Missed Opportunity

I ended up missing Monday's class since I had to go back to the East Coast and do some family business for a long weekend.  The frustrating thing is that once I'm going regularly to class, breaking the pattern by just one class seems to throw me out of kilter. 

For instance on Monday I missed an introduction to European blocking.  This is a two person exercise in which there is a sequence of five moves ended with a throw.  Since I missed Monday I had to start out pretty slow and never made it past the forth exchange.  My partner, Sarah, was a pistol and loves to move fast and hard.  I find her precision and strength a welcome respite from the less aggressive/assertive folks in the class.  I can't wait for her to move up the chain in testing to where she obviously belongs. 

Sequences:

• left jab, right reverse punch, right front kick
• right back fist, left punch, left round house kick
• left jab, right reverse punch
• right coquette block low, punch, side kick (can't quite remember this one)

This was the last class before the big trip to the test in Yakima.  I gather this gather this occurs three times a year and folks travel in from all over the country.  It's a big deal because the amount of time before you are even eligible is measured in years.  So the best bet is to start young!  Ha!

I gather there is also protocol issues.  If your direct teacher is, say, a forth degree and you are eligible to test at the same level some folks will not test because they don't want to insult their teacher.  My best guess is that most of the teachers could care less, but what are going to do?  It ends up forcing the teacher to take their next level exam.  Yuck.  I guess the wife of the head guy has been stuck doing this off and on over the years.  I think she might be in her 50s and has a 6th degree.  Grueling at any age. 

I've got too much going on to go to the test.  This breaks my heart a bit, but we have guests coming in and I'm way behind on work at the house.  There is going to be a lot of hustle with little rest so I'm out of luck.  Maybe in years to come I can either go and watch or actually test in my adopted style.  Sensei hasn't mentioned it, but I don't think he talks about it much and I am, after all, the odd man out.

While I was out on family visit I had to go off the diet a bit, but I was relieved to be still at 195 this morning!  I feel wispy and thin, but my pants fit great.  Alternatively, I'm having nightly cramps in my calves.  Nothing severe, but just enough to wake me up and make move my feet in a way to relieve the pain and then fall back asleep.  The regularity makes me feel like I'm missing something in my diet or something.

Prep Mayhem

Sensei called me in while I was on the way to class and asked me to get everyone bowed in and warmed since he was stuck in traffic.  I had to ask him the word he used before we reply "Oni gashemas" (sorry can't spell it).  He told me it was "Hajime mas"; or "begin we will".  I felt so bi-lingual. 

I started the class with bow-in and exercises and the, boom, we were on it.  I guess Sensei is starting to feel the pressure of getting everyone up to snuf for the testing.  Mark seems way better, but there is going to be some stuttering in some of the things he needs to do.  He'll do better with a better partner though. With me he can practice, but he doesn't look good because I pause too much and it ruins the flow of the routines. The ladies shouldn't have a problem, but I really don't  know how to judge their work.  To me they appear soft, but that might be what is desired for their level of work. 

We ended up bouncing from one thing to another.  For a chunk of class three of us worked on the Rohai, but then before we could finish the kata, we started working on the Bunkai.  Which, thankfully, was pretty easy.  There are two pieces and one is just a block and trip.  I was partnered with Ed and our height differences made things a bit comical.  However, since he's new to our school I love something he does after the action - he actually gives me a hand up!  I'm pretty sure that was verboten, but what a lifesaver.  I felt since he was doing it for me, that I could reciprocate.  Ed is a bit thick in the middle and getting up is a bit of challenge so giving him a hand was "easing his way" while he gets used to our type of methods.  I can only get away with this so much, because I'm supposed to get up with one of the three methods as a matter of course (because of the black belt).   

I'm off to the East Coast for the weekend to spend some time with my family so I'll only get one class in next week.  Then all the eligible folks head off to Yakima for the big do.  One day I'll get to go!

