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.

Ground and Pound

Usually after an extended break I show up at class and it's immediately into sparring or something equally challenging.  Of course last night was no different.  Because of the change in schedule for the new adult class I was somewhat warmed up by practicing kata with the blackbelts for a bit.  Adult class was all about groundwork last night.

Although Reed Sensei referred to our work as Judo, the telltale throws and associated actions were missing.  We practiced five ground based holds and the transitions from each.  I was paired with Kyle for a bit, but Reed felt like he was too light for me.  I was placed with Kevin, one of the returning adults from way back.  The time off didn't seem to impair his skills though.  He was very fit. 

Reed couldn't remember the Japanese names for the positions so I'll just use informal nomenclature below.

1. Side grab with zig zag legs.  Basically your legs look like the bottom of a swastika and you control the arm while you press up against the Uke's side.

2. Smash that face.  You are in the 69 position, pressing your belly against Uke's face.  Your arms are under his and you grab his belt. 

3. Cradle.  You are perpendicular with one arm under the leg farthest away and one around the head.  Hands preferably locked.

4. Full mount.  The only twist being that you are choking them with their own arm.

5. Triangle side mount.  Keep the choke but you are now on one side with your outer leg perpendicular and rigid.

Kevin proved himself as a worthy opponent and I found myself gassed almost immediately.   I had good recovery, but I could only go for about ten seconds at a time.  He escaped me three out of five and I was only able to escape once fully. 

A fun return, but boy am I tired. 

Old School Melancholy

I just got back from my trip up North and returned to cold weather and snow.  Since the Rose City isn't particularly known for it's snow it's a bit of a surprise.  However the drive in to work was easy and quiet because of it.  The drivers around here take it easy when anything out of the ordinary happens.   

My visit up North was filled with nostalgia.  Seeing friends after a four year void was emotional and exciting, but my highlight was visiting my old school.  Since I've been gone my old teacher has decided to pilot his own style while keeping the basics from Tang Soo Do.  The hyungs/katas are the same as well as the blocks, punches and kicks, but after that there is a divergence. 

He decided that after some analysis he would eschew the wait for the attacker and simply try to execute all moves into the attack or avoid the attack but both need to the defender to have very good timing.  This is thing evolving thing for him and the class, but they all seem to like the practicality of it all.

After several years of traditional Okinawan Karate I must admit my ability to refocus was a bit tough.  I got the feeling that my Teacher kind of wanted to discount anything I learned; to exhort the superiority of what he was going through.  I found myself bouncing back and fourth.  I really wanted to just enjoy being in class again and just enjoying the exchange of knowledge, but in the end I just felt a bit frustrated. 

My take on traditional study is that is that we are following something "traditional".  So you don't always get the most practical approach to self-defense.  The other end of the spectrum would be something like reality based self-defense, but I always felt they lost out because of the lack of beauty, if that can be said about something that's all about hitting and kicking. 

The class went by way too quick, but he let me lead the warm-ups and at the end he had me to do three katas.  I explained the white crane stuff I was studying, but I don't think anyone really cared.  I'm assuming they just thought I was doing some kung fu kind of thing. 

In retrospect I would have liked to anonymously participated in class just to enjoy the nostalgia. 

First Night Of Adult Class!

I shouldn't expect that something like this would be so exciting to me, but last night was our first class of adults only.  After several years of working in and around the children that made up majority of the class I was having a hard time imaging how the class would actually flow. 

It's been over four years since I've been in an adult only class.  At my old school we had grown so much that we had split due to space considerations.  The adult class always remained fairly modest, while the kids class swelled so much that my old teacher had to make two kids classes. 

Here, due to the time we have in the space, expansion isn't going to happen easily.  Our main class ran from 4:15 to 5:15 so bringing in new adults was going to be extraordinarily difficult.  I figured the new adult class we be relegated to a small number of people until some recruitment could happen.  I was fairly surprised when we ended up with twelve people!

Two brand new folks and a host of others from the past now could make an evening class giving us a strong start.  Jason is a big red-bearded man and would probably make a good Viking impersonator, while Tom looks like he's had a hard life.  Tom had some martial arts experience a long time ago, but has long since forgotten all.  Both had the look of people trying to get their feet underneath them, but neither complained about the repetition of moves or the work on basics.

Reed focused on teaching the intro to Pachu.  Since Shudokan doesn't have a style per say, we adopt others.  In this case we are using Ryuryu, an traditional Okinawan style. 

We worked on footwork and then added hands.  A lot of fun and a slightly different method to absorb material.

The Black-belt class which used to be called the after-class consisted of me, Mark and Daniel. After I did some kata work Daniel had us work on something called the three elbow flow.  I guess it has a long complicated name that he didn't catch, but it was one of the exercises taught at a recent seminar.  Another thing I missed in the last month. 

The sequence:

- Uke starts with a right punch.

- We cover our ears (not really, but that's what it looks like), step forward with left.

- Block with right, turn right, push down with left arm, turn with elbow strike to face.

- Left hand goes down and right hand goes to back of head.

- 6/12 o'clock throw, holding arm and kneel on "gun".

A fast, fun technique that I hope to take to the north with me next week. 

A Cup Of Tears

The jokes around the water cooler are often filled with my stories about the previous nights Karate class.  I had always been sensitive about sharing that part of my life, but recently the tears of the young students give me a desire to vent in the coffee room with my friends.

Knowing that the time with the kids is coming to an end due the advent of the adult class I'm now experiencing a moment of sadness because I realize a lot of kids will stay with the class for many years and I won't be there as a constant. As much as they vex me so their constant excitement is something I do enjoy.  It's just that it turns into a lot of screaming really quickly.

When I got to class I thought it was going to be test prep again, but I think Reed sensed it might not be a good idea to grind it in just before the big event.  So he took one piece of the lower belt kata and made a game of it.  This created a lot of enjoyment for the crowd and I thought it was a wonderful way to get a lot of exercise, but one of the boys slowed down and Reed had him takes some deep breaths and step aside for a moment. 

This is one of the rambunctious boys who was really trying to keep himself together, so I'm not sure what set him off.  We ended the class with elbow techniques and it was going pretty well, so he stopped and thought we should go through the jump ropes.  This is basic dexterity which gets more and more complex.  By the end it becomes double-dutch and we have to get through both in one jump. Again, everyone seemed to be doing really well, but the same boy ended up in the corner crying loudly.  I was thinking it was low blood sugar, but apparently he hit his toe.  However, the loud wailing was distracting to the class.  You could see many of the students wanted to help and console, but knew they needed to be focused or they'd get waylaid by the rope.  Eventually he calmed down.

