Still kicking

 Yesterday I attended one of the pre grading sessions for red and black belts and practised one, tow and three step sparring, mainly partnered with red belts. I'm now second Dan and have been for some years, but I don't demonstrate enough power to move on to third Dan. I'm chuffed I got this far anyhow. Playing takes up some of my lonely empty time, still makes me smile, and keeps me measureably fit for an old woman.

I wish there were more women in the club.

To reconstruct or not? to be or to do?

A fellow BC sufferer/ survivor in a FB group asked if she was mad to have no reconstruction. Like me she's having/had a one side mastectomy. Like me she's opted for no recon. Like mine, her surgeon says she can change her mind later  "Did any of you do the same as me and then change your mind later?"

When I had my right mastectomy in March 2020, I reasoned it would be risky to have more surgery and it was for looks on, not for function. S. daughter #2 advised me that her daddy could manage me having only one boob!  

S. daughter #3 advised me that losing the boob meant I became an Amazonian woman (proverbially they thought they could fight better without the R one!).  

My tae kwon teacher admired my ability to get back to training within weeks. I could still kick, punch, block, squat, do sit-ups, press-ups, see, hear. Having had a boob job would mean I couldn’t do press-ups for months.

A year on, I’m ok with my looks. What I can do matters more than how I look. Looks make me feminine, but action makes me feminist.

Tae kwon do progress

My daughter needed to do a sport for her Duke of Edinburgh Award, and found and chose a local tae kwon do club, to which I had to take her. It wasn't a very salubrious walk however, so I would stay and wait for her. Boring!
Then I realised that Bytomic tae kwon do isn't just for kids; they were taking from six to fifty-six. I was then younger than 56 so I joined in. Years later, I'm still going, have attained first Dan black belt and know a lot more about Korea where this martial art started in 1956, than I ever guessed I would! And am I fit! From a health check I had a month or so ago my metabolic age apparently is younger than my chronological age by about 15 years. That means I'm metabolically younger than I was when I started tae kwon do.
I don't rate my skills highly though, so I need extra practice and training, probably more than the younger members do in order for me to keep up with them. Some ways I do that are to

• go to more than one class a week 
• cross-train with a variety of instructors, 
• attend the black belt sessions every six months
• aim to grade
• participate in tournaments

Now I'm so pants, so slow and clumsy that I have only participated in two or three tournaments. So you can imagine how chuffed I am that at yesterday's tournament I gained a medal for my pants patterns!
I must tell my daughter. And by the way, they've taken away the upper age limit, so if you're near or over 56, please come and join so I'm not the only older woman in the club.

Rio Olympics - tae kwon do

Great Britain is doing well again at the Olympics. Like four and eight years ago, I am following the tae kwon do. Tae kwon do means:

• tae - foot or kick
• kwon - hand or fist
• do - art or skill or way

ITF allows punches to the head and face as well as kicks to the body, though in competitions WTF does not. Hence the comment from ITF (International Taekwondo Federation) people that there is not much kwon from the Olympian athletes who fight WTF style. (World Taekwondo Federation). More info here.

We have Jade Jones from Wales and she's won a gold. Her coach, Paul Green, advises her to use her to kick high and fast and use her opponent's weaknesses. I'm somewhat slow of thought and foot. I can't move as fast as Jade and I can't do the spits so I won't get as high, though I have done head kicks, but how can I use my opponent's weaknesses? What coach can I find who'll show me how to do that?

Black belt achieved

Here's what my son gave me for my birthday - a black training dobok, because I'd got through my tae kwon do black belt grading the week before, after nine years.

Black belt & dobok, with training book

I might have done it sooner if I hadn't devoted so much time to my doctorate, and then had the breast cancer. But, I never planned to get a black belt in anything.  I just took my daughter along and found I could train with her.  Most times when a parent takes a child out - to ballet, karate, swimming or piano lessons, - they have to sit there and wait patiently.  I'm not so patient.  Sooner or later my child was going to have to get herself there, or not go.  But once I realised I could join in, I also found that playing tag for the first time in decades made me laugh - another first in a while when you're a woman in your early fifties.  Then I tried to catch up with my rapidly improving daughter, so I went to more classes, got to an intermediate grade and got fitter.

One tag at a time, one new colour at a time, I went up.

As I got higher, I realised more and more people were helping me, not only the subum (teacher) but also lots of black belts, particularly the junior black belts, who courteously showed me how to do something better, and despite my poor and slow technique were willing to partner with me, thus demonstrating that getting to black belt isn't a solo achievement.  Then I realised that middle-aged, middle-grade women were seeing me a a role model, and that spurred me on too. And Christie Bytom was there in the background cheering for me.

The BBC Radio 4 programme iPM: Share What You Know asks for one sentence items of listeners' news, which they then select and read out over the air. I wrote:

"After nine years of training, including a year when I had breast cancer, I've been awarded my tae kwon do black belt" 

On 16 November, they got Dame Jenni Murray to read them and she read my sentence too - she who herself had breast cancer. The podcasts are at http://www.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/ipm and the listeners' news is towards the last couple of minutes of the programme.

Judo champ trains tae kwon do shorties

Do I look short?  Have I shrunk?  No - I have osteoporosis thanks to the aromatase inhibitor drugs I'm on, but I'm not shrinking yet. I'm standing between a couple of judo champions: Karina Bryant, whose Olympic bronze medal I'm holding, and a potential Olympic champion whom she's training up, Frazer Chamberlain.  Our tae kwon do instructors arranged a two-hour session with her in which we practised rolls, side falls, back falls, forward falls, throws and chokes,  all practice that I need so that if I do fall, I don't break anything.

 I hoped Karina would try tae kwon do too. She knows Sarah Stevenson, the tae kwon do champion. Imagine Karina against Sarah.  Who'd win? Karina says that she would win, if she could get close enough to Sarah to throw her, but Sarah would kick her first!  Yes - that's what I'd do against someone as big and as skilled as Karina - keep her away from me.

And she's nice too.

Tae kwon do grading

I got my next belt this evening after Sunday's grading. The easy bit was the Korean. You have to know some Korean terminology for this grade, like makgi (block), chagi (kick). It's easy to say you're a student (jeja) in the dojang (training hall), wearing a dobok(suit) and talking to the subum (teacher). The hard bit is accelerating in the moves, and getting the detail of the stances perfect. Despite freezing half way through a pattern and having start again, thus finishing ten moves after everyone else, and being extra noticeable, somehow I got through and caught up with my daughter. Hurray.

This kup (grade) is red tag, meaning blue with a red strip. The next belt is red, and red is for danger, so perhaps I'm now a little bit dangerous. However, red also indicates someone who is in control, and that means someone is dangerous enough to hit when they want, but in control enough to miss by a fraction of an inch when practising, and I'm not sure I'm that much in control, so perhaps I'm dangerous that way - I might hit someone accidently.

But it's fun. And this evening we did some padwork, some throws, and then practised breaking bricks with our elbows and feet.

Tae Kwon Do Award

I'm well chuffed and gob smacked. Tae Kwon Do subum has awarded me the club Student of the Year award. Thank you to the black belts who nominated and supported me and taught me. This is so motivating.