Diet note - down to 195.4!  I definitely don't remember this weight.  I'm not sure how well I'll be able to hold on to the diet this weekend, but my pants fit great right now.  I think I've lost 10 pounds in 9 days?  How much extra was I carrying anyway?

Rohai Razzle Dazzle

Tonight was another class where we carried on the theme of Celebration Preparation.  I'd only had enough time to practice the Pinan Sandan a few times and had already lost a few of the steps.  On top of this the diet (now on day 6), with it's lack of carbs has left me light-headed.  Great combo.

However, providence interceded and instead of working on Sandan we started yet another Kata.  This was for the Green Belts, but since I didn't know it they threw it at me to learn.  This Kata is Rohai Shodan.  The setup and stances are new -  I guess like a bird or something.  It has the feeling of white crane or something along that line.  I have to admit I'm happy that I can pick this stuff up fairly quick since Sensei likes to put me in front of the class to lead the kata through where we had just learned.  I'm very honored that he does this, but god knows how many boo-boos I'm perpetuating with the others.

At one point he broke down the dymanics of a punch to make sure how we activated our chest and back muscles.  It's certainly more thorough then I've ever heard before.  I'm envious how he juggle all the different balls in class and still have times for lessons like that. 

We ended the class with a game of jumprope.  Brutal because if you mess up you have to do pushups!  Everyone got through okay - this time!

Diet note - 197.8 this morning!  I'm not sure when I've seen that before.  3 years?

Story Time - The Knife And The Hammer

The Knife And The Hammer

A story by Tater

A young student approached the Master with his observation about how he was very accurate with one hand, but not strong whereas his other hand was strong, not accurate.

"You see," said the Master, "we are usually dominant with one hand or the other and some people are slightly split with their talents like yourself.  As we learn our arts we try to even out our skills so that we have a little of the knife in both hands and a little of the hammer in both hands.  At some point in your future, after you've practiced enough, you'll be as good with both hands as you are one side now."

The student thought about this as he picked his nose industriously. 

"Or maybe not in your case," said the Master.

"Hunh?" said the student.

Sigh he sighed.  "I rest my case."

Celebration Preperation

I like getting to class early and that usually gives me some time to do a bit of early warmup to loosen up.  I sit most of the day and jumping into class can be a bit stressful on my tight tendons and muscles.  This also means that I occasionally get to lead the warmup which I enjoy, but I can't always remember the sequence of exercises.  With the introduction of the hancho(?) exercises, I put those into practice when ever I get the chance.  And everyone seems to enjoy them.

On this particular occasion Sensei had to get some Gi pants for our new guy Ed.  Ed is on the shorter side, but built like a anthropomorphized beer-keg.  So finding clothes to fit him has been entertaining to watch.  His pants are way too long and are now rolled up to his knees. But, at least, he can kick now.

The term testing is really only used with Black belt level exams.  Sub Black belt testing is called Celebration - A demonstration of techniques, kata and application.  I'm unused to this format, so I'm often looking over my shoulder to figure out what's going on.  It's seems basic, but since I don't know what's next or what I'm doing it's a bit of a challenge. 

It starts off with basic technique, but everyone does it at the same time. The only difference being that as your level of experience moves up, your technical skill needs to be shown at the same level.   So we do kicks and punches and then three kata.  After that we did an application of the Pinan Sandan kata, but I'm not sure that'll be in the Celebration, but was fun to get all the creaking old folks to move around a bit.

On the diet front - I weighed in at 199 this morning.  This is about as low as I can get with my regular diet, but that always allowed way more crappy food.  Now that I've joined my wife on the anti-inflammation diet I'm really hopeful to see that number drop down to 195 (which I haven't seen in many years).  The biggest part of this being the lack of dairy, most carbs and sadly beer.  We'll see how low I can go by next Wednesday.

Shūdokan 70

Thank god it's my 70th class because I couldn't think of a snazzy title for this post. 

