Blue Belt

Chapter 4

                                                          IV.

    Slow progress could best describe my stretching ability through the first few classes.  The basic stretches were easy for me being that I had done some stretching in track.  However, some of the things we did, especially when working at the railing where Tomas would lift my legs up in a variety of positions, were much more challenging.  Like it or not though, stretching is something I would have to find a way to like if I was going to be something in this art.  At times though this hardly seemed possible, like in one exercise where I would stand facing the back of the room as Tomas was directly off to my right at ninety degrees.  I would then pivot my left foot as he would lift from the bottom of my right leg and push it straight up as high as possible as my right leg would go up from my side.  This stretch was especially excruciating.  Kim, one of the new students who made up the five of us in class, had no problem with this one.  But most of us found this stretch painful.  I was encouraged, however, by the wall stretch where I would face Tomas straight on and he would grab up under one of my ankles and lift up one leg from that position.  I was getting more toward his upper stomach by about the fourth class or so.  Charles, Ron, and I were behind a bit on these wall stretches, that much was clear.  Kim, being a young woman, had more flexibility to begin with, and, as Mr. Vargo stated, "....so you see women don't have all the disadvantages in fighting."  Tomas had prior karate experience and had a couple years of flexibility training already a part of him so he also was quite good at this.  As I would lift his legs into the various positions I could feel the ease with which his joints and muscles allowed him to move.  It was impressive and perked an interest on my part in this stretching business.

            Ron and Kim had become a part of our class now.  Ron was about my height, had real thick brown hair, wore glasses, and had a real studious look to him.  I'm quite sure Chang would have told him he did not look like a martial artist as well.  Kim was a short gal, all of 5'3" or so, with red curly hair.  Ron and Tomas actually seemed to hit it off quite well and had become friends.  However, because Tomas and I started as training partners in class, we stayed by each other's side in that regard.  Outside of some locker room chat, Charles still pretty much stuck to himself.  Although it was getting to the point after four classes or so that he would give detailed responses if someone else actually asked him a question.  I even saw him carrying on what looked like a non-training type friendly conversation with Mr. Vargo when I was arriving to one of the classes.  He even cracked a smile.

            Through the first few classes Mr. Vargo showed us how to do a basic punch and jab, both from a traditional karate style and also from more of a kick boxing style.  We also learned a basic front kick which consists of kicking straight forward with one leg and striking with the ball of the top part of the bottom of the foot.  Of course how high one can reach with the front kick is in proportion to how well the stretches have been going with that same motion.  We also learned two basic types of stances including the basic karate front fighting stance, along with a single file punching stance.  All of this seemed very basic, but Mr. Vargo is very particular in terms of the details of each technique.  We sat in a front stance in the second class for about ten to fifteen minutes while Vargo went around to each of us and made small adjustments to how we were standing.  Again, Tomas seemed to sail through these basic moves with minimal adjustments from Vargo.  So much of these first few classes was a repetition of getting into the stances from a standing, or "ready" position, and then practicing each of these basic moves until our technique, or "execution" as Mr. Vargo called it, was exactly how he wanted it.  It was not until about half way through the fourth class that we started to move across the room from one side of the front stance on into the other side, while throwing a few basic punches and front kicks into the mix.  We started to get the hang of it even though he still found little details to pick on.  Just when I thought I had the front stance correct, during the fourth class we had, he came over and spent about three minutes with me on the exact positioning of my feet and how much slant each one should have.  Tomas told all of us that he thought Vargo had been three to four times more detailed on the technicalities of these moves than what he learned back in Idaho.  I thought we were getting our money's worth.  And of course it always feels good at the early part of a course, when we're just getting started and there are no expectations.