The Maker is here to give you all the ninja secrets you need.
I remember shooting this a couple of months ago, and being once again surprised at the stuff this boy keeps inside his head. I know, I know, YouTube. Still, for an 11-year-old dude, he impresses me.
So. Click “play” and learn to make your silent secret ninja tee-shirt headwrap.
And because the new video made me think of another he did, I’ve re-posted that one too, so that you can find out how to do a ninja bow (both with and without a sword.
But more importantly, you will uncover super secret hidden knowledge about any ninja fight you might find yourself in. Because unlike with normal people, there’s no ring, ropes, or bells. (Notice how I just made myself “normal”? That felt pretty awesome.)
In fact, it’s terribly important that you watch the second video through to the end. Otherwise you could have your ignorant ninja head chopped off.
I think.
Maker-Ninja knows all. If you have ninja questions, please post them and I’ll implore him to reveal more of his hidden ninja secret knowledge.
I just found this awesome video over on Jill Morley’s blog and was glued to the screen as each fighter told just a small piece of his or her story.
The woman who appears at the end of this video, Kaiyana Rain, also has a fight blog, and I’ve added her to my blogroll. I will definitely be checking in to read over there so that I can continue to learn from and be inspired by her.
If you’ve ever wondered why we do it, these people will give you a little piece of that answer.
You may find that you need some of what they have, and if so, I hope you’ll get to the gym and take a serious look at the possibility that you can win a measure of hard work, peace, struggle, beauty and boxing badassery all for yourself, no matter your age or sport.
The Ignite idea is that if enough people vote up your idea and put you on the stage, you get 5 minutes and 20 slides (which auto advance every 15 seconds) to say your piece and change the world.
So, it’s much delayed, but here it is. The SlideShare slides are below (btw, I’m no longer @glowbird on Twitter, I’m @LCBledsoe now):
Thanks again to the fabulous producers of both the Ignite Raleigh and the Ignite Durham show, Ryan Boyles, Zach Ward and Jeffrey L. Cohen and all of you who voted me onto the stage!
Once in a while I get an advertising inquiry in my email inbox.
It’s nice, on the one hand, to feel like one’s blog is out there enough to be noticed, but even nicer than that is the fact that this is my personal blog and I get to do whatever I like here.
And here’s the thing: I love women’s boxing. You may have guessed this about me. Katie Taylor (whom I’ve posted about before) rocks my world. I don’t care about the drink advertised at the end of this video (never heard of it before, in fact), and I don’t even know who the musicians are, even if they are blowing down the house in this piece.
But Katie? Katie damn well steals this show. Didn’t you want to play it over again just to catch Katie’s rapid fire knockout straights again? What I wouldn’t have given to be in the warehouse when they were shooting this — don’t you know those guys were slammed over by Taylor?
So yes, nice advertising rep who contacted me: I’ll run this video. But I don’t need the special video player or payment for every view from the UK. I have to say, along with my across-the-pond sister Niamh at Inspiring Sports Women, we run these things because we love the boxers. We love the inspiring women. We’re shouting for you, Katie!
I need to travel over to Athletic Women Blog more regularly, because every time I go I get dosed up with a massive hit of all-out inspiration. Look people, I knowthis video is a advert for UnderArmor (which I do in fact wear), but the fact is that any commercial that powers me up like this is a win. For them, for me, for my game. Women love to kick ass and take names, don’t we?
Here’s another one, also poached from Rob Mars at AWB, that does the same thing and it’s not even selling me stuff. It’s just an incredible show of woman power in its most graceful and (potentially) dangerous form. I clearly need to sign up for ballet lessons. Somebody hand me a sword.
Finally, I can’t seem to get embed support on this one, but check out this women’s boxing newsreel, dated 1928, from British Pathe. Again, posted by Rob on AWB. It cracks me up that the woman (who is boxing a man) is wearing her boxing boots with a fringed leotard. She flat out rocks, too.
This is so me, without the New York Jewish mother bit. Or the red hair and five o’clock shadow. And those outfits, yikes! But, you know, it’s me.