Just before we finished with the double-dutch pass through Reed gave me the chance to give it a go.  I made it through the first time.  So happy.  It requires a trust in your own timing. 

Next week

I'm off on vacation to visit my old home in the far North and visit my old school!  I'm so excited!

I'm also hopefully going to go to the first adult class - depending on packing and travel prep. 

 

Pre Celebration 2018

I'm fighting a cold, but my weight is up pretty high so I felt driven to get to class and get a minimum of exercise.  In retrospect that probably wasn't a great idea.  I hadn't slept well on Sunday night so I was swaying on top of what felt like a slight fever.  As usual I checked my blood pressure before hand and was appalled by 156/92.   The doctor is going to have a field day with me next Monday. 

Celebration prep is in full swing.  So the class schedule was side-lined to make way for a "station" model to run the kids through.  Each of us black-belts had one station.  I was bunkai, Mark was kata, and Kyle was elbow techniques. 

Although we had a rough start the bulk of the time went fairly well.  The oldest of the group at 13 years old looked absolutely polished compared to the 10 year olds or younger.  Even with their exhausting friskiness most of them looked fairly good once they were reminded what they were doing.  And it does make you appreciate the really good ones.

Instead of going to after-class I went home and had some soup and went to bed early.  I don't think this is optimal because I need to practice kata more, but if my morning practice was any indication I was going to be a mess anyway.  Sigh. 

I might end up missing Wednesday's class due to a birthday obligation, but I definitely want to be in good shape for Monday and the big show (celebration).

Whiplash Hustler

Even though we are preparing the under belts for the upcoming celebration/test Reed Sensei is still trying to focus on keeping the class consistent.  So it was self-defense night which means the moves we practiced were going to be in their test anyway.  As usual, I'm deeply impressed with all the things he has to keep track of during a class.  Each grouping of children have to have their specific technique for the test.  Since we had fourteen kids split into about four levels this can be very complicated.

I got to be the Uke and take the hits and falls last night.  These aren't necessarily a big deal in the sense that I just throw a punch and then eat the floor.  If I do the technique correctly I fall well and it looks good, but Reed is a big, strong guy and wants to do the technique correctly so it can get a bit painful at times.  With this in mind I was trying to be conscious of how I fell.  On the first go, I almost took out the front row with my legs because the hardwood was smooth and I went spinning.  After that we were good to go.

Then I rotated through the kids acting as Uke to each of them.  For the students that had a behind the leg trip I was a treat because they get to throw/trip a 200 pound guy.  The only problem is that I have to work hard not to yank them off their feet or fall on them.  I was working so hard at that so I didn't hurt the kids that I didn't take care of myself in the fall.  I fell poorly twice and got a gigantic neck ache from it.  Last night was a miserable sleep because of it.

I didn't get to work on with the new Black-belts on their Oyo.  The oyo is a two man routine that has both people do portion of the kata.  The one for kyoku Roku dan is brutal, complex, and entirely fun.  I haven't done it since the test and have started experiencing some longing to relearn it.  However, my own studies have precluded that. 

After-class was at Sensei's house, which is a bit of hassle because of traffic, but the space is comfortable for four people.  Anymore than that we tend to trip over one another. I went through the katas before he got there and instead of doing detail work he switched out to do the bunkai for the five.  Entertaining to say the least.  They are fairly simple which makes them feel a little underwhelming after all the effort I'm putting into the katas, but also makes me happy because my brain is pretty full at this point. 

So now we wait for the adult class to start up.  Feb 5th is our first night.  I imagine it'll be pretty small until the interested parties start getting themselves into the regular schedule.  Many of the students from the school's past are showing signs of interest as well as new people.  Very exciting!

Birds Of A Feather

I felt a little shaky last night before class.  I wasn't sure if I was coming down with a cold or just experiencing some ill-defined nervousness.  My wife had been fighting a cold for the last week and I'd rather not get it if possible.  So my hypochondria kicked in to review every little pain.  Great.

Mark and I went up to the classroom and found an aerobics class in session.  There had obviously some rescheduling at the health center.  Now Mark and I would have to sit around before they cleared the space. 

While we waiting I used the blood pressure machine they had in the corner.  It's the kind you sit in at the grocery store.  I normally have to sit quietly for a moment and relax before I get my taken.  It was the worst I'd ever seen.  168/90.  Well into hypertension.  I couldn't believe it.  I had Mark sit down and take his BP and his was only moderately high, but still good.  I've got to call the doc today.

After warm-up I was given the new black-belts and given the task to see how far I could get them through their test.  I ran them through 3 katas and then run through the bunkai.  We completed all ten and I was incredibly pleased to remember most if not all of them, but lost some footwork.

After class was a review of the Bird katas and clean up of a few issues. Then Reed said, "lets start Hakutsuru!"   Noted for it's overall length, Hakutsuru is a challenge because it takes a long time to do the whole thing and the moves are set to a 10 second pass for movements.  Oh boy.  At least I've got video of this one from John Sales.  Hopefully that'll help.  In the mean time I'm learning the yoy and it's incredibly complex.  More to learn.

Tears And Progress

It had been a week since I'd been to class and that feels like a hundred years.  I wonder about how the shared training and the stresses it brings can create such a powerful drawl to the group.  I may not like all the people there, I might not like training some days, and I can feel my frustration clearly due to the division of training others and practice myself, but in the end it all pulls me back like a vacuum and when I walk away I feel so much better mentally and physically.

Last night was typical in that Mark and I arrived early to warm up and end up chatting.  He then pointed out that the last couple of classes had been trying in that the new boys were just running around out of control. Neither Mark nor Kyle had been able to keep them in check.  Apparently they were disruptive enough to even warrant Reeds attention.

I groaned thinking this was going to be another lost night with kids who could care less, but mentally pulled up my boots and focused on the task at hand.  After warm up the Mark and I were to split task between the black-belts and the ultra white belts. 

Working with the new black belts can be pleasurable because they are reviewing the work I did last year, but since I don't practice it often I'm often a third wheel.  Trying to remember the content is hard as can be, but reliance on muscle memory is nice.  Regardless, I told Mark to take care of them - I stick with the kids as much as I don't care for it. 

