Cathe helped me get my black belt!

[jillianh]

Hi Cathe,

I started your workouts to enhance my martial arts training when I decided to commit to getting a black belt. I had heard that part of the black belt test was "conditioning" which was rumored to be a grueling experience to say the least. So I incorporated your cardio and strength training workouts with my martial arts classes over the last few years and REALLY saw a difference, and they have helped me get through years of tough classes and the last 6 months of crazy training schedules.

The black belt test was on May 8th and the martial arts part was 3 hours with no break, and hours later after rehearsals and a big show, they did indeed put us through a very rigourous conditioning test for the last 2 hours late at night and it ALMOST (big almost) felt easy and that is 100% thanks to you and your awsome workouts. At one point when we were doing minute long sessoins of crunches I could hear my instructor yelling "YEAH Jill you are pumping them out like a freight train! Keep it up!" That's thanks to all that wonderful core work in your DVDs!

Thank you!
Jill

 

[skeenan]

Congratulations Jill! What an accomplishment. I have a friend who is a 2nd degree black belt. She is also my son's instructor, he is a brown belt.

Shelly

 

[luv2bfit]

Congratulations, Jill!

I remember how exciting it was to test for my First Degree Black Belt (I'm a Fifth Degree now). It's a wonderful accomplishment and I can certainly see how Cathe helped in your testing with the increased aerobic capacity and body strength. You Go, Girl!

Elizabeth

 

[Jcrew3082]

Wow Jill- great accomplishment! Congrats!

Gina

 

[Carol_is_fit]

WOO HOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jill that is AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carol

 

[KathyH]

Hi Jill! Congratulations!!! You should be very proud. Did they tape the show? I'm very interested in martial arts but don't where to start. What type of martial arts are you doing & for how long? Can you give me some pointers on where to start? TIA, Kathy

 

[jillianh]

Hi Kathy,

I do Tae Kwon Do and it took 4 years for the first degree black belt. I picked it because it was the only one I was really familiar with but years later this is the advice I have for choosing a martial art:

You should find one that best suits your body's strengths. I found (after the fact) that have a limited range of motion in my hips that makes kicking high impossible. Unfortunately that is a big part of TKD so I constantly have to struggle with that. There are other forms that dont' have any kicks at all like Aikido or Judo, Jiujitsu, those all focus on body manipulation, rather than kicks and punches. We do a lot of jiujitsu moves at my school (that is ground fighing, joint locks, chokes, etc) and I have found that that is a strength of mine because you don't have to be flexible. The down side is that you have to roll around on the floor with other people and some people don't like that ;o).

Another thing to look at is whether or not the school competes. The school I chose has tournaments every few months and the higher up you get they become mandatory. I didn't start martial arts to compete so that was something that was very stressful for me, still is. Other people really enjoy comptetition, so its just a matter of personal choice.

Also, if self defense is one of the reasons you are interested in martial arts, you should make sure the school incorporates modern, real life self defense moves. Some schools are very traditional and do not cover real life moves. One of the reasons I really enjoy my schools it that while we focus on TKD we learn all sorts of moves from different martial arts so that we can be well rounded fighters.

Finally you want to make sure that the school, no matter what type of martial art, seems like a nice place to be. Are the students smiling? Do they seem to respect (not fear) their teacher? It needs to be a supportive, comfortable place to be because you will spend a lot of time there doing things that make you uncomfortable at first. I know the only reason I made it as far as I have is becasue of the support of the school.

anyway hope that helps you some!

Jill

 

[KathyH]

Hi Jill! Thank you so much for a very thorough explanation. I have several schools in my area. I think I'll sit in & watch the instructor as well as watch the students to see how well received the students are to the teacher. Very helpful hints you gave me. No I'm not interested in competing just wanted to embellish on my kickboxing routine & I know martial arts is waaaayyyy harder than kb. Thanks again for all your help, Kathy

 

[KathyH]

Hi Jill! Thank you so much for a very thorough explanation. I have several schools in my area. I think I'll sit in & watch the instructor as well as watch the students to see how well received the students are to the teacher. Very helpful hints you gave me. No I'm not interested in competing just wanted to embellish on my kickboxing routine & I know martial arts is waaaayyyy harder than kb. Thanks again for all your help, Kathy