Class was spent on a longer warm up, which I find that I need to get my legs completely ready to go. This included kicking drills for the most part and then we broke up into skill groups and it was back to working on Wando kata. Not that I don't mind working on this frequently, but I do like variety and it can be a bit much to work on in such long repetition. My regular joke is, "only 47 more times to go". Thankfully, that's well received.
One portion of the kata (which is very definitely Goju Ryu based), requires a small sequence of Sanchin footwork combined with a typical Goju block. To me it's like being asked to rub my belly and tap my head with the addition of pretending someone is trying to hit me.
I went over that in nauseating detail and I'm still not sure I'm doing it completely correct. The teacher focuses on a lot of different things and I'm still trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing with one hand. I guess that's the problem with coming in with a black belt from another art. They are going to figure you know something or assign a knowledge level to you; even with obvious deficits here and there.
We finished the evening in my basement and worked for several hours on stances and transitions. Something I thought I did well, but found that I need constant refinement. During that time they introduced me to "European Blocking". Another preset attack and defend demo with two people. It's a set pattern of just a couple of moves. So it can be executed fast and it's designed to be a show off thing in competition, but since the head guy liked it so much, it's become part of testing.
The upside to all that work (3 hours) is that I slept like a rock.
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