Due to the sudden heat wave in the Rose city I was more than happy to go to beatings since the place we use has air-conditioning.  Strangely enough the heat is dry and drying.  You can almost feel the moisture leaving your skin.  Even with the air on I was damping my gi just during our warmup.  I guess it could have been enthusiasm. 

My wife has been experiencing sinus problems for a couple of years now and hasn't been able to completely get rid of it, so she became excited when she heard a friend finally get rid of her problem by going on an anti-inflammatory diet for a month.  So my wife did a bunch of research, and as the supportive husband, I'm going along with the process.  At the very least I'm hoping to lose some weight, but by and large, I didn't feel bad before, so who knows how this will make me feel.  Today is my first day and the change is breakfast is weird.  No grains or dairy.  How I miss thee. My start of diet weight is 204lbs.

After warm-ups we were split into groups and I was placed with a group that was working on a kata.  After we got started, Reed asked if I knew this one or had been working on it.  I hadn't, but once we got about half way I realized that it was close to one of mine from Tang Soo Do!  Pinan Sandan.  That makes learning go fast!  The refinements that are part of the Shūdokan school are great.  I don't recall my last teacher having the knowledge that's being pressed here about foot placement and movement down to such a fine detail.

Right after we more or less mastered the refinements, Sensei had us pair up and use the moves in a bunkai sort of thing.  An inside crescent kick, an elbow block to arm grab -> into arm bar then a big rotation into a laying arm-bar.  I was paired with Sarah who has a brown from another school and has opted to go white and work her way back up.   

I finished the evening working with Mark on his application.  We now can do both sides, but after a couple of days off we are not smooth and have to remind each other of the actions we need to take.  Lots of stuttering. 

The question of the day was how do we contend with a dog attack.  Our new guy, Ed, had been horribly mauled by a dog so we went with all sorts of ideas.  I'm not sure what's the best approach is as I always thought getting the dog on it's back to stop mobility would be best while other were all about poking the eyes (which I think is a hard target at the best of times, let alone when chopper has  your arm in it's mouth).  Ed showed us the scars and all I could guess was that it was a big dog because the scars are profound and all over him.  Yuck.

Drop And Roll

I probably read into things, but I swear sometimes the first few minutes of socializing before class is a prophetic indication of what's to come in class.  We were chatting about breakfalls and sure enough in class, for the most part, was all about being thrown and getting up.

I was incredibly sore from Monday and I only took about 10 falls altogether, but I presume it was the rolling and getting up that was really tough on me.  The kata application (dance!) I was working on with Mark is called Kyoku Nidan (I finally got the name down) requires a break fall and a reverse rollout.  Because the rollout is on hardwood, I try to be as gentle as I can be so my knees and back take a break from serious bruising.

After warmups, which have taken a wonderful new turn, we put down as many mats as we could.  This was a bit unusual since the focus on class content is to prep for celebration (sub blackbelt testing) and blackbelt testing in early May.  I thought maybe that Sensei was going to put a slight change in curriculum just to keep everyone fresh and interested, but surprise!, it was going to be all about doing throws and rolls from that kata.

We first started on rolls, or specifically, getting up.  The first was me laying on the ground face down. Instead of the push up, I slide back on my knees, keeping my head down (in yoga, it's like moving to child pose) and then move to the one knee stance. 

The second position is from the back.  I roll slightly to my side bring my feet and keep one hand up for protection.  The other arm goes from floor to elbow to hand, and then I hop up to a tripod-esque position; and up to standing.

The third is from the back as well, but its a backwards rollout.  I was positive that I've been doing this great, but Sensei went over the steps and I realized I was missing a few bits that never came up in my old school.  One hand is out and one crosses the face (it reminds me of a fainting lady from the Victorian era) then I do a partial sit up to get some motion then I fall back throw my feet over.  I actually roll on the shoulder with the arm out and the fainting hand becomes the support to keep my head off the ground.  One foot kicks out to give me more momentum (or kick a villain) and I bring a knee down to roll up into a one knee stance.

