What It's Like Before a Fight

6 Months Out

Shihan, sensei or someone tells you about a fight coming up, sometime in the month of say, October. I am either asked if I want to fight or I am told that I am going to fight. Doesn't matter which because if I wasn't asked, I would ask if I could go.

Visions of training plans and completely filled out workout sheets dance through my head, much like pre-Christmas sugar plums. I'll do fine, I think. I can't wait. Confidence flows through my veins. Not that I think I will win, but the confidence that I will arrive, fight and they will remember me, win or lose.

2 Months Out

Front Snap Kick

Taken by TJ Whittaker
Patty Pittman VS Ivanna Williams
Patty is the blonde in the green belt

I went, I fought ~ Japanese Karate, So much Fun

Sempai Harry and me

Those who read my blog on a regular basis, might have noticed that I wasn't posting as often as I usually do before a fight. I really couldn't post all my thoughts. You see, I was hurt and didn't want to give it away. I didn't know if my opponents were reading this or not. I know I would be reading the blog of someone training to fight me.

Before the fight:

Nice lean, hoping the other coach didn't notice

So the thing I couldn't write about, I was hurt. Two weeks ago I got tagged on my lead leg, just above the knee on the outside. I limped around all weekend, doing the RICE thing and come Monday It was still tender but I could walk on it. Then during full contact training, I was sparring and wound up getting tagged in the same spot. I didn't show it but I couldn't kick anymore and I think I got hit 3 or 4 more times there. I couldn't lift my leg to kick, I couldn't get it out of the way to block. Someone was yelling for me to use my legs and the guy I was sparring just cracked me hard, really hard right there. I fell to the floor, tears were coming down my face and I couldn't breathe. Finally, seemed like an eternity, I got up and bowed out. They brought me ice but my leg is ruined.

Feeling Like Me Again

During the last month, I have been trying really hard to get into training. I just feel like I am not good enough. So I have been trying extra hard. Weights in the morning, kickboxing in the after noon and 2 to 3 hours of fight training at night. I was feeling exhausted, burnout. Every time I would preform badly, I would work harder.

A week ago last Monday, after fight class, Shihan had us all take a knee. He discussed the ups and downs and the plateaus of training. He asked if any of us were feeling tired. I reluctantly said that I was. We discussed my training schedule. I was told to cut back. Run only once a week, weights twice and to rest.

Shihan knows so much about fighting and the fighters body. If I am doing this for 50 years I won't know half as much as him. He has an instinct to create fighters. The first fight I was in, we went to Connecticut. There were 6 of us. Sensei K fought full contact and the rest of us were doing semi-contact, because it was our first fight. Every one of us brought home first or second.

Shihan was so great. Sensei was supposed to be my coach and I could hear her shouting commands. I was also hearing the commands of Shihan. "Finish Up!" he'd scream. His voice so deep but loud that it seemed like he was just a few feet away. He was sitting with the big wigs on the big table at the front. I never heard anyone but Shihan yell from that table.

I listened to him, I put away my fitness equipment and joined the gym. Now when I am done working out I go home. No more do I look at the weights and whatnot thinking I should do more.

It took a week but last Monday, when sparring, I didn't feel like I sucked as bad. Last night I sucked even less. I wasn't as out of breath, I defended myself instead of just getting hit. I hit the target instead of just swinging. I felt good.

After last night, I don't feel as anxious as I was. I think that after I posted my fight videos, people in class, especially the new one, have expectations of me. I feel like I cant live up to the hype. Maybe that's why I was training so hard. But I am just a girl and sometimes I will lose, but as long as I do my best, it will all work out.

Sometimes, you get knocked out

I am posting the fight that I lost at the Dageki World Champs last October. This was the fight for first and I sadly lost. I need to keep my hands up to start with, I know. I also need to work on blocking. I am not ashamed of what I did, in fact I am proud of the fight, even though it is VERY short. I got knocked out. In fact I can't recall when the ref tied my belt, even when watching it, I can't remember. It is like seeing someone in a Patty suit fighting from 20 or so seconds on. The next thing I remember is the doc standing over me, and me telling him that I needed to fight. He was telling that I was done.