By setting my bar low, I was able to be pleasantly surprised by their work ethic.  We had two boys that may be 8 years old and one 9 or 10 year old girl.  The girl did great and helped me manage the boys.  The were fairly dedicated to the task at hand (doing c steps back and forth), but watching Reed do all the variations creating a lot of confusion  in the boys.  At one point one of them started getting tearful because he honestly couldn't separate all the information.  After I got them to look solely at me we did well, but the confusion of left and right was tough.  I found myself slightly proud of their perseverance. 

At the end of class I told the Mom that if they had a reward for good behavior at the house they should get one.  She ends up telling me that she saw us as a place to cement good behavior in the kids; that's why she pays the big bucks.  I literally started grinding my teeth.  Unbelievable.  When will parents understand that karate is not external method to create behavior in their children.  My favorite part of this is that she's considering taking class with her kids.  I wonder if it'll dawn upon her sometime.  Oh well.

After class was at Reed's house which is way down South and in the hills.  There was only four of us so I was able to focus on the kata and review progress.  Working only with adults feels intoxicating, but I wonder if I'll miss the kids just a little bit.  Only two weeks before the Adult only class starts.  I hope we can pull in more folks!

New Year, Fast Star

I hate showing up late for class because I'm never quite in the correct mind set and never quite warmed up for immediate action. 

I got called by work just as I was leaving the house.  I had to make some calls and send some emails, but I was on the road as quick as I could which had me arrive to class with about a half hour left. 

After I bowed in Reed had me be the kicking demo dummy.  He was demoing the hook kick for the orange belts.  Which meant in my first two minutes I got kicked three times very hard.  Sigh. 

I ended up helping the new black belts with their test preparation and was pleasantly surprised that I was able to help a little bit, but overall couldn't remember the overall moves.  Brain is full. 

After class turned out to be me and Daniel Sensei.  We went through all my Bird katas and refined as much as my brain could handle. 

Here's my current progress on Ka Ku Fa.

Five Birds and a Fat Thumb

The class schedule is a bit spotty due to the holidays, but I assumed everyone would be back at class last night.  It ended up being me as the only adult other than Sensei Reed and six kids.  On top of that it was fight night.

Because so many of the kids are fairly new, sparring and prep for sparring took most of the class.  Jabs leading to a cross was a nightmare.  Reed has endless patience and knows not to get wrapped around trying to fix everything.  That being said, the repetition that he provides is awesome because within a few weeks I've seen the kids pick up all the basics.  Foot work seems to be the biggest challenge.  Telling someone and showing someone doesn't always sync for the kids.  In time they finally pick it up as they realize they have finer control over their limbs.

Eventually we got around to the sparring portion of the evening.  As part of that Reed and I did a demo of bowing and point system.  However, on the first start two of our judges immediately started sparring.  We had to start that all over, by explaining the judging.  So I had Reed punch me and I asked them, "which one get the point?"  They all had a different answer.  Needless to say, I almost beat Reed for once. However he doesn't know how to move to half speed so the kids couldn't tell what was going on.  For my troubles and bad technique I ended up spraining my thumb a bit.  Thankfully, it's on my left hand so I can type, but I'm a bit concerned that the swelling hasn't gone down. 

In the after class I just worked on my bird katas and did some refining.  I hadn't practiced but once or twice since the last class and it showed.  Lots of hiccups, but by the end of the hour I was able to get through Ka Ku Fa fairly well.  This morning I was able to get through Onna pretty good as a result. 

Bruised And Birds

I'm still incredibly sore, so I was experiencing a bit concern about how active we were going to be.  I honestly thought it was going to be fight night again and didn't think I could face any fast movement.  However, I got in late and everyone was holding a Bo (staff) so I was pretty sure sparring was out. 

Sensei felt like it was a good day to start everyone on a basic Bo kata for some reason.  It was kind of fun.  The kata is Ten Ryu no Cone Sho.  I have no idea how to spell that, but the first couple of moves that we learned are pretty neat and have good bunkai.

That was literally the whole class.  I guess because it was so small he felt like that was a fun day.

After class we working on Ka Ku Fa and refining on all the other bird kata.  Lots of notes that I got to work on this morning in my ice cold house.  The heat is having a problem on our brand new furnace.  Yeah.

Rolling With Loose Intestines

Where to start?  In just two hours I feel like I've packed in enough to write a book, but I will spare you my blathering and just focus on the good bits.

Yesterday I was experiencing some severe digestive problems.  So the age old question came up  - do I go to beatings on the off chance I might need to exit in the middle of things?  I decided to go to class because I felt pretty empty which seemed like I would be less likely to have an accident.  

I joked with Mark that if I got punched in the stomach things would probably go badly for me.  Since we aren't usually that impact intensive in class I felt like I would be safe.  What I forgot was that Monday could either be basics or self-defense.  Much to my chagrin it turned out to be self-defense.  

To accelerate my discomfort we started out with jumping jacks.  I've never done such light jumping jacks.  Thankfully we only did fifty.  I was gritting my teeth by the end though.  

The class turned out to be to be super small.  Only four kids and the four blackbelts.  Reed and I ended up working with the kids on how to escape from a bear hug.  I'm not sure if this would ever happen in real life, but if it did these kids will be prepared.  

Our two new students Chase and Sage were totally down with all the work so it was pretty fun.  Only one part of the work was me getting elbowed three times in the gut by Reed.  Thankfully there was no blowout.  Then the next move was to grab my ankle and pull necessitating a two-hand break fall on the hardwood.  As a result I kept checking my inseam in the mirror to make sure I hadn't soiled myself.  Luck was with me.

As usual, I end up getting to Afterclass before everyone else which confuses me because I'm not usually the first person out of class.  But this means I get to work with Daniel Sensei individually.  As a result we completed Ka Ku Fa, but I don't think I retained any of it because Reed came in and said, "okay let's do jujitsu."

Thankfully Mark had warned me that this might be the case, but being forewarned doesn't mean that I was forearmed.  We do this so infrequently that I can only remember one or to things.  

The list from last night:

• Escape from full mount using a bridge and cross arm grab.
• Passing the guard with the "praying hands" - elbows in the inner thighs, force one leg down and move up.
• Stopping the passing of guard by locking down one leg.
• Breaking a one leg stop by pressing weight and using a foot to dig in their lock.
• Doing an arm bar - "Olgo Plata" - foot across throat then fall into arm bar.
• Defeating arm bar with two hand grab and then move to knees to start the process of moving to mount.

After going through these drills we got to "roll".  Oh god the pain.  We were also only using half power, but I still got mangled by Daniel and Reed, but I enjoyed every bit of it.  So fascinating doing the stuff I see on UFC.  I'm so sore today though.  Ouch.

