Sunday, July 15, 2007

My backyard lawn is getting eaten up by my feet

It was a great day for training outside this morning. One enjoyable thing that I noticed was that each time I sent a kick there would be little bits of grass flying from my toes accenting each kick. Well.. that encouraged me to do my Kyokushin Kicking kata: Sakugi Taikyoku sono ichi, ni, san, yon. I learned pretty quickly that there is a dip in the level of my yard, and an incline in the other direction. Balancing on one leg, turning with balance and sending a side kick in a 90 degree direction became extra challenging as I faced the bumpy surface of the lawn, and the slanting of the yard. Roundhouses were fun to execute also as my support foot had to adjust for so many different variables as it pivoted. I found myself leaning too much this way or that way, and catching myself as I overcompensated. The kata wasn't as graceful, but it sure was challenging.

I pulled out my Bo staff, and worked in the open air enjoying the freedom of being able to swing it around freely. There were no interruptions, just me, the wind, the grass, and my Art.

Then Mother Nature saw fit to start the rain. I debated with myself with a smile thinking how nice it would be to train in the rain, but since it was time to make lunch, and I was just wearing a T shirt, I decided to go indoors.

I finished doing my kata training in the backyard, for some reason I was looking down at the end, and suddenly I saw tons of bare muddy patches where grass used to be. To my dismay, my feet had chewed away at the grass. I could count at least eight 4 inch big patches of mud in a square foot. Sigh... This is similar to how dogs will wear away the grass beside the fence. I could see my neighbour pointing to the muddy patches and saying to my husband "yeah.. it looks like you've got black belt problems."

I will have to be gentle on my lawn otherwise it will all die away. I'll have to give the lawn a week or two to recuperate before I train on that patch again.

2 comments:

Steve said...

Sounds like you had a good time. I can't imagine how many times you must have gone over the same stretch to wear down the grass! :)

Mir said...

*sheepish blush, and shrug*

I train in karate alot. Since it's been summer vacation, these past two weeks have had less "instructed" dojo hours, so I have been training at home. There isn't much room in my dining room, or living room to perform larger movements, or kata. I've had to take my training outside, to the amusement of the neighbours, passerbys, and to the detriment of my yard.