I'm still here! And an update

Hi, everyone!


I know I've been gone from the blogging scene for a while. School's been busy, and I'm trying to make the best of what free time I have.

Just as a heads up, I'm planning on having a blog post up within the next week, so be on the lookout for that.

If all goes well, I'm going to start posting more often than every 3 months -- which is about how long it's been since my December post. Eeep! I can't believe I've been away that long!

Anyway, quick little update on my martial arts progress here. I'm getting ready to test for my 3rd kyu brown belt -- hopefully within the next month. I was told by one of my instructors that the only reason they haven't tested me yet was because I didn't have the 4 self defense techniques I have to come up with to where I feel confident with demonstrating and explaining them.

Last Tuesday, I went over the three techniques I feel good about with one of the instructors who hasn't been to class in a couple months. Well, I was feeling overconfident in myself (mistake # 1) and wasn't expecting two of the tecniques to completely fail on him. So that threw those two out the window. Now I'm down to one that I feel good about, another that he showed me himself, and that's about it.

Here's the deal with the SD stuff. I have to come up with 4 self defense situations, and have a way of getting out of it. It can be just about anything. Grabs, head locks, haymaker punch. . .etc. etc. I also have to be able to explain what I'm doing and why, so this means I have to really know what I'm doing and why. In a test situation, that means I'll probably get bombarded with tons of questions that will make me have to defend my techniques.

My techniques so far are:


  1. one handed shoulder grab (from the side)
  2. two handed chokehold from the front (need something else for this)
  3. two handed lapel grab from the front (got an alternative technique for this)

I want something different than just grabs for the fourth, but I'm not coming up with anything so far. If anyone has suggestions for any type of Self Defense situation and way to get out of it, that would really help me! If possible, it should be something relatively simple, but effective. Here's an option I had thought of:

  1. Bear hug from behind

Anyway, that's all for now.

Until later,

CrimsonPhoenix