I Have New Respect For Peter Parker

My Jiu Jitsu classes have been going well lately. The classes after the three week Christmas break were hard but soon my conditioning returned to its pre-holiday level and I had to start considering what the near term future has in store for me.

I've got my second stripe and the third stripe is looming, but more importantly is the red tip review and the green belt test after that. I felt the need to review my white and yellow techniques so this week and last I've attended an extra white/yellow belt class in addition to my normal all belt classes. I reviewed the material and now feel comfortable again with that material and I can now concentrate on the newer orange belt material I'll need to know. If all goes quickly I might be testing on February 21st.

So what's all of this have to do with the post title? Well I'll tell you.

The white/yellow belt class I attended was instructed by Sensi Hanna, a young high ranking black belt. She likes her warm ups to really work the "core" of your body. All fine and good except one of the exercises to work the core is the dreaded Spiderman Crawl.

Its like this: you get down on your hands and feet with your left foot forward and left hand back almost meeting your left foot. Meanwhile the right hand is stretched out forward and the right foot is far back. You move forward by moving your left hand and right foot up so that your right foot almost meets your right hand and your left hand is stretched out while the left foot is not stretched back. Basically you are in the mirror image position of how you started. Got it? While doing the crawl you are supposed to keep your hips low so you really work the core.

It takes a minute to get used to coordinating your hands and feet to get the right rhythm but its not too hard as you make your way across the mat. Its the coming back that is evil.

For some reason, most people's brains break trying to do the Spiderman Crawl backwards just after getting it to work forwards. Its simply freaky how I cannot make my feet and hands work the opposite of how I just had them doing. Its like trying to tie your shoelaces in a mirror.

The worst part is that they do more of this as you rise in the ranks! I've never heard a better argument for staying an orange belt.

Note: New Post Category.