Dageki World Karate Championship

Last January the video came in from last October's world championship fight. It was saddly misplaced. Good news though! It was found the other day. So here is my semi-final fight from Montreal, Canada. I am the cute girl with the pig tails and the yellow belt.

Fight Video - 8th Annual US Kyokushin Karate Open

Patty Pittman vs Amy Kaufman

There are things in this life you just don't want to do, but you have to. I had to watch my fights from May. I had to edit and upload the video from the 8th Annual United States Kyokushin Open, the first 'full contact' fight I had ever done, it was also the second fight I had ever been to.


The reason for the quotes around the full contact, is that we weren't supposed to wear pads. There was a woman who came down to fight semi-contact, but there wasn't anyone to fight her. The powers that be, decided they would lump all us women together. So as we lined up for the march out to the mats, the woman looked at the rest of us and bowed out of fighting. It didn't matter if we fought with those thin hand pads and shin guards, it was fighting 'full contact' fighters that had her worried. They did find her a fight, but it was left on our ticket that we were "semi contact'. Let me tell you, pads or no pads, it was full contact.

Domawashi Kaiten Geri - Wheel Kick - Observastions

This month in class we are gearing up for a belt test, which is to happen on the 18th. It is going to be a huge test. There are three men going for their black belt and one man going for his second stripe on his black belt (nidan). The first three men are going to have to have a 10 man fight and the soon to be nidan, will have to fight 20.


Wednesday is our only full contact training of the week right now. I really need full contact training. That is where I burn the most calories. Get the cardio up. This week an old buddy came back to the dojo too. Nate has been away working hard and now he is home for a while. Nate and I started around the same time and we both fought for the first time together last year in Connecticut.

Nerves, Nerves, and more Nerves

 Tonight we had our last full contact training before the World's on Saturday. It was supposed to be an easy night. We did some sparring. It started light. Sensei Kris and I were sparring, probably 30% power. Then Kenny and I sparred and it started at 30%. Kenny is so hyped up. Slowly the power got turned up to about 80%, by him. I was still trying to keep the power down but defending myself, I turned it up too. The last 30 seconds hurt. When Kenny and Sensei sparred it was almost a fight.

Kenny is all about a certain technique. I can't say what it is because I don't want to give away any inside info right yet. But I have to say it is a very nice technique, but a fighter has to use a technique when it is an open option rather then trying it until you succeed. It was his downfall at his last fight. He was just looking for the opportunity to show his awesome skill, that he got beat with basics.

Speeding to the World Championship

Time is VERY short. I only made the final decision last week that I was going to fight at the upcoming world championship.

How could I not fight? Many people train for years for this opportunity. In my dojo, most people have a couple of years of semi-contact fighting before going to full contact. I am lucky enough, at my advanced age, to find a talent that I never even dreamed that I would have. I still have tons of talent polishing to do.

Last May at the US Open, I 'knew' I was getting a butt whopping before I got on the mat. I 'knew' I was going to lose and just prayed that I wouldn't embarrass the dojo and my teachers. I was so scared. I was determined that, even though I would probably lose, that the women were going to have to work for their victory. I wound up winning first place and my first trophy ever.

Sabaki (Fight) Class

On Monday in class we trained our front snap kick. I know, basic, right? I needed to work on it. All the fancy kicks in the world won't win a fight like a well placed front snap kick to the face.

We paired up and our 'opponent' was to come at us with a punch or a kick and our job was to shuffle step back to get out of the way. Then we were to shuffle forward again and deliver a front snap kick to the belly. I worked with Ryan P.

Ryan was the guy who gave me my first bruise, way back when. When I first started karate, I didn't know my own strength, so I would fight hard. I have since learned that all white belts are scary. You don't know what they can and will do. They will either fly off the handle trying to take your head off or be so timid you have to remind them to fight. I was the first one.

Full Week of Training, Finally

 Monday

This past week was a good one, training wise. Well it was better at the start than at the finish. Monday I went to the YMCA and did the weight program I got set up with the personal trainer. Later I was off to my son's soccer game, which made me late for class, but I told Sensei K that I would be late.

