High Anxiety

I was feeling a lot of tension last night. After the last session and having teacher sit down with me for my "verbal" exam I'm a bit on pins and needles about my upcoming test. The class went well as can be expected, but when a belt test occurs he usually stops class at about 15 minutes before completion and then has everyone sit down leaving the person in question standing the in the middle of the room.

The standard test consists of a demonstration of all blocks, strikes and kicks usually done in repetition. Then a Kata or two. Previous to the test during the class there is usually sparring for a very long time (for me 15 minutes leaves me shaking with exhaustion - probably holding my breath). So after all these years I still can't tell when a test is coming other than the fact that teacher told me to expect it before the end of September.

During the first part of the hour we worked on stances combined with strikes after movement. I'm not sure if this happens to others, but have you noticed when you practice a move on one side that it becomes comical when you try it on the other for the first five times. After all these years it's becoming easier to transfer those skills over, but not much.

We were having one-two punch, block, punch drills and I got partnered with Nutbag again. In our school we praise variety in attack and this is something I'm not great at. I have a tendency to use my elbows because of arm length and distance. So I get a little boring to myself. My antithesis is Nutbad who never does anything the same and never seems to remember the exercise we are supposed to be working on. Pure enthusiasm that guy. After taking numerous hits from him during the exercise many which bordered on loss of control painful and I ended up doing a roundhouse at his head followed by a spinning back kick to the stomach. I swear I only tapped him, but Teacher was looking and Nutbag goes dramatic at that point. Bad timing.

So at the end of class we ended up sitting in seiza for 10 minutes (oh my knees), blood pouring out of a toe, having to listen to the "why we don't go hog wild with karate" speech. I'm still not sure if this was for Nutbag or me, but it certainly could be applied to me. I'm frequently distant from my emotions in class so I don't know if I'm pissed or what - that and the kick may have been poorly applied.