After the class practiced this for some time we turned to doing the throw that would end us up on our backs.  I got partnered with Kyle and was taken aback by his ability to put me down directly at his feet.  When I do the foot sweep throw, my uki usually ends up spiraling out somewhat.  Which means I'm using too much muscle.  Sigh - the old bugs keep haunting me. 

---

Warmups by Hanchi. 

I'm not sure how to spell the name (natch!), but Sensei introduced us to the traditional warmups from our school.  It a series of 6 or 8 simple moves just to get the body moving.  It's a lot of fun to me for some reason.  Up to the point that I giggle.  In trying to evaluate this feeling and I think I see a connection with old videos of schools all warming up and the wonder what they were up to.  And now I'm one those old guys! 

The Other Side

Now that the countdown is on for the few people in our class to go to testing in Washington, the class tension is slowly rising.  And not in a bad way.  Everyone appears to be more focused, and the after class practice time has gone way up. 

Sensei definitely wants Mark to get his blackbelt.  Mark had a five hour training session last Saturday and it wrung him out.  However, everything he does is very smooth and he's pretty comfortable with everything we do. 

The stuff he and I do in class is the application of a kata (which I have no idea of the name even though he's told me a thousand times).  I've done one side enough now that I know it fairly well and Sensei can see that both Mark and I have got it down fairly well.  So last night he had us switch roles.  Although we had a messy start we were able to get through the whole thing at a slow speed. 

As I drifted off to sleep last night I kept thinking about the parallax view of taking the other side.  It was like being in a dream in which you take each person's roll for while.  To see me act out the things I've seen takes on a surreal and often confusing aspect, but we were able to eventually educate ourselves by simply pointing out each piece that we knew. 

---

I'm holding my weight steady at 200 lbs.  I'd definitely like to see 195 again some day and to that end my wife has encouraged me to see a naturopath.  She really wanted to see the doctor herself, but when you get in they drag in the rest of the family.  It was refreshingly like a regular doctor, but with more questions.  I have to go off all supplements and medicines for a month and get a comprehensive blood screen to start the whole thing rolling.  Neither my new doctor or think I'm getting of Statins to control my cholesterol, but we shall see what the blood test shows. 

On top of that my wife, who loves a good fad diet, has decided to go on an anti-inflammation routine for the next month.  Although I understand the idea, I can see that's it's going to be personally very difficult for me.  She's working on the house and it really doesn't leave her a lot of time to shop or cook.  That means a lot of that might be left to me and I'm not sure I can be that supportive when carbs are cut out.  I guess not-so-secretly eating lunch out during the week won't be too bad.

Ouchie Uki

After warm-ups Sensei had us move up and down the floor in the zenkutsu stance to clean up foot placement and weight placement.  Definitely more intense that I remember from my old school. 

New things:

• at least 80% of your weight is on that front leg (this stops feet from moving around prematurely to moving - a naughty tell).
• The outside of the foot is parallel or turned in slightly.  Never outward or even slightly outward.
• I have heard you should have your knee forward enough that can't see your toe, but it should be to the outside enough that the whole foot weight is centralized.

We'd assume the stance and sensei would walk around us with a Bo (staff) and drop a pointed end all around the knee.  If the knee wasn't placed correctly then the staff would bang into your foot.  Thankfully Sensei isn't cruel and didn't slam the tip down.  Nevertheless it was incredibly illustrative. 

I spent the rest of the class with Mark working on his complex application.  I can't believe how rusty we seemed just after two days.  It took about a half hour to get the whole thing back together and up to a point where we could start refining again. 

One portion of this "dance" routine is that I, as the Uke, get trapped and catch a shot to the chest while getting foot-swept.  I take a fall where I then get a kick to the chest.  I am then supposed to roll out backwards to leap to my feet to block a shot and then start attacking again. 