I missed the lesson for the day which was to pivot out of the way of your attacker. They were learning to read opponents by noticing the pressure differences in punches, just before a kick or knee is thrown. I watched the class practice their movements while I stretched. When they were done they got their gear on for sparring.

Sensei K asked if I were warmed up enough for sparring, and of course I said yes. Michelle said 'Patty is always ready for sparring!" and of course I was. I think I wake up ready for sparring.

New Tricks: Wheel Kick

Sensei Kristen O'conner led class in Shihan's absence a week ago last Monday. It started out as normal, but ended kind of strange. We did our usual, punches, blocks, and kicks. It was hot and even in the winter, that room gets steamy and uncomfortable. After, I looked silly, drinking from my tiny 1 cup water bottles. I picked up the wrong size case of water. They are so funny looking. Poland spring carries these tiny little bottles of water, that are 8 ounces of water. I can drink that in one sip after kihon, and did.

Sensei was very peculiar that night. She warned us that Shihan had instructed her to get us ready for something complicated. She said not to worry about it. It can be done, but it will be hard, but she was not going to tell us what it was. "Above all", she said, "don't give up". Very hard to concentrate on what we are supposed to learn, when the whole time I am trying to figure out what we are going to learn next week. Added a little more interest to the night though. I like puzzles.

8th Annual United States Kyokushin Open Part 2 First Fight

All the fighters were summond to the warm up room where we were lined up for our divisions. The women were line up last. First called was Amy, then a woman from Canada, with a yellow belt. Woodrena would be up next, and then I. The yellow belt jumped out of line. She said she was to fight semi-contact, not full. They quickly found a partner for her to fight.

My first match was against Woodrina. She was a big woman, a very nice woman, but scary all the same. I had spoke to her earlier when the kids were sparring. She was a down to business kind of person. A lawyer with two kids. Her kids were good kids too. They were well behaved and respectful. She was very nice and seemed to have her life put together well. When I grow up I would like to be as confident and as well put together as that lady. I'd like to be as scary too!

8th Annual United States Kyokushin Open Part 1

Friday night when I was supoosed to be sleeping, i was online writting for this blog. I couldn't sleep. I wasn't tired. Then about 11:30 I was done writting and checked all my usual pages for the latest news. I decided to get on facebook. I was checking status updates and was about to play poker when Sensei got online and starts yelling at me, ALL CAPS. Go to bed, she screams. 'Osu Sensei!', I reply.

I slept rather well for what I was going to do. Fighting in the US Open as a first full contact fight. Someone remind me, what was I thinking?

I had looked up Amy's fights in the Ligo Dojo website. She is crazy scary. She made it three rounds in the world's tournament. I didn't know for sure who else I was fighting so I couldn't research that.

Leading up to the fight

Last Friday strike to the solar plexus from Matt H has really shook me. I never felt so much pain from a hit and I have been hit pretty hard. If i get hit like that today I am going down. My husband and others are saying that it is not likely that I get hit like that from a girl, but the fact of the matter is, I can hit that hard, so can other women. If I  can remember a strategy today it is to strike hard at the solar plexus.

It is funny how that particular strike has been what I have been training  for this last month. It was the same hit that brought sensei down in Canada. So when she came home, the fighters did conditioning really hard. She certainly loved hitting me there, really hard.  She would pound that spot till my eyes watered, then she would keep going. Every once in a while I would ask her to hit somewhere else and she would, but always her fists would seek out the middle of my torso.

Last 2 hour training before the fight

Friday was the most beautiful day we have had in a long time. I did my P90X legs and back workout and felt great, so great that I decided to take the kids for a hike. I picked up Shihan's son and off we went for a leisurely 2 mile hike in Grafton notch. Leisurely really wasn't the word for it. It was a very difficult hike, but it was fun. Eyebrow Loop trail started innocently enough, then it went up and up and up. Some places were so steep that there was a cable to help pull yourself up the mountain. Later we walked across rungs embedded into the granite and then more rungs that were ladder-like. It was gorgeous. The way down sported all kinds of waterfall from spring run offs and they were pretty.

