Well today's class came and went... I was completely exhausted, actually left a bit early from my karate class by 15 mins... 2 hours and 15 minutes was enough of a workout, considering I was dripping in sweat. The weapons (Kobudo) class was first, starts at 8:00 on Saturday morning, runs until 9:30, then my karate class is for an hour until 10:30.
We started the weapons class with stretches with the bo. We basically place the bo over your head, rest them on the back of the shoulders and hook your arms over. Swinging back and forth to loosen up the body, then twisting the body just to loosen up... then some forward bends with the bo still behind your head... I must say, this feels soooooooooooo very good... I know it may sound nuts, but you can feel your muscle and the membrane stretching ever so slightly making you feel a bit of a stretch but not painful enough to be ... hmmm... whats the word... sadomastic. It just makes you feel alive!! After that we move into our blocking drills, just practicing proper technique, then our punch drill.. refer to last week's weapons blog for more detail. After this was all done, Sensei decided to get me doing tichicho (practice kata and not certain of the spelling on that yet), doing down block kata first, then mid block, then last but not least, the high block version of this kata... this pretty much took all an hour to work and practice it for proper technique... at this point I was pretty much drenched!!! Then we moved to the sai for the rest of the class... we did a short blocking drill, then punch drill... then moved right away into the tichicho practice kata... we did low block kata (which I can honestly say, is not my strong suit... needs much practice and refining on the down block, pull leg back and into crane stance, slice of the sai in the downward arc, flip of the sai and down block... the leg part just screws me all up... anyway... after that, we did mid block version and then high block version... the latter two being very easy to maneuvor because of no crane stance nor downward arc of the sai and set into block.. That was the weapons class... easy enough... nuh uh... that was an hour and a half of grueling mind and body working togetherness... for the new student it was pure confusion. But I take it with a grain of salt and not dwell on it, just learn from it. Repetition is what makes techniques perfect.
Now for the karate class. I told Sensei I wanted to work on timing of techniques, Isshinryu and Shuri Te are much alike but oh so different in timing, maybe because of it being more of a style that has wrist twists after techniques and possibly because of the guard hand being close to your heart (isshinryu techniques always start from the waist - oppposed to the technique starting close to your heart). I practiced the stuff Sensei had already gave me to practice on the previous week's class, I basically practiced the footwork in kihon 1 and kihon 5, then I worried about the technique after... after that I was given kihon 2 (which is a step out into a forty five degree angle away from front stance, at the same time, guard hand comes up, striking hand comes up to cross your body, pelvic turn, execute the spear hand block, opposite punch, bring legs together, round house kick, and finishing the technique with a low block. All of this has timing, technique and proper placement of hands and feet all working together to make it come together into a beautiful sequence of movements. I have yet to get there... grin.. but I can see it coming... and that makes me happy.
After practicing this for a few minutes I was starting to get a really weird lightheadedness feeling throughout my whole body.... lactic acid was telling me to rest... so i went to get something to drink... moving across the dojo floor, I was feeling like I was rubber legged, just wanting to drop but my pride was too great to embarass myself, so I kept walking, sat down, and rested... I knew I had enough for today... I grabbed a quick drink... walked back onto the mat, and approached Sensei. Sensei took one look at me, said I looked like hell and told me to call it a day... I worked hard enough... good job... we bowed to each other and since leaving my old dojo up in Canada, said, "Domo Aregato Sensei!"
We started the weapons class with stretches with the bo. We basically place the bo over your head, rest them on the back of the shoulders and hook your arms over. Swinging back and forth to loosen up the body, then twisting the body just to loosen up... then some forward bends with the bo still behind your head... I must say, this feels soooooooooooo very good... I know it may sound nuts, but you can feel your muscle and the membrane stretching ever so slightly making you feel a bit of a stretch but not painful enough to be ... hmmm... whats the word... sadomastic. It just makes you feel alive!! After that we move into our blocking drills, just practicing proper technique, then our punch drill.. refer to last week's weapons blog for more detail. After this was all done, Sensei decided to get me doing tichicho (practice kata and not certain of the spelling on that yet), doing down block kata first, then mid block, then last but not least, the high block version of this kata... this pretty much took all an hour to work and practice it for proper technique... at this point I was pretty much drenched!!! Then we moved to the sai for the rest of the class... we did a short blocking drill, then punch drill... then moved right away into the tichicho practice kata... we did low block kata (which I can honestly say, is not my strong suit... needs much practice and refining on the down block, pull leg back and into crane stance, slice of the sai in the downward arc, flip of the sai and down block... the leg part just screws me all up... anyway... after that, we did mid block version and then high block version... the latter two being very easy to maneuvor because of no crane stance nor downward arc of the sai and set into block.. That was the weapons class... easy enough... nuh uh... that was an hour and a half of grueling mind and body working togetherness... for the new student it was pure confusion. But I take it with a grain of salt and not dwell on it, just learn from it. Repetition is what makes techniques perfect.
Now for the karate class. I told Sensei I wanted to work on timing of techniques, Isshinryu and Shuri Te are much alike but oh so different in timing, maybe because of it being more of a style that has wrist twists after techniques and possibly because of the guard hand being close to your heart (isshinryu techniques always start from the waist - oppposed to the technique starting close to your heart). I practiced the stuff Sensei had already gave me to practice on the previous week's class, I basically practiced the footwork in kihon 1 and kihon 5, then I worried about the technique after... after that I was given kihon 2 (which is a step out into a forty five degree angle away from front stance, at the same time, guard hand comes up, striking hand comes up to cross your body, pelvic turn, execute the spear hand block, opposite punch, bring legs together, round house kick, and finishing the technique with a low block. All of this has timing, technique and proper placement of hands and feet all working together to make it come together into a beautiful sequence of movements. I have yet to get there... grin.. but I can see it coming... and that makes me happy.
After practicing this for a few minutes I was starting to get a really weird lightheadedness feeling throughout my whole body.... lactic acid was telling me to rest... so i went to get something to drink... moving across the dojo floor, I was feeling like I was rubber legged, just wanting to drop but my pride was too great to embarass myself, so I kept walking, sat down, and rested... I knew I had enough for today... I grabbed a quick drink... walked back onto the mat, and approached Sensei. Sensei took one look at me, said I looked like hell and told me to call it a day... I worked hard enough... good job... we bowed to each other and since leaving my old dojo up in Canada, said, "Domo Aregato Sensei!"
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