This is all very action-packed but there is an issue.  I'm on a hardwood floor.  Even though Mark drops me gently as he can I have to take the slap.  If I don't fall correctly elbows, hips and back take enormous abuse. 

And then there's the roll afterwards.  There is an approved method of doing the roll which I haven't learned, so I do the best I can muster based on a few Aikido classes and our modest curriculum in Tang Soo Do.  I end up slapping the ground with both hands while throwing my legs over my head.  One leg tucks in and I whip my hands around to push myself up.  But one foot stops the rotation.  This one hits the floor on it's top. 

After about ten of these, my left foot had a blossoming red mark and some missing skin around the big toe knuckle. 

I should get video of this.  I'm sure I look like a walrus exiting the pool.  Or a drunk guy getting out of a car. 

Sanchin Bunkai

I staggered into class last night completely exhausted after another brutal weekend of house work and late nights.  Sunday my wife and I decided we need to clean up our acts a bit because we are gaining weight.  This means no booze and good food this week.  I've already lost three pounds, but my sleep is severely impacted.  I'm exhausted and cannot get to sleep.  I clearly was using booze to get to sleep, so the trade off will be thinner, healthier me, but with giant bags under my eyes. 

After warm up, we broke up into a variety of groups and I ended up getting three little girls with the instruction to teach moving front kicks.  Each girl was about one year older than the next.   The old girl, probably eight or nine, had the best understanding and had obviously practiced.  The other two had some issues with concentration, but that seemed pretty normal.  So we did kicks from zenkutsu, and cat stance.  Then from front leg and back leg.  Then we did a little with kicking at targets.  This let me know that none of them could kick over hip height which kind of confused me.  As far as I could tell, all the kids in class are way more flexible than me, so I would assume they could kick higher.  While I pondered this and tried to figure out how to address it, Sensei partnered me with MaryAnn Sensei to continue on working with Sanchin.

Last time MaryAnn added some more refinements which I managed to remember, just in the incorrect place.  But once we addressed those I was introduced to the bunkai.  Basically a dodge to the left and right, each with punches and a little hand work.  Very cool and not overly complex.  The validation was that I was able to do the kata this morning (half asleep) without forgetting too much.

Application

Although my diary says that I've been going for roughly two and half years, the long breaks have impacted the overall amount of instructional time.  By my count I'm at around 65 classes.  To me this means that I haven't even seen half a year of regular instruction yet. 

I'm pointing this out because when I started going to class I would go to the after hours black belt group to get extra time in.  During this time I was acting as the Uke to Mark and had to struggle through the defensive part of his application routines.

Shudokan works in a three step process.  First you learn the kata, second you learn the bunkai, and third you learn the application.  I admit to being confused by the bunkai vs application, but to the best of my comprehension I would say that bunkai is the practical application of the moves in the kata whereas the "Application" is a full on two person choreographed fake fight using all pieces of the kata. 

This is the kind of stuff that used to make me frustrated with martial arts in general because even though it requires skill and relies on tons of practice, you weren't trying to actually fight someone or use the skills an actual free environment.  Now that I've eaten kicks and punches over the years in free style sparring I've come to love the lack of serious impact in the Application portion of the work and I get plenty of exercise from doing the "dance moves", as my wife likes to call it.  But I have realized now the attention to detail that goes into making the application correct is reinforcing basics at a very deep level. 

I noticed this last night when Mark had to make sure about his foot placement.  If he didn't he couldn't sweep my leg.  This was fairly relevant to most moves, but the foot placement stuck in my brain.  The idea is that in a lot of step ups you want to make sure that your foot is placed outside the Uke's. You might not want to do a sweep every time, but it'll always give you the option. 