I LOVE the tree! I don’t love the mess or the work but I love to have and see and enjoy the tree. And it really does completely interrupt your life — potentially in a good way, of course. The ornaments all have stories (in our house, most are handmade) and the lights are so lovely, and the smell is divine. And the kitten will try to pull it over and stuff will get broken and we’ll forget to water it and I’ll get sticky stuff all over my hands… sigh.
I can do without the other commercial garbage, but I really like the tree.
If you don’t fully understand the RULES for Ninja bows, please take a moment to view the infomovie, and adjust your Ninja activities accordingly. Special thanks to The Maker for staying informed on All Things Ninja, and of course, for communicating the finer points of Ninja etiquette for all of us.
This is the Maker’s answer to the surprise interview question: If you could have ONE THING that your parents say “No” to, what would it be?
Although it caught me off guard at the time, I should have known this answer. And it’s just characteristic of the Maker to set about, well, making whatever he desires. Even parental limits don’t seem to phase him overmuch, to my continuing amazement and often delight.
Oh, and couldja keep the secret box, er, secret? By the Maker’s request. Kthxbai.
The above is a short video with some clips from our boxing team training sessions. (I have one tiny cameo on the speed bag: I’d like to thank the Academy). There’s some nice sparring footage at the end — the guy with no shirt is Will, one of our pro boxers, working with some of the other guys on the team.
Probably one of the most-asked questions has to do with how I train. This post is a longish answer to a short question, and it doesn’t address the way I eat, but I’ll get to that in a future post.
How many hours?
I work out with my boxing team twice a week for two hours each time, and I work out on my own another four times a week for an hour. That’s about eight hours per week of hard workout time. You can certainly get in shape with much less, but 8 weekly hours of training is critical if your goal is to go a few good rounds. It’s amazing how much power and energy — not to mention mental fortitude and focus — it takes to box three rounds of three minutes each.
F.A.S.T.
This is totally my own invention, so buyer beware. I try to focus on four areas in my training: Form, Aerobic, Strength, and Timing. I have specific goals in each area, and I do whatever it takes to meet those goals.
Form
The thing that helps me most here is shooting video of myself, particularly in the ring or on the heavy bag. Then I can really see what my trainer is saying to me over and over and over again (sorry Bonnie) and practice to correct it. My current top goal here is to keep my guard up higher in the ring, rather than dropping my gloves when I throw punches or when I’m fatigued.
Aerobic
Boxing goes nowhere without great cardio or aerobic training. In fact our trainers will sometimes tell the guys to decrease weights in their strength training; you want to be powerful but also light and fast. We go through dead-rotten cardio workouts as a team; we do more of that than anything else. The win here is in interval training. Nobody cares if you can run five miles, what you need to be able to do is sprint hard for three minutes, recover in one minute, sprint three more minutes, recover, sprint three more. Everything is in in the standard boxing round of three minutes, and whatever you do cardio-wise, you need to be able to do it hard and fast for at least that long. I do intervals on jump rope, running, rowing, or elliptical every time I work out. When I do two sets of 15 cardio minutes in a single workout on my own, I try to do one near maximum heart rate (for me, about 180 bpm) and one at 60-80% of that rate. But when I train with the team I’ll do much more than that.
Strength
I do some arm, shoulder, chest, back and ab exercises in almost every workout, typically with light weights and high reps. I have my favorites but try to mix it up so that I get good overall strength. I’m not a huge “exercise toy” person, but our gym has several of the CrossFit tools (the long heavy rope, kettleballs, etc.) and we use them in team training. I don’t currently do many leg exercises other than my aerobic training, although I’ve been adding lunges recently because the coaches are calling for millions of them during training and my quads lock up if I haven’t been doing any. This equals misery for two days following, but I’m getting up on the curve.
Timing
This is primarily work I do on the speed bag, half bag, and double-end bag. Timing is area is where I suck the most, no lie. I couldn’t see a punch coming if I got four emails in advance. My trainer says this just takes long, long practice and experience in the ring. Meanwhile, watch me eat punches.
How do you have time for that??
Truthfully, boxing is the only “other” thing I do. I work full time and I’m a mom. Pink mold has a permanent home in my shower stall. About twice a month I attend late, late rock gigs after my kids are in bed, during which have a few drinks, sing my heart out, dance, and drag my sorry ass in at 3 am, hoping I’m not too tired to box the next day.
