I'm not nearly as flexible as I used to be! In the past year while studying Aikido, I've let my kicking skills diminish, along with my leg flexibility. Years ago I could do a split, and do decent side kicks to my height (5'10). Now I can barely kick chest high on my sidekicks. My body opponent bag is a good measure for the height stuff. At least I can still kick head high with my roundhouse and front kicks. I can blame Aikido all I want, but it's really on me to keep up with the kicking skills.
In Aikido, there's no kicking. None, zero, nada. Aikido's focus of being in control of your center focuses on keeping your feet in proper alignment for your center. Kicking can take you off your center, or so Aikido's philosophy goes. In Ninpo Chuan Fa, kicking is a decent part of the self defense stuff. Not necessarily kicking high, but kicking consistantly with effect. The high kicking aspect of martial arts like Ninpo are mainly for exercise and flexibility, not so much as to be effective in defense.
So here I am, doing rounds of hundreds of various kicks after lots o' stretching, and I am tired! Doesn't help that I'm a pretty heavy guy these days. Not the heaviest I've been, but definitely not slim. Working on slimming down. Still continuing with the weights, and now yoga and my exercise bike have become steady fixtures in my workout routine. Right now the only movie martial artists I can be compared to are Sammo Hung and Kevin James (see "Here Comes the Boom"). If I'm going to be teaching this stuff soon, I've gotta get comfortable again with all aspects of the art. Maybe then I can look more like Bolo Yeung as far as physique goes
Gonna keep on kickin', kinda like a Rockette :)
-Peace and Balance
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