Two Big Birds

I've been studying Haku Cho for about three weeks now.  Although it's not overly complicated there are fine tuning items to get squared away.  For me it's been the hands and keeping my fingers together.  Last night I got started on the second of these "bird" katas.  This is Haku Cho Dai. 

The somewhat humorous story Reed tells me is that the first kata looks as though the learner went to class and only learned the first part.  The second resembles the first, but it turns around and returns to the staring point like every other kata. 

It's not actually true because the katas are different enough that there would be no mistaking either, but the pattern is definitely the same.  I think that can be said about most katas though.  Anyway, this one is long in physical space.  I'm lucky enough to have a long living room and my wife begrudgingly allows me a chunk of it for kata, but the Dai takes up all the space available. 

We didn't have too many adults in class on Monday night, but instead of working with the kids I was put in the corner to work on Haku Cho.  I was then introduced to Dai and fumbled through the first half.  After I started getting some comfort I got a few of the girls to work on Pinan Godan.  For the most part it went well, but in time the complaint of "my legs hurt" and other classics started.  Mind you this was after a speech from Reed talking about exactly this kind of thing.  Sigh.  I guess it's a constant battle. 

After class was just me and the Sensei's Reed and Daniel.  The heat was pretty intense, but we opened the garage door for the small amount of breeze.  We completed the whole kata and went over the details as much as possible in the time I had. 

I let them know how much I appreciated their time, but they just shrugged it off.  I can only assume that teaching gives them a lot of pleasure, but after I left they went about working on their own things.  How many hours must they put into this?