If at First You Don't Succeed -- Practice!

I'm getting a second chance!  I suppose that means I should practice!  I guess that means I have to put on shoes!  (Grumble, grumble, complain, complain.)

I thought that it would be enough to practice during class each week over the past six months, but it is obvious that practicing a little at home might have been a good idea.  Since getting into sparring gear in 3 minutes is what cost me during my black sash test, it might pay off to do a little homework now.

First up:  The video below shows that I clearly can get into my gear in under 3 minutes -- with 30 seconds to spare as a matter of fact -- at least while I'm fresh.



Next Up:  Knowing My Left Foot From My Right
Because of the delay to get to my bag -- at least, by my estimation, a 20-second one -- there was no room for any errors.  One thing that happened was that when I put the first shoe on, it was on the wrong foot.  I think there has been a question in my mind whether these shoes have a right and a left or whether they are both the same.  For once and for all I should check this out.

This way?

Or this way?

Okay, after a few minutes I figure out that there definitely is a right one and a left one. (the first picture has it right).  But there definitely IS something weird about these shoes.  One of them has a different shape than the other.  It is narrower and comes more to a point (the left one, btw).  No wonder I was confused, but since I had never really studied them, and only got to know them "on the fly," it has actually been helpful to figure it out once and for all.

The next part is the elastic bands.  I thought I had figured out to come around the outside first, wrap under the instep, and then come back up and cross over the top.  But for some strange reason sometimes I found myself having gone the wrong way the first time and had to reverse it, costing precious seconds.

And here is why!!

Will you just look at that?

Well, I'll be!

Both straps are attached in the same direction.  It's not reversed.

I had been assuming they would be mirror images of each other, and that if I had to wrap around the outside on one, it would be the same with the other.

But this homework I'm doing is revealing some strange things about my equipment and my assumptions.

Here's a video to show how it all really works!



The Final Up:  The Glove
If you remember my sad story, when we were called to the floor, I had all my gear on except for the glove.  As I was walking to the floor, I tried to slip the glove on quickly, but two things prevented me.  One was that the glove was curled closed and needed to be "opened" first.  The other was that I had forgot there was a hand strap in the glove so  I went straight for the fingers and missed.

So, here is a video of me settling on a glove technique.



That's it.  That's all the homework for today.  Sorry I can't show you me doing some fancy Kung Fu spinning hook kicks or flying leaps.  It turns out that is not what being a black sash is about.  Being a black sash is about doing homework like this, and practicing things in slow motion and being less than awesome most of the time as you break things down and work things out.