2 replies to this topic

[lucyv]

I should probably ask my coach, but I thought it might look a bit needy. Ha. I do light sparring with the young uns' but I'm both old and female so it's hard to know if, when I get a clean strike (or many) on someone, it's because they were giving me a break. If I know someone's only been training for a short time, I dance about a bit and let them put together the combos they've been drilling.

Conversely I can't tell if people are giving me opportunities or if I actually executed something smart. I've been training years on and off but I don't really know where I'm at anymore.

I should ask my coach, but anyway.. anyone out there feel similar?

ps. I would put this in female only but the mods didn't approve me. Pls mods? Can I be on the women's forum?

 

[Sylvie]

Hey Lucy, 

for the women's only section please send me a link to your FB profile for gender verification, we'll try to get you cleared ASAP.

As for your question, this kind of never goes away. When you first start, progress is really obvious because you're going from nothing to something. But as you develop, the ways in which you get better or smoother, smarter, etc. are much harder to see. It's like the big pegs on a violin that get you to the right note, vs the tiny pegs by the bridge that make very small adjustments to the tone. I'm very rarely thinking to myself, "wow, I'm getting so much better!" Like, ever. So, I stopped asking that question and started rephrasing it to be more specific - is my timing on blocks the way I want it to be? Is my kick landing on a person the way it lands on the pads? 

 

I should probably ask my coach, but I thought it might look a bit needy. Ha. I do light sparring with the young uns' but I'm both old and female so it's hard to know if, when I get a clean strike (or many) on someone, it's because they were giving me a break. If I know someone's only been training for a short time, I dance about a bit and let them put together the combos they've been drilling.

Conversely I can't tell if people are giving me opportunities or if I actually executed something smart. I've been training years on and off but I don't really know where I'm at anymore.

I should ask my coach, but anyway.. anyone out there feel similar?

ps. I would put this in female only but the mods didn't approve me. Pls mods? Can I be on the women's forum?

[Fighting Frog]

If by 'young uns' you mean adolescents, I shouldn't think they are giving you a break at all! 

And if you mean simply folks younger than you, then I wouldn't think they would either, because they will have the maturity to know that's not what you want...