Part of whatever kata application Mark was working on last night required him sweep/strike me.  When I'm down he does a big kick in the chest to which I'm supposed to immediately roll out backward and come to my feet to attach him.  Did I mention that we work on a hardwood dance studio floor?  I ended up doing the roll back about 10 or so times.  And I'm sore as hell this morning is so many places, but not my back.  Will miracles never cease?

Spinning

I'd like to think that I let my life periodically spin out of control just to give it some spice, but that is disingenuous.  The truth is that it just gets that way because of aggressive time-lines my wife sets up for the house.

When we moved to the Rose City we purchased a 100 year old house and we've been working on it for the whole two years with only minor breaks.  During the breaks I've been able to get to Karate with some frequency, but rarely longer than three classes at a time before something turns up. 

The current work doesn't really require me to do much, but as a dutiful husband I like helping when I can.  The deal is that my wife works very hard all day and then when I get home there really isn't much that hasn't been handled.  So I can often get a pass and trot off to Karate.  Then I kind of feel bad that I've left her there not really doing much.  This means that I miss the extended classes for the Black-belts so my learning is stuck at one or two hours a week. 

Anyway, I was able to scurry away to class on Monday without too much guilt and found out that the our two black-belts and brown belt are going up to Yakima in about six weeks to get another shot at testing.  As such the class is going to be dedicated to do a lot of prep work.  So we had to do a lot kata work and that means even more fine tuning. 

Due to the exhausting nature of weekends I'm rarely well rested on Mondays (manual labor all day and socializing all night) so my kata was full of stuck moments and small errors.  This got me partnered with MaryAnn Sensei and back to Sanchin.  Holy cow!  Even more stuff to work on.  That night we realized we missed bobs on movement and a whole sequence of breathing in and out with hand presses at the end before the yoy.  Back the drawing board.  Such a simple kata that gets harder and harder to do.

Sanchin 3

After warmups and some review of the basics we worked on cat stance (Nekoashi-Dachi) for some time.  In this school the weight-baring leg is pointed more forward than in my old school.  The idea is that you are closing the gap.  Ideally being able to stop a kick to the groin. 

We spent a lot of time going back and forth on the floor and I realized my recent forays into leg exercises really didn't do me any favors because my knees told me approximately how far I could go and it wasn't anywhere low. 

To add insult to injury, we had a competition who did the best cat stance while doing blocks and strikes.  I lost early because I have a habit of dropping my arms between moves.  Rookie mistake.  Something to work on.

After that it was back to Sanchin.  Not that I mind working on it, but it gets a bit tiring working on the same thing ad nauseam.  This time around I found out that for whatever reason I was looking down most of the time (apparently at my hands) which was throwing everything off.   After working on that I was instructed to punch higher (think xiphoid process; my own that is) and everything started looking a lot better, but I was working on that so hard that everything else went to hell.  I also love holding my breath which makes me dizzy by the end of this heavy breather of a kata.

This morning's practice was severely curtailed due to the construction in our house.  Our glorious main room that has been empty for several weeks is now closed off as my wife rips the walls out.  The only space I've got is the basement where I can't really lift my hands above my head.  At least I offered my cats some really excellent entertainment as I stumbled around in the dark trying not to stub my toes. 

Sanchin Sweatin'

I got to lead warm ups again, but I get to a certain point and have no idea what to do next.  I then ask the class, "what should we do next?" which gets me lots of blank looks.

MaryAnn Sensei reminded me that it's a dictatorship and not a democracy.  Well, next time...

After warmup I was placed with MaryAnn and worked on Sanchin for the entirety of the class.  For those who might not be familiar with this breathing intensive kata, there is a lot going on in something relatively simple from a cursory look (well, aren't all kata?). 

Sanchin dachi (stance) looks like an offset pigeon-toed with the addition of tucking ones behind in as forward as possible.  This "locks" the stance into place giving the practitioner an unbelievably solid stance.  Look at this guy for instance:

His Sensei checks stance from the floor up.  Up to and including a kick in the crotch.  How fun!

