My Sensei.... MINE!!!

Well got to class and realized at 5:45 that I was going to have Sensei all to myself again. I love when I'm the only student in class because he does more advanced stuff with me and also lets me dictate what I want to learn that day.

I wanted to be more fluent in the attacker's portion of Wunsu Bunkai. We worked on this for a good portion of the class. First we performed Wunsu Kata together 2 times, Sensei making sure I wasn't have difficulty with the new nuances he taught me on Tuesday. Then I was the defender for 3 rounds of the kata. Sensei correcting stances, explaining techniques and making sure I understood it. Then it was my turn to finally do the whole attacker's series on Sensei. We did this several times, stopping and talking about the technique, how it felt as we moved in our choreographed fight/dance. As Sensei defended, having 15 years + experience in this particular style, I was amazed at how fluid he was. Just by watching him perform, I anticipated what my role was. It was finally clicking. I understood and gained much more knowledge. Sensei completed the kata and asked me if I had observed anything during the wunsu bunkai, I told him that I was always off his center line, always made to move to get back in line. With that answer I received a huge smile as my reward. As we performed again, more and more questions started to emerge and the more questions I asked, the more answers I received. I was transforming into a sponge and I was loving it!!

We discussed the augmented block/knife hand guards at the end. Sensei corrected the position of my back hand to make it reverse parallel with my lead hand. As he did this, I asked him once again, why? Then he said later on there will be applications to the augmented block... and also gave me insight saying, "anytime there is an augmented block, strike, etc.. we know that something else is happening behind the scenes, you will find out later as you advance so keep that in mind."

I love having Sensei all to myself, yes I am still a white belt, preparing for my yellow belt in the next few weeks, but when we have our one on one class times together, he makes me feel like an equal.