of your knee, push your hip forward and let go with your arms (I can’t really do this), and upright hold, where you just hold on with your hands and your body upright (I can’t really do this either).

So, the reason I can’t do the knee hook is because I’m afraid, and also I don’t push my hip forward until it’s too late and my support leg has collapsed at the knee. I realized this last night at karate while we were doing basic stance, and I could feel my hip adductors, not because they’re pulled but because now I know where they are. And now I know what joint I need to flex to get my junzuki no sokomi and gyakuzuki no sokomi working right.

So the point is: it’s good to do things I’m good at and know how to do, but it’s also good to try new things.

Popular posts from this blog

What I read: September 2025

LHC #295: "The Last to Leave the Room" by Caitlin Starling. Audiobook. Workplace horror? Loved it.  "Careless People" by Sarah Wynn-Williams. Hard copy, for office Data Ethics book club. The stories about Sheryl Sandberg really made me like my boss better.  LHC #296: "The Fated Sky" by Mary Robinette Kowal. Hard copy. This got moved up the list because Ed had read book 1 in the series and got the rest out of the library. Loved it. He's got the next one in the series upstairs, I suppose I'll read it when he's done.  LHC #297: "Bluegrass: A History" by Neil V. Rosenberg. Hard copy. No idea why it was on my list, I don't care that much about bluegrass. Nevertheless, the second half was interesting. I guess the first half was necessary, as it described in great length the way people came and went in Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys band, and also how technology and social pressures affect how music is made and performed.   LHC #298: ...
Read more

What I read -- October 2025

"The Moomins and the Great Flood" by Tove Jansson.  eBook. I read this because Marissa Lingen loves them. It was fine? This was the first one in the series and the only one available online; maybe the later ones are better. Maybe they're better if you read them as a child.  "The Relentless Moon" by Mary Robinette Kowal.  Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. It took a long time to get going, and sometimes I find MRK exhausting. Her white main characters all seem oddly aware of the Black experience.  "The Martian Contingency" by Mary Robinette Kowal.  Hard copy. Read it because Ed had the whole series out of the library. I don't often read subsequent books in a series in quick succession, and my reaction to this one is a lot of why: I found Alma's voice too similar to Nicole's -- sure, Nicole obsessed about food much more, but they both went on and on about "must support black guy in management" an...
Read more

In progress - January 2026

  Wind/Water/Salt  Chapters 39-51:   Nothing  Persephone  (probably not its real name): NOthing Vinterlys:  Worked on Chapter 2 some more.  Critted  4  Got back  1 Submissions  0  Out there   0   Rejects   0 Knitting Georgia  (Norah Gaughan). Started the month with one sleeve and half a front to go. Finished. Love this sweater.  Aberlady  (AS Celtic Collection). Did a few rows while listening to podcasts.  Summer in Tokyo  (Isager): Started. I was looking at the pictures and the charts, and the pattern as written is not what is in the pictures! So odd. I am going to finish up two cones of yarn with this project! Pretty exciting. I hope I don't run out of light blue.  I was working along on it, and if you go and look at the sweater, it's knit bottom-up, and I was at the part where I only had two colors, about 5" maybe. And I was thinking, "wow, this is pretty ugly! Maybe I should stop...
Read more