A year later, after having declared I would start my martial arts training, I have finally gotten around to it. Originally set for 09/01/15, I got derailed by the more valuable condition of motherhood; I found out I was pregnant only days before that date. And having never practiced martial arts, practicing pregnant did not seem like a good idea.
I did stay active, but with activities my body was used to, like strength training and yoga.
Fast forward and pregnancy was easy, and birth was relatively painless. Now we, Mr. Benavides and I, have the most beautiful future black belt girl : Victoria Carolina. She will begin to train once she is two.
It is worth a mention that I chose to follow my husband to a new discipline : Shotokan. Read Back to my Roots post. Even though a novice, I can really appreciate the much more elevated levels of power and speed developed with this discipline, over Tae Kwon Do. Also I can appreciate more the way of competition within the World Karate Federation (WKF) over ATA’s structure.
In recent days, in fact, I was floored watching the WKF World Championship in Women’s Kata, and Rika Usami’s performance. It was fascinating to watch.
So, for my training week one : I watched Rika win ( a couple of times, maybe ), I took my 3 month old to the dojo, I started training both in Shotokan as well as in Krav style self-defense ( taught by my husband ), got myself a bruise the size of my entire big toe, and learned the entirety of the taikyoku shodan kata -now only to perfect it… Plus, milestone number 1 is in place : competition.
I will be competing in the Kuro-Obi Dojo Open in Central Florida.
The end goal is simple, and for that cheers!… to the Martial Arts lifestyle!!
Oss.

-Tabitha. White Belt, Bikram Yoga Practitioner + Usui Ryoho Reiki Master
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