Exercise

Well exercise is a funny thing really isn't it? I must say I have always had a bit of a love/hate relationship with it really.

As kids we had the "you have to do one sport" rule in our house so couch surfing the weekends away wasn't ever going to be an option really.

My primary school and most of my high school years were dominated with two sports - gymnastics and hockey.

Ok I know I know, pick your stunned mullet selves off the floor and read on! Those of you that know the tomboy would find it oh so easy to see me covered in mud in the pouring rain, smacking that hockey ball right through the legs of the opposition defender! Oh and how much did I love that? There was something so cool about running on the field in the pouring rain, getting soaked to the skin, covered in mud and then home for a hot shower and something to eat! I wasn't half bad as a winger either, you may be suprised to learn. We were really fortunate that in both primary school and high school we had a brilliant rivalry between ourselves and another school. Different primary and high schools in similar areas but the rivalry was brutal. Come the top two play off it was always us against them and that was back in the days we cared not a jot about the self esteem of the losing team. There was never a suggestion we shouldn't share the scores with the young ones, lest they realise they are on the end of a pasting! I mean really, it isn't rocket science the ball goes flying past you to the other end and a goal is scored and it happens time and time again, you kinda get that you are being flogged! Luckily that didn't happen to us we had an awesome group of girls.

It is kind of funny looking back you know because for all our ferosity on the pitch, and the "die you b***h die" mentality on the field in the heat of battle, when that final whistle blew, it was like someone flicked a switch. Both teams of girls were all on the same team, flicking even more mud and muck on each other if that was even possible, having a great laugh and thanking each other for an awesome game irrespective of which of us won that round.

There was no such thing as fights on the field or worse yet parents fighting on the sidelines. As a parent of todays school sports players I now realise what bliss we lived in during those times. No-one was playing for sheep stations and it was all just a bit of good fun!

Soooo those of you that know me are really struggling to picture moi as the petite, delicately feminine model of a gymnast, right? Come on, don't try to pretend nice, you know you are thinking it, yes you are, go on just admit it!!!

I was but a wee thing as a child, a little short, skinny kid back then (oh puberty is a cruel cruel thing!) I started gymnastics at about age 8 and continued through til I was about 16. The latter years weren't quite so successful being 5' 7" and a little less than "rake like" in appearances didn't really do a lot for my future successes I can tell you.

However pretty, petite and delicate is part of the mix, but so too was power, speed, and strength, and I was good at that bit! It is funny how now we talk about developing upper body strength in girls and making sure we balance the exercises we do with them. Back then we did it all! Chin ups on the bars, sit ups, push ups, bouncing off of beat boards in handstands to build up shoulder strength and upper body strength.

The other thing we worked on of course was flexibility. Lots of painful contorsions of our bodies to see just how far we could push things without a zing/snap/tear happening. Now I think about I never really felt that sore the next day, oh the beauty of youth we took forgranted back then.

Towards the end of my gymnastics training I took up coaching the younger kids. I sooo loved it and they, strangely enough, loved me too! I did some coaching courses in my late teens and was quite into it for awhile. My hubby reckons I am a frustrated teacher at heart, maybe he is right, life seems to keep bringing me back to teaching in one form or another.

I gave up on coaching gymnastics as things became so competitive, we had talent squads and then we had programs that bussed you to school after your morning training before school every day, then bussed you back there for after school training and the same again on weekends. These were babies of maybe 9 or 10 years of age being pushed as if they would be the next world champions. Of all the kids I know of that went there maybe 1 in 1000 might have made national success, none of them international. We were making them choose this sport over all others, we were making them give up their lives to be this supreme athlete. Nadia Commenich was my total hero growing up. I had seen what giving up gymnastics did in her life, because she knew no other and I couldn't willingly participate in doing that to any other children's lives. They must be kids first, sporting participants second - so in my late teens I walked away from gymnastics.

In the times that I trained in these sports I loved them - it wasn't exercise, it was hard work at times but it was fun, it was challening - it was enjoyable.

In my early twenties I decided I should do something so I did the whole join the gym thing that was big at the time. Weights were good, there was a challenge there but after awhile it became a bit ho-hum, here we go again. Tried my hand at aerobics too - hmmm definitely not my thing. Perhaps my gymnastics training served me too well and I was too co-ordinated, either that or I had arrived at Unco-s-R-Us aerobics class. I had never seen so many people who didn't know their left from their right and if the exercise called for doing different things with different hands, oh good Lord, stand clear you could lose an eye! So I would do this class thinking, hmm feeling a bit hot now, feeling tired now, oh for pete's sake can you just do the damn thing right and stop stepping on my feet because you are going the WRONG DAMN WAY!! These were the years of my hate relationship with exercise. It was torture, I hated it and still I felt this intrinsic sense of guilt to make myself keep going to re-live the nightmare on a daily basis.

Fortunately pregnancy and childbirth gave me ample excuse not to have to be fit looking and that stomach flab, I could wear it proudly as the post baby bulge...oh of course it doesn't look great but look at this baby!

I tried my hand at variations on the theme well as much as you can with two young kids.

Then at thirty something I found myself accompanying one son to karate lessons. He didn't want to go on his own, and there was some "sign up two it's cheaper deal", so off we went together. The plan, I would do the first 3 months and bow out gracefully and he could keep going. I don't think he even made it to 3 months you know. Over eight years on, I am still going!

Karate is the closest match to gymnastics I have ever found. No I haven't lost the plot! We are talking traditional karate here, kata and bunkai (self defence applications) not the kinds of karate that entails breaking cement tiles with your forehead.

Kata requires balance, grace, and precision - all of which gymnastics requires. Yet there is also a need to demonstrate power, strength, and speed - again all required in gymnastics. No wonder it is such a perfect fit for me....well it is in the sense of my enjoyment of it, perhaps not so in my ability to execute it?????

I like to think of the karate we do as "the thinking person's sport". There is so much detail to be aware of, there is a history and a purpose to each series of moves and their meaning. You are sooo busy thinking about all that stuff, it isn't until you finish that you realise just how knackered you are feeling. Yep most definitely back in the LOVE phase of exercise, I miss it when I can't go, it is like a drug now really, going to training!

Contrary to some of the media stereotypes karate brings people from all walks of life to have a go, people that were it not for karate, it is highly unlikely I would have crossed paths with them at all.

Remembering all those damn compulsory routines - a different one for floor, bars, and beam, and then all the optional ones too......I'm sure that is why I find remembering kata moves and patterns a little easier than others.

Those early years of strength training and flexibility - oh thank you God - without that my kicks would never be head high! Nor would I be able to use that strength when I need it.

Oh and for the last couple of years of my karate training, this too had lead me back to teaching. Teaching in another sport and loving it just as much. There is something quite humbling about teaching, putting yourself out there, knowing at some point you will screw up and your students will know you have screwed up!! At which point you can only really laugh at yourself and get on with it. Teaching in general but perhaps more so in karate is most definitely a showing of humility, and of learning together alongside your students with every member of the dojo a teacher and every member a student.

KARATE - OH YEAH STILL LOVING IT!!!

IF IT WAS EASY ANYONE COULD DO IT!!!!!!