Week Rewind

Hiking:

Strange, but my karate week started on Sunday. I know most weeks start on Sunday, but karate weeks start on Monday with sabaki class. Last Sunday I went for a hike with Sensei Kris. My daughter Justice came with us. It was a bueatiful hike in Grafton Notch, Maine called Table Rock. It was about the same distance for both of us, about 45 minutes away.

The notch was extreamly windy. We walked across the street, then up the Appalachian trail, walking on thick wood beams to stay off of the wet ground. Sensei's dog, Kiba either ran ahead or behind, for he was nervous of new people. At one point in the hike, we passed a couple of ladies and it took a good while calling Kiba, before he would pass. The dog is awesome. Made me wish my dog Lily could have came, but she has a hurt leg.

We talked alot. I really like being around Sensei and hope we can hang out a lot more. She wants to open her own dojo and said to my daughter that she hopes that I come to it at least once a week. I was thinking I would be there everynight, but said that I would be there at least once a week. Who else would I fight? No one brings out the inner fighter in me like she does. I learn so much from her.

We talked about the dojo, about the exercises we do at kickboxing that we aren't gong to tell Shihan because they hurt, so therefore, he would make us do them at full contact class.

She asked is I was going to fight full contact at the tournament in May. I really want to and have asked Shihan a few months ago. He said that I need a few more fights before I could go full contact. I think if I do well and feel good after semi-contact, and I ask, he will let me do full at the tournament. I hope so. I didn't ask Sensei if she thought I was ready for full contact fighting. I really would like to know her opinion about it, even though it wouldn't make a difference because Shihan is the final say. Probably just looking for an ego boost if I ask, and that is not Kyokushin, so I won't ask.

Sensei said that my fighting abilities are above my belt level. She asked if I could see the difference in my fighting. I really don't know.

I used to come out at the bell and come right at someone , fists flying, a few kicks. The guys I would fight would be surprised. I think mostly because I am a big girl, who doesn't look like I could do much of anything. I would always be hurt after sparring, because I would go hard (just with the boys) and get hard put right back on me. Which I am not complaining. When I first started my karate journey, they guys wouldn't be hard on me, with the exception of Ryan P and Matt H. They kicked my ass every time. I also didn't know I was going hard. I didn't know that I was strong. Yeah, i was told i was, but I didn't believe them. I was told that I could fight, but thought people were being polite.

Since the beginning, I have learned patience. I sometime wait until the opponent comes to me, and counter. I don't know if that is better fighting or not. I have been watching some beginner level fights, orange and blue belts. They seem to all fight the way I used to fight. Straight on, no bobbing and weaving, so sidestepping. I don't know how I'll fight against someone who is straight on if I am doing what Sensei does. I need practice.

The top of Table Rock offered spectacular views. Across from us was a mountain, still white with snow. A low hanging rain cloud covered the top of it. Just to the right, down the notch a little ways, was bright blue sky and sunshine. The wind was powerful at the top and a few times would push me.

Sabaki:

Monday night was a good night. Sparring was fun. When I sparred Matt C, I kicked him in the head. I wanted to just put my foot up there because he wasn't blocking. I usually stop just before contact, but this time I made contact. I felt so bad. I know it was just a tag and didn't hurt, but I felt like I needed to have more control. I said sorry to him, and Shihan yells at me to not be sorry.

During full contact class, I did have some problems though, weird ones. Near the last quarter of class, we start the sprinting drills and the leap frogs. I do my best, but leap frogs are not good. I hate them. At the end of that round, I just laid down. Shihan yells for me to get up and I do, but I am so dizzy. I am out of breath. He wants us to do these drills where we do a low squat, kick with our lead leg to the inside, then spin around for a back kick. I was all over the place. I couldn't see straight.

My favorite part of the class was last. We left all of our gear off and sparred lightly. After bag work, Shihan was matching us up for conditioning drills. He match Sensei and I up and when we were getting our gear on, I told her that we were going to get matched up from now on. I said I could just tell. So we are doing the light sparring, and after the bell rings to stop, Shihan mixes everyone up, except us. There were ten people at class, everyone else had a new partner. I had a told-you-so moment.

