Rebuild The Base

Class took a slightly strange turn last night.  Instead of test prep, we worked a strange augmented block.  Not that the block was strange, but that it was initiated from a side chamber.  I guess a lot of any art probably looks odd from the outside perspective.  The trick at the end of this was the disclaimer that we (black belts) would need to execute the block at the very last moment.  This causes me to rethink everything I'm doing and thus look and feel very clumsy.  Relearning, retooling whatever the word might be.


This was prep for Pinan Shodan.  Which has tantalizing similarities with my Pinan Sa Dan.  It will be interesting as we learn more of the Kata to see their similarities.


A new old person showed up. Olivia has her Shodan (1st degree black belt), but hasn't been able to attend due to her college schedule.  Hopefully she'll be able to continue to come regularly.  I am finding that our 4pm time is pretty terrible for most folks.  I love it because I get home early in the afternoon.  However, the school will never expand at that time slot. 


After class it was back to the basement dojo at my house.  Seven people packed in and we managed to get me through the entirety of Gekki Sai Dai Ichi.  Now for the refinement process.  Fifty times till I look vaguely smooth and then retool again for correction.  Wee.


After the basement session I noticed that Sensei Reed and Sensei Daniel talking by the car for several hours.  I went out and chatted with them.  Daniel has a degree in business administration and was selling a business plan to Reed.  I applaud this because Reed has no plan.  He knows that we need to grow.  Currently he's got six regular paying students (including me).  However, to get a better time slot at the gym we'll need to make more money and then we'll be able to attract more students.  A sort of chicken before the egg situation.  Of course the idea is to have a self-sufficient free-standing facility in some nebulous future.  They had it once and it worked well for them. 


I feel a type of ownership in the whole deal because they are such nice people.  And who doesn't want more time to get a beating?  Two hours a week and some extra on the side doesn't make for a steep learning curve.