What are your favorite sports to watch and play?
Badminton is the only sport I play. I used to do martial arts which is kind of a sport and is great for fitness and confidence, and some versions are in the Olympics.
I enjoy watching Rugby. I did get enthusiastic about the England women’s football team, but after watching the masculine style collapse at the World Cup, where I was screaming at them to actually kick the ball and preferably not just to each other, I lost interest. I’ll keep an eye on them, and Mary Earps was brilliant, but even so. No one collapses under pressure like an England football team.
I probably sound rather critical. The truth is that during a warm up for badminton I rarely miss a shot, the instant I start a friendly game with my lovely neighbour or husband, both of whom are delighted if I win, I put on a very impressive English crumble most of the time. I’m getting better, but in truth there is a commonality.
It always stuns me that I kept my head at a black belt grading. I was a borderline pass, but even so when my instructor called I expected him to say that Tony went through and nearly fell over when he said I did. I’d have been disappointed but far less shocked if I’d failed. But then I was no natural.
When I saw that martial arts was done in bare feet I flatly refused to go into the room. For the first two years I trained in full make up with every hair sprayed into obedience. I got over it though. For our black belt pre-pre grading we did over 1000 kicks in 3 hours alone, without everything else. Nothing stayed in place after that onslaught. I ached in places I didn’t know I had.
You had to do a mock grading before a grading to see if it was worth you going through, it was a good idea, if you got through you were in with a chance. Our instructor did his own pre grading, before the official pre grading. He would never say why.
The other students came up to me and asked me if I would ask him, because they all wanted to know, they were sure he’d tell me. He did. I didn’t tell them 🤣. One of our tenets was integrity, you can’t be a tell-tale and be a true black belt.
As it’s so far in the past I’ll tell you though, he made his pre grading so much harder than the real thing, three hours rather than 20 minutes, as such we didn’t even break into a sweat during the actual grading. They should do that with school mock exams, then just before the actual exam tell the pupils that the mocks were deliberately harder. It was sheer genius.
I’m not dangerous though
I never was, all I have is a few skills that give me six more seconds than anyone else. Even the most effective martial artist only has that short period of time to end a fight before it’s begun, and once you’ve shown your hand you’re in more trouble.
When you really understand what it means to be a black belt it breeds anything but arrogance. It’s primarily character. The thing that tipped me into scraping through was my attitude.
I can give you a couple of helpful tips to avoid aggressors though:
1. Don’t be there. If anywhere has a reputation for violence avoid, avoid, avoid.
2. Run. Yes we were taught that.
Seriously, there are some risks worth taking, walking into a lion’s den with a raw steak around your neck isn’t one of them.
Wisdom is not cowardice.
Deb xx
Deb Hawken - Amorah 