In February we are going to be starting an adult class! Just late at night.  This will be a challenge to sell to the wife.  Urgh. 

Hot Date After Fight Night

It was Wednesday and that means self-defense or Fight Night.  Before class we usually chat while we try to warm up a bit more.  I'm constantly worried about how slow I am off the line when it comes to a leading jab followed by a reverse punch.  For this school that is the bread and butter of point fighting. 

At my old school, we didn't get to go to tournaments because of the location (an island) so our sparring was a mix of reality and test of technique.  Since I've been at my new school I've had to retune and it's been really tough.  Points are awarded in a very rigid fashion.  For instance, a punch has to fully retract and a jab will never get you any points.  Keeping this in mind while someone is punching or kicking at you provides a lot of difficulties. 

We did a very long warm up with plenty of movement drills, which I have come to love because it's not something I think I do well in sparring.  And then it was on, but we really only had about fifteen minutes of actual time to do matches and those were fairly informal. 

I sparred Reed and Mark several times and tried some old and new techniques and generally felt better about the whole thing.  Although I didn't get any points on Reed I've begun to realize, with him, I don't mind about the lockouts because if I'm keeping score in my head of what's happened I know I'm getting something here and there.  That makes me feel better because I know he gets the benefit of the doubt in our judging and he's that good as well.

My final match was with one of our ten year old girls.  She didn't seem motivated, but no one else wanted to have a go, so I let my guard down at one point so she could give me a shot.  I hope I made her day. 

What it's like in class when I fight. I'm the guy on the right (not really)

I wasn't able to go to afterclass because my wife and I had a hot date before she leaves town for the week, but I have noticed in the last two days that my frustrating katas have finally started coming together!  I no longer dread them because of all the stop points.  I have a few, but they are rapidly disappearing.  Which makes the kata go way faster. 

New Stretch For Old Man

Preparations for the Quarterly testing have begun in earnest.  In our school testing is called Celebration for the colored belts.  I believe this is to put a positive spin on something that folks normally stressful and try to get people to see that progression is something to be celebrated.  

As per usual, Mondays mean I'm going to be tired because I didn't get a good night sleep.  However, I've been trying to keep my regular schedule during the weekend as much as possible so I get a good night sleep during the start of the week.  This appeared to be working as well because I was able to go to sleep around 10 pm.  This means I could get up at 5 without any problem.  

Alas, the plans of mice and men often go awry and I was no different.  I was awoken at 4 am by the retching sounds of my cat.  For those of you not familiar with this incredibly upsetting noise, it resembles a broken pump trying get started until the mess gets ejected.  Unfortunately for me I didn't move fast enough and caught some hot fluid and chunks.  Even after cleaning up I was unable to get back to sleep leaving me as a shambling wreck for the rest of the day.

As part of some lost moment during the day I ran across this video.  Quite the revelation as it relates to stretching.

Skip to 5:30 if you don't want all the other tips.

Anyway, I had a pretty good class with the girls.  Another revelation was instead of trying to get them to follow my lead, I simply have them show me what to do and make them go slow.  Due to the katas I'm learning it's hard for me to go back to the basics and remember the moves.  So I have the girls go slow and show me.  Somehow that's making it easier for all of us.  

I tried the stretching after class and found it to be quite nice!  The upward, supported stance didn't do much for me, but the wall one I can feel profoundly.  Yeah!

After class - report: Helped Kyle work on his Kyoku Shodan Oyo.  It was fun to remember all the bits and pieces and be somewhat helpful.  Then I learned a bit more of Ka Ku Fa.  
I hate to curse myself, but all the katas are coming a bit easier!

Ka Ku Fa dose 2

Sensei Reed says that he is an auditory learner and as such tends to teach that way.  I would have said that I'm a visual learner or practical learner.  In the sense that I need to act it out, but in truth I need all of these to learn.

I hear Reed or Daniel in my head when I'm coming up on a move.  They use funny comments so you can remember what the move should be.  I also visualize their move and try to act it out.  And finally I need to do so often that it's muscle memory so I only need to worry about things like depth and intensity.

Why this?  Well, it was back to my fifth kata, Ka Ku Fa.  I'm endlessly worried about keeping all these separate and the first four have given me pause just trying to keep compartmentalized.  However, Reed is okay with giving me more to absorb if he think I can manage.  I'm just never sure I'm ready of course, but he clearly has a sense of things.

So now I'm practicing in the morning and in the afternoon.  Now the stories from MaryAnn Sensei are making sense.  For years she's been practicing at work when everyone leaves for lunch.  I now realize she had to because she had to.

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Class was supposed to be fight night, but due to illness and other holiday reasons, the class was only six color belts and three of us Black Belts.  However, Reed forgot the helmets and pads for the kids so we did self defense instead.  Strangely, helping the kids get things straight is exhausting because it requires so much attention. 

After class was simply working on Ka Ku Fa.  As a result I was able to do it this morning up to the point we left off.  It's different enough that I don't confuse any part of it with the others.  I'm about half way through by my guess.  I'll be practicing all weekend I believe.

Big Bird Five

Talk about the sound of inevitability!  I'm truly struggling to keep the four kata I have in my brain separated and as of last night Sensei Reed has added the fifth.  

The difficulty is that the kata are similar in that they have similar moves and similar structures.  As a result I've been practicing the woman and man kata as much as possible to get them really set, but I keep dropping a piece or two and having to start learning them over again.

I'm trying to figure out a way to identify areas of freezing, but the worst part was that I went back this morning to do the "of woman" kata and couldn't remember anything!  How frustrating!  Hopefully I can recall it tonight when I'm more awake.

So last night, during the second hour, he introduced to the first part of Ka Ku Fa.  Even more challenging.  Sheesh!

---

I've been worried about my health recently, knowing that I have a doctor's annual coming up.  So I've been trying to clean my diet and get back to running regularly.  My body isn't too keen on the running part.  My legs are sore and always seem like I'm overdoing it.  I have to remind myself that I took a long time off and returning to regularity is going to take a bit.  

During the first hour I was supposed to lead basics and decided to work on kicks.  What fun.  I was wheezing right away and by the time we got to side kicks I thought I pulled a thigh muscle.  Wow.  I actually had to stop for sec.  

It turned out to be an ibuprofen evening and bed early.  

Four Birds Amongst The Darkness

Where to start?