I was mostly concerned about getting the basics down, but because this is a very tension filled kata I neglected to watch my breathing. This left me a little woozy when I finished.  So I think I did this about 20 times and pretty much soaked my gi. 

It was a solid evening and I was happy it was only an hour.  So tired.

Fightish

I made an assumption that we'd be sparring again since Sensei's tournament is this weekend and I was close to being correct. 

Sensei poked his head in and had me warm up the class.  During this time I did punches and blocks and finished up with kicks.  I chose front kicks and side kicks.  I had to explain why I referred to them to as "snap" kicks.  In our old school we used the term thrust kick and snap kick to delineate the difference between the way they are delivered.  New info for this group - whoops. 

The way I broke down the kicks really didn't win me any points either.  There just isn't any emphasis on this kind of thing for lower level belts.   I would have thought it would have been mandatory to get it ingrained, but such is life. 

So after a little work on attacks Sensei started having us focus on reading intent from fist and foot placement.  Although this wasn't necessarily new to me I'd never done it with his method.  He would have the opponent freeze into a position and have you guess at what they were going to throw next.  This included the old "I have no idea what I'm going to throw". 

He then had us set up the sparring area and had a couple of fight then someone would call freeze and we would break down what we thought we saw.  No matter how good we thought we were there was also a lot crap to be seen.  I attribute this to the fact that when someone calls freeze everyone tends to freeze just when you're pulling back.  This created some really silly live sculptures.

Sensei is off to his tournament that I would have loved to seen and participated in.  He isn't doing weapons or kata, but just judging and kumite.  Can't wait to hear the after action report.

Shūdokan 60

Wow, sixty classes! It's nice to see progress, even if it's just measured in numbers.

During warmup Reed Sensei told us he was going to a regional competition.  He didn't feel good about his kata, but he's going to be doing the kumite for senior, black belt division.  I'd love to have seen that.  For a big man he moves very smoothly and is incredibly thoughtful and deliberate with his actions. 

When he told us this I had an inkling that we'd be having a fight night and I was right!  After warm ups he took us through a sequence of punching, kicking, and distance work. 

He introduced me to concepts that I was aware of and practiced often enough, but did have a name for.  The first of the these is the blitz.  Basically, going straight at your opponent (maybe eating a punch).  The second was the Stuff(ing).  When someone blitzes you the response is a front snap kick. 

There were other bits and pieces I'd wish I'd known in competition.  Basically, the judges aren't going always going to get it right.  So you can do a few things to help them out with their decisions. 

1. If you punched then you better have that hand back in chamber/retraction when action is stopped.  This signifies a good hit. 
2. Your poker face better on game.  Good hit, bad hit, when action is stopped you face better be still.  No acknowledging or eye rolling on bad calls.

A weird thing in class is that we all train to punch with the right.  There is literally no attempt to work on the left.  I have to ask Reed.  I assume it's because of lack of time. 

Fight Review:

• vs Kyle - Tater wins 3 to 2.  What the hell?  The kid was getting all the flags.  So I had to make it clear I was winning the exchanges. 
• vs Mark - 3 to 1.  Poor Mark doesn't have an aggressive bone in his body.
• vs Sensei - 1 to 3.  I would say my pride was a little hurt, but I was literally the only person to get a point on him.  Sheesh.

Sanchin Huff And Puff

A five month hiatus!  How time flies when you remodel a house.  My wife and I took four and half months to complete our upstairs bathroom and to celebrate started working on our downstairs bathroom.  

This was determined to be a less than favorable approach to celebration.  Not having a time to relax and sit back between home disruptions creates a lot of stress.  Additionally neither one of us has been able to get any decent exercise or eat very well while the house is in construction mode.

This leaves us both feeling kind of shabby, out of shape, etc.  My wife started going to a gym down town in order to see if that met her needs.  She clearly liked the social aspect and enjoyed the workouts, but driving there was beyond her tolerance level and the cost was really high.  So at the end of the month that went by the wayside.

