I am covered in bruises.<\/p>\n
Went to my first class as a real, signed-up student at the Kim Studio<\/a> in Maryland last night. It was a good time. I had previously attended two classes as a prospective student, taught by two different instructors. On Tuesday and Thursday, the “grandmaster” of the school teaches. I figured that this would be a good place to have my first “real” class. We did mostly a conditioning class, focusing on “iron shirt” training.<\/p>\n The grandmaster spent perhaps half of the class working with me. That gives him instant high marks in my book. He took a personal interest in this new student (me) and wanted to know where I’m at and what I need to learn. So, he was my partner for partner stretching (I am now remarkably limber), and he was my partner for most of the iron shirt stuff. Considering that “iron shirt” means, primarily, “hitting each other in a controlled manner,” this made for an interesting workout. <\/p>\n I have a new fitness goal: At age 50+, I want to leave the technical details to my underlings, and run the “make you strong and tough” class. Forget this “wise old dude with a bunch of tricks up his sleeve” stuff. I want to be the “tough old dude who can still run you into the ground.” <\/p>\n I’m not sure I can adequately explain why “Iron shirt” training is a good idea. It is, in fact, vaguely reminiscent of Beavis and Butthead’s gym teacher, shouting “KICK ME IN THE JIMMY.” The goal is to develop the ability to take hits without being hurt as much. It’s a toughening practice that involves, in short, being hit. Working with a partner, you start with single strikes to the thighs and midsection, and ramp up to a mutual level of (dis)comfort.<\/p>\n I’ll skip exposition and say: Great training, excellent respect and control throughout the school, and I can learn a lot from these people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I am covered in bruises.<\/p>\n Went to my first class as a real, signed-up student at the Kim Studio in Maryland last night. It was a good time. I had previously attended two classes as a prospective student, taught by two different instructors. On Tuesday and Thursday, the “grandmaster” of the school teaches. I figured . . . → Read More: Iron shirt<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1640\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chris.dwan.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}