the best martial arts tricks almost perfect balance

I can tell when someone is about to hit me and where. I can write authoritatively about fear, about how things blur, about the way people move and hold their bodies and eyes and mouths. Knowing a little something about surprise, pain and fighting back helps me write about them. What I've found is that it is the most physical thing I've ever done-but it's not personal at all. It seemed like it would feel way too rape-y. I particularly love sparring, which can mean standing up and punching and kicking (kung fu) or rolling around on the ground trying to choke your opponent or lock his joints (BJJ).Īs for BJJ, for a long time I thought: No way am I going to roll around on the floor with some guy on top of me and you can't tell me that wrapping my legs around his waist is a good thing. I’m not a natural, I’m not particularly coordinated and I’m older-but I still love it. Will I ever make it to black belt in either? Probably not. And now I have a purple belt in kung fu and am a four-stripe white belt in Brazilian jiujitsu. I ended up training in kajukenbo, a little bit of Muay Thai and a teeny-tiny bit of Systema.

It made me feel fierce and it was a great workout. I had never hit anything, not even a bag, as hard as I could. As part of the class, we wore boxing gloves and hit bags.

I made my high school boyfriend leave a WWF fight he took me to.īut it turns out that martial arts have helped me be a better writer (after all, mysteries and thrillers often contain an element of violence), as well as a stronger and more prepared person.įor me, a kickboxing class was the gateway drug to martial arts. I am not physically brave and I hate conflict. I was scared of the uneven parallel bar and the balance beam and pretty much any ball ever thrown my way. PE was the only reason I graduated with a GPA less than 4.0. My love for martial arts would surprise anyone I went to high school with. I almost feel as phony saying that as I did for years when I told people I was a writer.

The best martial arts tricks almost perfect balance