In the last two weeks I've had so much going on I haven't been able to post or even think straight. Here's the short list:

• My Mother was evaluated at a Memory care unit.  The stay lasted for a week instead of a few days.
• My friend took his life and my wife found him.
• Mom was released yesterday, which seems like a very bad idea. 
• We (me and my wife) keep being pulled in my late friend's business.
• I cooked two Turkey's for Thanksgiving amidst two grown men fighting like they were children.  Ironically that stress was almost unbearable because all the players were close in proximity. 

That's a lot, I know.  The stress was only magnified by my inability to sleep. 

So yesterday I was moping around after work and my wife pushed me to go to class even though I could barely keep my eyes open.  As usual, class was great and helped me to concentrate on the now.  I ended up working with girls again, but it didn't seem horrible as they were helping me remember Matsu Kaze. 

After class was incredibly helpful because I was able to work on Onna and get some more refinement.  I was also able to complete Otoko, which turned out to be relatively short. 

To help lighten the mood here are my two progress videos:

Hakutsuru No Onna

Hakutsuru No Otoko

We call it the lurch for a good reason.

Sorry to bring down the mood for my few readers. 

Memory Of A Fourth

I've been having the worst problems with my memory in the last year.  Just hanging out with or talking to my Mother who is experiencing a rapid decline due to dementia seems to have killed my ability to remember as well.  I'm attributing it to stress since I've experienced this in the past.  

While I was in grad school I thought I was losing my mind on more that one occasion. I would leave keys in the door and thought I lost them in the subway, I would forget where I parked a car, or what I was working on from time to time.  As a result, or side affect, I would take bone-crushingly deep naps.  I don't take naps as a rule so when it happens I know something is wrong stress wise.

Although I'm not driven to naps yet, learning the fourth kata has become a huge challenge.  As I mentioned in my last post I got home and immediately forgot everything I'd learned.  That's why I was experiencing a heavy conflict on Monday.  We had a guest in from out of town that has been good to us for years so we wanted to return the favor by being available as possible.  This meant missing a class, which is frustrating because I was desperate to relearn Ottoko. 

Thankfully our buddy left relatively early so I was able to make the second hour.  I was able to relearn the first couple of runs again.  At least the previous session wasn't erased, just buried.  This morning I was able to perform it with only a few false starts.  Phew. 

The Fourth Bird

I'm running behind trying to get this details down.  So it's going to be a list of stuff.

- A bunch of folks from our school went to a Kata only tournament last weekend and did very well.  My very own Mark got first place in his division! 

- The sensei's pulled down a lot of metals/awards, so they generally encourage everyone to go to this tourney. 

- I'd been off for a week due to guests and training at work which threw my schedule off.  Nice to be back as it were.

- I was paired with Sarah to help her on black belt prep.  I found out that I couldn't remember transitions.  I was worthless.  How embarrassing.

- In the after class the senseis confirmed that my first three were fine so I could start learning Hakutsuru no Ottoko.  It has a San Shin step that makes me look like I'm a zombie lurching from step to step.  Hilarious.

- I practiced it two hours after I learned the first few pieces and realized that I had lost the whole damn thing because I had concentrated so heavily on the foot work.  Wow!

More Birdy

Wasn't it just the other day that I was crowing about all the new folks?  Well, we've kept Alex and Cirloo, but the two older guys didn't come back.  Was I too enthusiastic?  I'll never know unless they told Reed Sensei that they would have loved to come except the creepy guy in the flattop was too much.  I hope that isn't the case anyway.

Last night was a mix of self-defense and Bunkai from Matsu Kaze.  The took the whole class to get through one series of punch-kick combos, but it went quickly and was quite fun.  In the end we were told about a Kata only tournament next weekend.  Unfortunately, it's when I have another slew of guests coming through, so that's right out.  Sigh.  Something close is hard to miss.

Somehow I managed to cut some part of my big toe, but I didn't realize it until I got to after class.  It didn't really hurt until this morning.  I hate foot accidents because how much it effects everything.  Just walking becomes awkward. 

In after class I finished the third bird kata; Hakusuru No Onna.  This felt like a big accomplishment since this is the third Kata towards my 2nd degree belt.  Although it's not particularly complicated or overly long I have enough trouble now getting through it and looking smooth.  Daniel says that it comes in time, but I need to focus on looking more "birdy".  

Most of the kata I have done has been very "powerful".  The moves are jumping, blocks, kicks, and punches.  Now I'm moving to flowing, smooth actions that have little force.  Rewriting the syllabus as it were.

This morning I was practicing it over and over again with a Band-Aid on my foot in hopes that it becomes smoother.   

Here's the progress so far:

1. Haku Cho
2. Haku Cho Dai
3. Haku Tsuru No Onna
4. Haku Tsuru No Ottoko
5. Kaku Fa
6. Haku Tsuru
7. Rohai Shodan
8. Wando
9. Ni Pai Po
10. Kuryo Ni Pai Po

So I've got four down and six to go.  Thankfully I've got another year and some to get it down.

Veni, Vidi, Amissa

As with ancient conquering generals I took the field of battle, but with fairly low expectations.  I wasn't disappointed. 

It was fight night last night, but before I got into the mindset created by adrenaline and competitiveness I decided to focus on what I needed to happen.  I've been consistently disappointed by the lack of success in sparring while at my new school.  The root cause is that at my old school there were no point systems.  We went at it with vigor and tried to protect ourselves as best we could. 

At my current school sparring is solely focused on point based work.  So practicality is tossed aside for some fairly strict rules.  The torso and head are the only point areas, a leading shot to the body doesn't count, etc.  There are all these rules!

It's been a year and some and I'm getting better at that stuff, but I don't get to participate enough to remember each  time.  However, this time I wasn't going to worry about the final score.  I was going to focus on simple jab and follow-up, but I must say that went out the window pretty quickly.  Even with less advanced students I was so slow that everyone was picking me off with quick shots.  I lost four out of my five matches.  And none of them by sudden death.  Wow, that was depressing. 

However, since it was my birthday, I was feeling good overall and celebrating the fact that I could still get in there and pretend to know what I was doing.  I could see where things were going, but not fast enough to adjust.  Probably better than I'd ever done before though.

After class was just me and Mark.  We are both now working on separate areas which is a bit sad because having someone do the same stuff is really helpful.  However, I was able to refine a bit more of my third bird kata and get a few more moves in before time ran out.

This morning I'm feeling the various bruises from sparring and wonderful soreness that comes with good exercise.  It's good to be alive. 

Three New Students!

