Building my base back

        I’m rebuilding my foundational base- meaning my stances and basic kicks.  Other than the obvious things from the injury like having to stay off of it, and losing some strength; the main thing I feel I have lost is the springiness to the joint.

         I’m physio we’re working on strengthening the knee again.  A lot of that is single leg movements to load it.  There are some things the joint doesn’t like doing on its own yet, but the strength is improving. Along with strength is working on dynamic movements. This is to help get that springiness back to the joint.  I am aware that part of this issue is mental and not all physical, though I also acknowledge that the tendons and ligaments are stretched, so they actually don’t have the same elasticity they did before.  The movement we are utilizing is pretty simple.  I’m at a squat rack sitting on a box with the bar and weight across my back and I’m sitting up with explosive force, controlled down to sitting and repeat.  Tai Chi is also helping all those stabilizer muscles too.  I find I can sink a little deeper in to my cat stance and high chair.  Which also helps me to lower my centre.

       As for my stances, I’m working on getting deeper in them again.  I find I am still shortening them, mainly because I don’t have the strength or springiness in my right so need to be able to get out of the stance with some speed.  My kicks I’ve noticed I’ve developed some interesting habits/movement patterns that I don’t think were there before.  My right knee I am more comfortable kicking with, but I am still hesitant to really have that snap/full extension at the end.  My left knee is really uncomfortable to kick with, mostly because my right knee isn’t a strong stabilizer right now.  So having to balance on that leg while throwing my left leg out is no bueno.

        The exercises I do for the white-orange belts are the same ones I am utilizing for myself to build back my stances and kicks.  I know it’s going to take a while, and I know at some point I’m going to have to get over the mental hump and actually try throwing a kick like I used to.