The Blue Ninjabi

I am quite tired… pooped in fact. And not just from all the typing I’ve been doing in the last couple of hours in relation to the kaffiyeh event (which got posted on the front of WordPress.com btw! Masha’Allah!).

The main cause of my sore muscles was the most intense hour of physical activity that I have so far experienced in my short life, that took place between 10.30-11.30am this Sunday morning. Otherwise known as: my blue belt grading. Guys, I now have a belt in kickboxing – woooohoooo! Alhamdulillah!

It might not sound like much, but this is a real achievement for someone like me. This is my first significant sporting achievement since I came third in the 200m sprint, in my last year of primary school. As pathetic as that sounds, I DO NOT KID! I feel like calling up my old P.E. teacher and telling her the good news:

“Remember the tubby geek who couldn’t throw, catch, jump, run or even stretch properly to save her life? Well, in your face Mrs Taylor – I’m a martial artist now. Ner!”.

I swear, I was on the verge of tears whilst waiting for the examiner to tell us whether we had passed or failed. I didn’t cry in the end (thank God!), but it was definitely a strange emotional experience. Especially as I was close to giving up half way in! I now call this achievement my “second PhD”, masha’Allah. 😀

Apparently it is tradition for graders to wear their new belts around their heads after they pass, while they celebrate down the pub. Of course, I wasn’t going to join the other graders in their alcohol-fuelled frivolity… but the belt-round-the-head thing sounded cool enough to try out!

We started the session with 30 minutes of aerial work, where we were given a sequence of techniques to perform in the air (as opposed to onto focus mits – or another human being!). That was by far the hardest part, especially when we got into the kicks; kicks really take it out of me. By the last set of calls, I was ready to throw in the towel! But God answered my numerous inner-voice prayers, and we moved onto focus mit work, which is a piece of pie in comparison. Firstly because you work in pairs, so only one person is performing at a time, while the other person holds. And secondly, it is so much easier to perfect your technique when you have a target to aim your punches and kicks towards. Plus I got to work with my long-time KB/self-defence buddy, who also passed, alhamdulillah; we’ve practised together several times, which helped us to coordinate our efforts during grading, and provided some much needed moral support.

To end, we did a minute and a half of shadow boxing, followed by numerous calls where we performed one or three techniques of our choice. That part was pretty cool; the calls were coming every second, with everyone shouting “tcha” in sync. The atmosphere was charged with a shared anticipation that any minute the whole arduous experience would finally be over.

Now that this has been ticked off my “to-do” list, I don’t have any immediate plans to start working towards the next belt. For one, I would have to start sparring, which involves a hefty investment in protective equipment, that I’m not sure I can afford to buy right now. Plus I may be taking a break in training for a few months – though I hope I can do some other kind of class during that time, in order to maintain the low level of fitness I currently possess, insha’Allah.

But for now, I am happy with my blue belt – a small reminder that I do not totally suck at all things sporty. Yey me!