I was running around in circles as per Monday afternoon protocol.  This means that I did not get to sleep very well on Sunday night and meant that I was pretty tired by the time I got home.  To remedy this I laid down on the bed for a minute in hopes that I'd suddenly develop the skill to nap and wake up refreshed.

This was not to be the case because the cats followed me and decided that I would be the perfect pillow for an afternoon snooze.  I ended up staring at the ceiling for 20 minutes and got up covered in cat hair and not one bit refreshed at all.

The familial stress has also started taking it's toll.  I feel like my blood pressure is sky rocketing so my face is hot and I have a mild headache much of the time.  To counteract this I need to be running and eating less.  Neither of which appear to be happening. 

So going to class has become a bit of a talisman in that I'm doing things that are heading in the correct direction for a better and healthier me. 

I got to class and the news is that we are getting three new students!  Two adults and one eight year old.  I'm so excited.  The addition of adults is awesome in my mind because it creates some balance in the heavily child-centric class.  Of course that's not going to go away anytime soon, but interacting with adults seems so relieving. 

New guy Dan appears to be in his 50's as well as new guy Tom.  It's hard to tell anyone's age anymore (since tomorrow is my 51st birthday) and I know that I look younger than most folks my age.  Well, until they get close.  There isn't anyway to hid all those wrinkles and hair loss.  New kid Chirloo, is incredibly quiet.  I wasn't sure that he actually understood English, but he managed to get through class as best he could.  Of course I ended working with him for about forty minutes.  How does this happen?  I wanted to hang out with the biker and the serious guy.  Oh well.

Class was all about working on the Matsu Kazi kata and basics.  The folks getting ready for this weekend's tournament broke out and focused on their katas and such.  Mark and I worked with Chirloo as much as we could.  I always feel like we are missing something when we work with kids.  Too much info in one dose. 

I decided not to go to after class due to the concentration on tourney prep and that ended up great because I could go to bed early. Snoooorreeee.

Beaten By Children

I thought we were going to continue with learning the Matsu Kazi kata, but due to the schedule it was self-defense night instead.  As a result we learned the bunkai from the first couple of moves from the kata.  

After a modest warm up that included leg stretches I realized I had stretched in who knows how long.  I felt like I was pulling every muscle.  I clearly need to warm up a bit more seriously before we get going.  And definitely work on stretching.  Ouch.

The mats came out and we assumed two rows facing each other.  One side is the attacker and one side is the defender.  We pulled moves straight out of the kata which I don't know if I'd use in a real fight, but every bit of knowledge is good.  You never know how something can be utilized.  

Reed asked everyone to partner up with some their size and I ended up being the odd man out and partnered with Adrianna.  I think she's around eight years old, but seems good about dealing with someone well over 150 pounds more than she weighs.  I had to do most of the moves on my knees which started fine, but by the end of that part of the class I was groaning inwardly.  

We did x blocks, captures and blows the temple.  This was followed by a very complicated grab that locks the arms in a horrible way that lead to a throw.  As the dummy that stung, but being low to the ground with Adrianna I was really just roll out of the lock as best as I could.  

The game afterwards consisted of grouping by numbers.  Reed would shout a number from three to five.  We would immediately group based on the number.  The first call of five caused considerable confusion as a bunch of kids hugged one another so I hugged them and tried to pry the others away that tried to join with my feet.  We ended up on the floor laughing, but I was disqualified in the first round.  

***

After class consisted of Me, Mark and Reed.  We went over the bunkai on the first of my three katas which were short and simple-ish.  Then we went over the stuff that's required for the purple belt test.  Unfortunately, it's a mish-mash in my brain in the moment.  Too much content at one time.  

Pine Tree Wind

The real name is probably "wind blowing through pine trees", but I don't speak Japanese so translation and transliteration are going to be messy at best when filtered through my soggy brain. 

It's been a while since I've been to class (one month to be precise) and since I'm just tired mentally, I wasn't sure what to expect.  Folks are getting ready for tournament, and the idea to teach everyone a new kata at the same time this quarter started last night.  So my timing was pretty good there.  Unfortunately, the tourney fall on my birthday weekend so that's right out, but I'm finding it difficult to swing those due to the time and money. 

The new kata is called Mata Kazi.  I'm not sure about the spelling, but so far we've only gotten through the first couple of steps.  I tried to remember this morning during my regular practice, but most of it slipped away.  I can recall some more of it while I'm typing, but a bad night sleep roughs everything up. 

We have a new student who I think might be in his 20's so that's a nice addition.  It was Alex's first night. 

The Inner Torment Of Teaching Children

A long boring title?  Check.

Another drawn out rant?  Check.

About an issue that is entirely my own?  Check.

I should just write see other posts and probably leave it at that, but I will add a bit more sauce to the post.

I was actually able to teach a bit longer with the eight year olds that my normal five minutes.  I was actually given permission to give them push ups, but to my surprise neither of them knew how to do a push up!? 

After the teeth grinding effort of trying to get them to do one kata, which they should know in their sleep now, I was given a reprieve for a few minutes before I was handed off to even younger kids.  Swallowing my feeling of depression about working with them I hung my head and drug my feet over to them (not really, just how I felt).  To my surprise the youngest kids were the best!  6 years old and serious!  I had a boy and girl that turned out to have an attention span and didn't mind repeating what they were doing until they had it right.  I was so proud!

That was the whole class essentially.  Before we started, Mark and I were trying to remember the kata for our confirmation to get ready to help our two new blackbelts.  Sarah and Kyle passed on their first attempt during the last weekend so that means the next year they will be doing exactly what Mark and I did during our last year.  My brain is so full from new stuff that trying to remember the kata (Kyoku Roku Dan) wasn't coming easily.  Reed came in and ran us through it to help us out.  I was surprised how easily it flowed after we started. 

After class went well.  I'm working on my third bird kata, Haku Tsu ryu no onna, and needed some help polishing what I've learned so far, but Daniel and Reed had me do the first two, Haku Cho and Haku Cho Dai, and found a lot of little things to work on.  The hour zipped by and I had to head home in the dark and heat.

Pre Test For The Browns

It was an up and down night.  

In the beginning of class Sensei handed me my new custom Blackbelt.  wider and stiffer than old beater and now filled with groovy Kanji.  One side has my name and one side has the school name.  I told my wife later that one side said taco bell and the other said sandwich monster.  

Our two Browns are slated to take their testing for their Blacks tomorrow in the afternoon.  All the BBs are invited to go along, but it means that I have to take a vacation day, get a hotel room, and drive quick a bit.  I really want to be there for these guys, but my wife left on vacation and I need to prep to meet her.  It doesn't leave a lot of time to get things done.

