Obstacles

 by Paula

I really did not want to wake up and train this morning. I am so sore from starting my new training program. I am tired from training and taking care of everything that needs to be done. But I cannot let being sore and tired keep me from training. I have been through so much worse.

I always wanted to compete in martial-arts. I remember growing up watching the original Karate Kid, Rocky, and the Best of the Best movies, and I always wanted to train and compete like those athletes. But that was not an option I had. My parents insisted I concentrate on running, and they would not allow me to do martial-arts competitions.

Finally, two knee surgeries and a supportive husband later I got to spend several years doing “Olympic style”. I was 21, a second-degree black belt, and new to continuous sparing. I loved the athleticism it required. The conditioning and training were a dream come true for me (I know that is weird). I won the Tennessee State Championships in both sparing and forms. I caught the competition bug, and had started to train for the U.S. Open and then had plans for Nationals. This is where I hit another obstacle: I found out I was pregnant and I had a difficult pregnancy (losing a twin and extreme morning sickness).

After my baby was a couple months old I wanted to get back into training. The obstacle I now faced was I had moved across state and had nowhere to train. I went to 3 or 4 different schools and could not find any place that would train me to be successful at big competitions. So I just spent 3 years training with a school affiliated with an Olympic gold medalist (Juan Moreno). I did not get to compete with this school because they focused on juniors and did not have much of an adult program. I just enjoyed working out and learning as much as I could from what the coaches brought back from Juan Moreno.

Finally, my husband and I opened our own school where I could train and compete. The new obstacle I had was that if I wanted to train with my husband, I had to learn point-style sparing. This was really hard: keep hands up, use front leg, and rely less on counter attacks to score points. It took me at least a year to adjust to this style.

Despite struggling with point-style, I trained my hardest and earned multiple state titles from Kentucky, Tennessee, Indiana, Virginia, and Florida as well as several National titles in the USCDKA circuit. I loved competiting again, and I loved pushing myself to get better and better at each competition.

And then I hit my last obstacle: BACK INJURY! I could not spar, jump, and sometimes I could not even kick. I was out of commission for a year and a half! I eventually exhausted all non-surgical options for helping my back, and this past September I had back surgery.

So NO! Being tired and sore is not going to keep me from working hard to reach my goals. Any time I want to skip a training session, I just remember that I have been through much worse, and I could be much worse than sore and tired.