Two Stubbed Toes

In preparation for tournament Reed has declared, as he put it "selfishly" that we are going to work on sparring drills for the evening so he can get squared away for this weekend.  After work on drills for the last month I kind of felt motivated about getting back in the ring, as it were.

The blackbelt meet up, where we normally work on our specific rank items, in my case katas, got dumped for a night of test kitchen.  By this I mean we did all sorts of tests to see how we can punch faster.  We are all sorts of fighters and by this I mean we have people springing on their feet to people, like me, who stand aloof until it's time to go.

The thought was that bouncers have a faster launch so we timed and compared as much as possible and we couldn't get a conclusive measure.  People who do this more often than others work their bodies as much as possible to get an advantage.  However, I was able to close the gap when we had and experienced person go flat footed and have me bounce.

I should note that bouncing in this case is not going up on toes, but dropping a bit.  You still get the mechanical advantage of movement to movement, but not burning calves.  This worked out great for me because I'm a sloth fighter. 

During regular class we did drills to warm up and then we did a gauntlet style round robin on Reed and Daniel.  They never left the rings and the rest of cycled through fighting them continuously. 

The new rules for this tourney are based on half-points and full points.  This was an adjustment while I was judging, but by in large it makes for a longer more interesting match.  Full points are awarded only for a kick in the head, knocking an appointment off balance or knocking your opponent down and following with a punch.  While we didn't have any clean attempts I went for a lot of head kicks that got spoiled because I was too slow. 

Then the inevitable occurred while sparring Daniel Sensei.  I jammed my left big toe on his shin.  It didn't bother too much, but last night the ache set in and walking around on my heels this morning because neither of my big toes is working.  Cripes, what a predicament.

You get a sense of how I'm walking at 1:20ish.  But you'll want to watch the whole thing to see how that guy got that walk.

Two Straight Hours

We had a slow start yesterday.  Everybody wanted to chat for a bit so we ended up yapping until Reed showed up.  I spent the whole time with Daniel Sensei working on adding to Koryu Ni Pai Po.  For whatever reason this kata is coming along nicely.  It's one of the two very long ones I have to learn for my belt test, but strangely its coming along faster than I than the first four.  Is it his pacing?  Is it the kata?  Hard to say, but I'm happy that we've got the first third of the kata done.  Maybe not expert or finished, but remembered.

The only problem was that my left knee started acting up due to the move that has me go to my knee and immediately spring up.  My bum toe doesn't allow me to flatten my foot all the way down, so springing up puts a lot of weight on my left knee.  Owwww.

In the adult class we did our bow in and Reed Sensei immediately pulled me to the side to show him all the kata.  For whatever reason I was unable to do two of the kata clean.  Tired?  Too focused on the new ones?  I wasn't sure, but we went through them and worked on some spots and then it was back to koryu.  Since it was going smoothly enough we added even more steps. 

Further along on section 1

I ended up doing what you see in the video about twenty times.  It's now way more refined with a lot less stops.  Not a very flattering snapshot of me though, hah!

My Right Foot

I might have mentioned in the past that I've stubbed or jammed my toe in class, but I really can't remember specific incidents; just that's in occurred.  Since I was going to my doctor to do my annual check I thought I'd ask her about it.  I noticed in the last year that the joint won't actually bend back.  And when forced by a body weight move it's very painful. 

Here's the result:

Significant degenerative changes in the first metatarsophalangeal
joint with joint remodeling. Moderate degenerative changes in the great toe
interphalangeal joint. Enthesopathic changes at the insertion of Achilles
tendon. Mild overgrowth likely representing degenerative changes at the dorsal
portion of the navicular bone. Partially fused accessory ossicle os naviculare.

I'm not sure what that says, but my doctor says some bones have fused and I appear to have an extra bone in their as well.  With that information I found myself a bit depressed because it means a lot of what I do in Karate is a bit compromised.  Time to find some workarounds!  I wonder how running is going to be in the Spring?

Last night I was told to hold off on Hakutsuru.  Since Daniel Sensei needs to work on Koryu Ni Pai Po and I need to learn it, he put us together.  We were able to finish one section before we ran out of time.  One section is a loosely based how he breaks the kata apart.  It's fun an interesting. 

Here's the first portion:

Our shared space is bumping between classes.

Regular class was all about prepping folks for tournament.  Striking and movement drills left sucking wind.  I had to admit I was liking all the effort he was making us go through.  I am very exercised! 

Reed and Daniel will be heading off next weekend to tournament so we get to get the prep work and exercise.  I'd dearly like to get to one of these, but time and money always seem to get in the way.