An additional factor messing up the drive North is the PNW fires that are still out of control.  Driving to Yakima is going to be horrible.  I wish the best luck.

Class consisted of me working with the two youngest girls on basic blocks and kicks based on a deconstructed kata.  That was the longest 45 minutes of my life.  I don't see it getting better anytime soon.  Keeping my patience together is now the hardest thing for me.  Both of the girls feed off of each other and the giggles make me turn into a grumpy parent for sure.  The other kids rapidly lose patience and look bored and sullen as I try to get the kids to pay attention.

Barring their constant inability to keep to task they actually do fairly well under the gun. Their childish boredom and frustration with rote work gets nicely channeled into violence against me when we get to do pad work.  They are so small that I have to squat in a deep fudodachi for some time.  Man are my legs sore.

More Big Bird

As the Brown belts get closer to their test (on 9-8) I couldn't help be impressed with their knowledge and skill and feel a bit chagrined about my relatively modest learning curve.  I don't have to remember as much as they do, but after working on my new kata and adding a few more steps I realized this is going a very difficult couple of years.  I need to learn 7 more kata and still have to learn all the bunkai that goes with it.

The third bird is called Haku tzu ru no onna.  I'm probably not spelling that very well, but it's a lot of low cat stances and odd bird strikes.  I'm only half way and ran into some transition issues right away which is entirely normal for me.  I kept up, but realized that my learning felt slow and had to stop at one point because I couldn't absorb the info fast enough. 

Part of the issue with learning from some of the other high ranking black belts is that they have a tendency to talk about the esoterica.  So, whereas I need to practice over and over again, they will start talking about some small aspect that needles the crap over some small function.  I don't want to be rude, and it's interesting, but not right at the moment.  Thankfully Reed doesn't do that at all and he can match my learning speed pretty well.  During the after class a new guy showed up to work out with us.  He's working on his fourth degree, but like many in the martial arts life, he has an odd interaction style.  I used to think it was because so many folks that stick with karate have home school backgrounds and consequently don't have great social skills, but I'm starting to think it's a personality quirk. 

For instance there is a tendency to forget social niceties.  Like, I don't recognize you, so maybe we should introduce each other and give each other a frame of reference.  In last night's case I was pulling teeth to get the info from new guy.  And he ends up working with me on my kata for about a half hour.  A lot of this time seemed like it was filled with thinly veiled humble bragging, but he moved beautifully and tried to help me as much as he could.  I'm not know sure why his behavior rubbed me wrong, probably the heat.

Regular class was basic and had some celebration prep.  This usually means I'm getting punched and kicked by the kids.  Reed had me assist and correct as much as I could. It's a recipe for confusion since the kids are watching him and I throw off the sequence to get them do the move correctly. 

Hopefully my embroidered belt will be here on Wednesday or next week!  I'll take a pic and show it off here.

I'm A Big Bird Three

Last night was an alternating Wednesday so we were going to be working on sparring.  With the additional material from Sensei's weekend seminar the content of class has become very interesting.

The class is broken into different groups after warmups to address the various levels of skill.  Last night the two brown belts were pulled to work on their test preparation.  They have a month or so before they go and they look pretty good to me.  I'm not sure how they'll do in the test, but they appear really confident and skilled.

While Mark worked with them I helped Reed with the kids on sparring drills.  The kids never seem to get to sparring because they are working on the new drills.  I'm fine with this because the drills are so awesome that I enjoy learning them with the kids.  Each one builds on the previous and before you know it we are working on a sophisticated drill that cuts through the basics of point based fighting. 

This is of great interest to me.  We never broke up sparring between point based and reality based activity.  I always wondered why I had such a rough time at the tournaments.  Each time I learn something new I just sit there in amazement about how much I missed. 

My favorites are:

• a punch must be followed by a retraction
• a leading jab will almost never be rewarded with a point no matter how awesome

Those would have been nice to have known. 

My "help" consisted of me being the Uke so the kids could see what they were supposed to do.  I got a lot of taps on the jaw and thumps in the belly which always makes them pay attention. 

After than I went over to help the Browns. They were supposed to try to complete a test in forty-five minutes.  Good luck with that one.  Basically, they have to do everything once and fast with no waiting between each component.  It doesn't leave a lot of time to breath or catch your breath.  They seemed pretty good about the whole thing though.

After class was held at Reed's house again.  This means sitting in traffic for twenty minutes and enduring a feeling of endless detours, but the worst party is getting home to my wife who gets grumpier than me if she doesn't eat something by that late.  I'll be happy when they move the after class back to my neck of the woods.

I was practicing my two bird katas so Daniel Sensei was given the task to start me on number three, Haku ichi Ryu no onna.  I'm not sure I'm anywhere near the spelling on that one, but it's much like the others.  The big issue for me is going to be able to keep them separate.  This kata removes all the time breathing and changes the strikes once again.  Instead of eye pokes or punches I'm now doing palms to the heart.  You'd think they could have mixed these together. 

At least when I'm doing them I feel a long lineage of people doing these things since the first days when some guy practicing the kung fu version taught it to the first Okinawan guy.  The kata feels so unlike a Japanese thing and so much like a Chinese thing that I still get a chuckle from time to time.

The Family We Adopt

Earlier in the day I received a text from Reed saying that Morris Sensei had passed away without further detail.  He'd been afflicted with Parkinson's for some time so it appeared the accumulative issues that go with it were finally too much for his system.  Morris Sensei was Reed's principle teacher.  They had met around thirty years ago.

I'd been under the impression that he and Reed were fairly close so I wasn't sure what the impact to the normal flow of things was going to be. At the end of class Reed told a Zen story that was a favorite of Morris.  While he was doing this he became choked up. He was not ashamed of being emotional, which I thought was pretty great.  He was showing the kids that it was okay to be open about it. 

Class warmup was more of the new sparring exercises which focus heavily on movement.  It's a lot of fun to move around in odd shapes and patterns, but it'll take awhile before any of that becomes second nature. 

While the rest of the class focused on sparring and drills I worked with Sarah on her Black Belt test.  I'm usually a bit dubious about providing oversight, but she looked great and all the questions I had turned out to be moot when we reviewed my questions with Reed. 

From what I understand from Reed, folks rarely pass their first test, but from what I saw her doing she seems leaps and bounds better than other folks I witnessed.  Of course everyone is different at their test, so that remains to be seen.

