Jiyu Kumite

After going back to practicing karate for two months, I decided to do something terrifying. Something I despised as a child: KARATE TOURNAMENTS!







The thing is, tournaments are scary! Everybody has opponents they don’t like facing for fear of getting their ass whopped! I'm thinking the more I do it, the more I will get used to facing and controlling this fear which is basically what karate teaches you. Karate instills ethical principles and can have spiritual significance. It is also practiced for self-perfection, for cultural reasons, self-defense and as a sport (side note: In 2009, in the 121th International Olympic Committee voting, karate did not receive the necessary two-thirds majority vote to become an Olympic sport (see: IOC factsheet). That would be amazing to watch! Also, did you know there are 50 million karate practitioners worldwide?)

The type of tournament I'm taking part of is called Jiyu Kumite which tranlates to "free sparring", unchoreographed free fighting. Here is a video of  the Shotokan Karate of America (SKA) tournament that occured last June in California.


The tournament will be in Memphis, TN April 12-14th. Wish me luck!

Comments

  1. AnonymousApril 6, 2013 at 2:27 PM

    That is so cool Jen!! The video didn't load on my iPhone, so I'll h e to check it out next time I'm at the computer. But good for you for trying sometime new and facing your fear. That's awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownApril 11, 2013 at 12:37 PM

    Thanks!!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Where Do All Roads Lead To?

I chose to start this blog, to keep in touch with family and friends. It's hard to keep in touch when no one is in your line of sight. I hope you will enjoy reading my thoughts, grumpiness, adventures, random ideas and contemplations and jolly jives!   This month, I am applying for jobs in the environmental field while taking classes, working two jobs (that don’t pay mucho) and figuring out my life. IT SUCKS MONKEY A$$! Why have I not been hired yet? Maybe I am not applying to the right places, maybe I don’t know what I really want, or maybe I am not ready yet. I do have an advantage on my peers though: I have three times the cultural experiences than them (Thank you mom and daddy)! Don’t experiences make us who we are today? Who we are to become some day? Boy, I hope I like that person. My question is…Where do the roads we take lead us to? I have no flippin’ idea, although I have stopped to Frustratown a few times, they invited me back, and I wish not to go again… I chos
Read more

The Runners

Since moving to Korea, I have encountered  people who have come here and after a couple of years of living, have decided to make it their permanent home, and not return. They are called "Lifers". Some stay because they've met someone, or a person who has the same affinity for the country, or met a native, or simply enjoyed what the lifestyle had to offer as opposed to what they knew was awaiting upon their return back home. Being a "Lifer" however comes with these notions that anyone who travels for a year or more, or isn't interested in working just yet or getting married,  must  be running away from something. They are running away from life, escaping it. They must have been leading miserable, awful lives back home, or experienced a traumatic event that made them want to never look back. People assume that people who travel long term are running away from problems, from the inevitability of life. My own family and friends have asked me "Are you su
Read more

Water Bodies

This entry is a continuation of my October 12th entry “Water Bottles Are No Good”. The information below can be found in full in: Bottled Water: How drinking tap water can help save you and the planet by Lucie Wanctin for Sustain: The Alliance for Better Food and Farming .  How much water should we drink? The advice given is to drink a minimum of 8 glasses of water per day. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the drinking quantity needed depends on your age, physical activity, your diet, health, and gender. The recommended volume of water (which can also be absorbed though foods and other beverages) required for hydration, based on the WHO is: Female Adult: 2.2 litres/day Male Adult: 2.9 litres/day Children: 1.0 litre/day Manual labour in high temperature: Female Adult: 4.5 litres/day  Male Adult: 4.5 litres/day Children: 4.5 litres/day Pregnancies/Lactation: 4.8 litres/day; 3.3 litres/day respectively Where is water from and what is in it? Our body is made up
Read more