Kickboxing:

Last night, Thursday, was kickboxing. One of the little girls in the beginner class wanted to stay. The little girl asked me if she could stay for kickboxing. I said that she would have to ask Sensei. She asked which one was Sensei and I told her and she asked if I could ask for her. Just as I was saying she would have to ask, Sensei walked into the changing room. "ask me what?", she says. The girl started to stammer. So funny becasue I am like twice the size of Sensei. You would think I was scarier than Sensei, but nope. I am just fluffy and nice and Sensei is badass and scary.

After the usuals, we partnered up. Gaylen and I shared a bag, where we were to roundhouse kick at the same time, low, middle high on the same leg. Weirdly it effected my non-kicking hip. After we were done with the second leg, Gaylen was saying how great I was doing. We were doing the same thing, I did just as great as he did. Then we did leg throws, again he commented on how strong I was, but when it was his turn, he did the same thing as I did, for just as long. I have a hard time taking compliments. I really don't know what to say and sometimes even when I deserve a compliment, I feel like they aren't genuine. Like they are trying to be nice. More emotional stuff I have to work through, I guess.

Full Contact Conditioning

Fridays nights are two hours long for the full contact class when we are gearing up for a fight. It works out well that way because my kids go over to the teen center so I end up with three hours at the dojo. (First hour is bo staff class)
So last night the two Matts were there, Matt C and Matt H. Matt C is a light middle weight kind of guy who looks older than he is and Matt H is a heavyweight with a heart of gold. When Matt H smiles, you want to smile too, it is infectious. Sensei Kris was there as well. I swear that woman has too much joy when inflicting pain, i love her all the more for it.
Class started with the usual bagwork, two rounds each of all our combos and then three rounds all mixed up. We were teamed up by gender, me and Kris, and then the Matts. It is only April and already the dojo is getting hot.

Conditioning for the night done in two mintue rounds taking turns with your partner:

1. In sanchindachi, punched to the stomach 1 minute, kicked to the inside and outside of the legs 30 seconds, kicked to the stomach while doing push-ups 30 seconds.
2. leg kicks inside and out
3. crunches, while in the up posistion, getting 2 punches to the solar plexus each time
4. low round house kicks and raised our legs to block so it was shin on shin
5. blocking jab/reverse punches and countering
6. with our backs against the wall, punches to the stomach again

In sancindachi, getting punched to the stomach, and kicked to the legs, with the last 30 seconds doing pushups while getting kicked to the stomach. I was up first. About a minute in a half went by and Shihan called for us to hit to the legs. Then the bell went off for the 30 second warning and I dropped to do push-ups while Sensei kicked me. Ok my turn to do this to Sensei. Shihan must have forgot the time because the warning bell went off and he hadn't called kicks. Oh well.
Now Shihan orders we kick to each others legs, inside then out. I have a spot on my left leg, outside thigh that got wrecked a few times before. Sensei has a round house technique, that even when done lightly, wrecks your leg. The muscle seems to roll off your bone. Whenever she kicks me I am very weary of it and I am smart enough now to get out of the way (usually). Last night I am told to stand there and take it. It took everything I had to not cry. I told her it hurt but really it doesn't take much for it to really hurt. So I tried to just take the hits, sometimes I could.
The other night, Thursday, at kickboxing Sensei did this exercise called a partner leg throw, two rounds.  Everyones abs hurt after that. So at first when I was doing the crunches, the punches didn't bother me at all. I think after the first 30 seconds, getting hit in that same spot, it started to hurt. After a minute i could have shed tears. Then I didn't feel the crunches anymore, just getting hit in the solar plexus. Hopefully all this pain is worth it when it comes to the fight in May.

After some more self inflicted torture, we practiced blocking kicks and punches. I have a really hard time reading kicks. I need to work on all my blocks. When we got to sparring, I was toast as usual. It is been nearly a year of martial arts and I still can't hang. By the time full contact class ends and all the heavy exercises are done, I can hardly breathe never mind fight. That is when Sensei really kicks my butt. I can hardly get out of my own way. Endurance training, I think, is what I need.