After class was held at Reed's house which turned out be to be a twenty minute drive in traffic.  Thankfully my car had air conditioning.  I worked on my two bird katas with Daniel for about a half hour before my time ran out.

We were able to process a bit more about Morris' passing.  Fifty years of teaching and touching possibly fifty thousand lives.  I kept wondering about his wife of 30 years.  Being left alone at that point in your life seemed horrible to me.  I don't know anything about them, but I hope they had good friends and family.  I don't believe they had children so I hope there are some extended family to help.

Post Seminar Fun Time

I think I might have mentioned before that Sensei has tried to make a consistent schedule which requires each Wednesday to be either self-defense or sparring.  The challenge being that the kids are literally being brought up from the beginning so putting them into the ring is taking awhile.

Last night we took a pleasant left turn.  Reed was able to get into a very elite training with Elisa Au Fonseca this last weekend.  She's the third top sparring champ in the world if I understand correctly and is definitely shooting for the Olympics in a couple of years when they do the demo for Karate.

Reed was able to get an invite and picked up seven pages of sparring exercises.  His normal follow up from that kind of thing is to immediately make everyone practice it so he can remember, but he locked himself down and followed the syllabus.  He did use new warm-ups from the training which was a nice change. 

As per usual, I got the four girls and had to work on Pinan Godan.  I feel like I might have done something bad in a previous life and it's coming back to haunt me.  The first few run-throughs went well, but then it descended into madness.  Once the girls start giggling there is no coming back.  They basically block me out and just do whatever.  I have to keep trying to get them to focus, but I'm apparently easy to ignore, sigh.  I constantly feel the trap.  We are trying to get them to participate in a focused endeavor, but most of them clearly can't concentrate on the work for more than a few minutes. 

Let's just put it this way.  I can celebrate when we finish that section of the class and move on to sparring work.  Unfortunately, we went to a new exercise which wasn't bad, but I would have liked something a bit more hard. 

The exercise

Someone stands behind you and taps various limbs.  You are basically a marionette and every limb that's touch strikes out.  After we mess with that for a few minutes we place an opponent in front of us and try to fight remotely.  It was interesting limiting and frustrating.  Hopefully, we'll working on that a bit more in the future.

Super Death Killer Extreme

I ran down the hall to my wife with a big smile of childish glee, clutching my prize in my hand.  My wife was processing tomatoes for canning and had her hands full literally and figuratively so her response to my glee was a bit subdued.

"Honey!  Guess what I did?!"

"Hmm,  what?" she replied distractedly.

"I kicked a green fly out of the air and killed it!"

I held out my hand to show her my prize.  The fly was slightly pulped and had one broken wing. 

"Uhuh, that's nice," she replied laconically.

"I know right!?" completely ignoring her lack of interest. 

Due to the amount of fresh vegetables in the house we're bound to get some bugs, but the unexpected birth of so many green flies was new to both of us.  As a consequence I ran around with a fly swatter killing as many as I could, but one errant fellow got out ahead of me so I lashed out with a beautifully timed front kick.  The top of my foot stunned the poor fellow and flung him into the air where I followed up with a messy side kick and sent him to the nether world. 

---

Class last night had the full spectrum of students.  And by that I mean it was mostly children.  Because there is twelve children, any hope of getting direct education is out the question.  And, as suspected, Mark and I were pressed into service to work on test prep.  I led the warmups while Sarah and Mark got a quick lesson on what they were going to teach.  Sarah is Reeds' wife, and while she is a green belt she is the most organized person I have ever met and can run circles around Mark and me when it comes to dealing with kids. 

After a couple of exercises that went very well, we were given students to work with.  I got Grace and we had to work on her self-defense techniques.  She is a yellow belt and the two techniques are based around escaping from a full nelson.  My gut feeling is that she will never had to experience this in her life because who in the hell would use this? But if they do I hate to think of the pain they'll experience. 

I weigh about 100 more pounds than her, and didn't think much of the escape to be honest.  Grace placed both her hands on her forehead, stuck her butt out, circled her hands downward and then looked up.  My mistake here was to intertwine my fingers tightly.  Both Grace and I heard all my fingers popping and cracking since they couldn't go anywhere and were now being pulling apart by a small amount of leverage.  God! the pain!

After we practiced that enough that I could no longer pick up anything heavier than a feather we moved on to the throw.  This turned out perfect for having someone heavier and taller doing the grabbing.  Instead of breaking my fingers, Grace reached back and grabbed my head,  she then dropped to her knee while pulling my head further.  And I went flying.  After three times I grabbed a few stretching mats to ease my way on the landing. 

I was walking stiffly last night and it'll be worse today as the day goes on.  Just a reminder out there - take your throws often so it's not such a surprise to the system.

Keeping it 100

I could feel my teeth grinding at one point. 

When Sensei's eight year old daughter is "done" with class she only gives the very least in effort.  I can't imagine what she's like at home, but I imagine they feel more free to address her behavior.  Unfortunately, when I have to teach the young folks she is often an issue because I have to devote so much attention to her.  That means the group suffers.  I imagine I should just ignore her, but when she is partnered with another person they both get less done. 

Last night I had four girls of varying ages and experience trying to get through two exercises.   Each having less and less interest in the work as time went on.  On a good night everyone is pretty much on the same page, but as the time stretched on I seemed plagued by several issues.  The daughter and her partner started giggling which is a sure sign things are going down hill.  Then they started shoving each other.  In the other pair, one girl asked a question about every move; plainly thinking none of it made sense. 

We are told to take questions about martial arts seriously and she waits until we are done the move, but at one point I was thinking, "just shut it and do the move."  Years of training helped me keep my internal dialog inside, but I was tired from juggling both teams.

After I got home I realized that day of dealing with personal issues was pushing into class time.  Normally, I seek refuge in the process, but my fuse was short last night. 

That morning my Mom informed me that my Father had cancelled some care that took me a lot of effort to set up.  I didn't think about it in the morning, but I sat down and processed a bit with my wife before I left for class and that was my error.  I was a bit angry with no outlet.  Kata practice was fine, because I didn't have to interact with anyone, but then their seems to be a murphy's rule for this kind of thing. 

"An area of failure will be exploited at the exact time where the impact will be greatest."

Although in my case nothing happened, but my internal exasperation was at a 100. 

A nice side event was that I finally got my order for my embroidered belt started with Sensei.  Trying to find a good translation for my name was a challenge, but he stepped in and saved me the headache.  I'll try to remember to take a picture when I get it.