To celebrate the end of the upper bathroom we went to Mexico for a week to enjoy some sun and salt water.  Upon our return it was time to embrace our new healthy selves.  This means eating more at home and exercising more.  For my wife it means going out and working in the garden until she almost drops dead and for me it means beatings!

I've been practicing every morning so I don't forget the stuff I've learned over the last year.  So going back last night wasn't as horrible as it could have been. After warm up we did the "10 Kata".  Which is to say that we actually do ten katas even though everyone around might be doing a different one.  Everyone stops after they finish and then we are told bow, etcetera.  This continues until everyone has completed ten.  

After we finished the 10 I was partnered with MaryAnn Sensei to learn Sanchin.  I looked around a video and this was a close as I could find.

Ibuki breathing is tiring!

After running through this a few times I felt like a Karate superstar.  I totally forgot locking my hips and stuff, but it'll be fun to learn.  

We ended up doing a self defense move directly from Aikido or used by everyone.  You grab the wrists of the person in front of you and don't let go.  I hate that part as being unrealistic, but the move is fun.  You duck down go into an elbow lock and throw.  Then pin and punch.  Weeee.  I can't find a video of it but I'm pretty sure I've seen it every Aikido and advanced technique class I've ever been in.

I Promised...

I promised to myself that I would not gripe about my physical ills on the blog, but since I've had some time off working on the house I've collected a slew of small issues.  Most notably my right foot has three puncture wounds that have healed enough that I can endure class, but last week's session produced a tear in the pad of my big toe.  Which simply produces the worst pain until it healed up.  I guess it's the constant pulling and movement.

So last night I'm doing good, but notice another spot on the right foot is giving away.  Great.  This time near the pinky toe.  I should have called myself Pinkytoe instead of Potatoefist.  

It was just Mark and I until an boy of about five was brought into class.  This isn't usually a big deal, but the kid's parents are the most beautiful people I've seen.  All white teeth and blond hair with a tan.  And on top of that the boy is able to focus the whole time!  Damn perfect people.

Reed Sensei had us go through movement drills that made us look absolutely horrible.  So move forward, block/strike, turn to the open part of the stance, block and strike, turn forward do it again and move forward.  We looked worse than the five year old.  Super embarrassing.  At one point a guy came in to watch and I think he left after 10 minutes.  Probably wondering why a couple of advanced belts looked like lurching drunks.

We finished up with Kata work and although nothing new was learned on the Kusanku I did refine a few pieces.  

I'll be in out for the next month making attendance very sporadic.  I'm hoping December allows me to get into a regular pattern.

Move and Sprawl

Two nights in a row!  I'm practically a lifer at this point.  Ha! After such a long time off I was incredibly sore on Tuesday.  I still felt pretty horrible this morning, but I was kind of excited to work on something new. 

Unfortunately plans went a little sideways because we did a lot of basics which I clearly needed.  Shudokan uses a very direct approach and they are okay about crossing feet on attack which I can't even begin to do unless I concentrate really hard. That and very twisted torso on the reverse punch.  I mean it makes sense to cover a lot of distance, but it takes a lot relearning on my part. 

I'm also out of practice as it relates to distance and contact.  My left punch was severely needing some recalibration.  I struggled so much and partner was a slight 19 year old girl.  If I made a poor contact I would have taken her head off. 

While we practiced variations on that Reed Sensei brought out the mats and for the next session.  Which was defending against the sprawl.  The standard first attack from someone with a wrestler background which goes for the legs needs to be countered by a sprawl.  Basically jetting the legs out wide and making your weight forward and down.  Each of use did a couple of go rounds trying to tackle someone our own weight, but Reed is a big man and it didn't go well for me. 

We then did a 6 o clock, 12 o clock position to turn the attacker over and get into an arm bar.  Lots of fun, but I split my food pad and ground  a lot skin off my feet ouch. 

Great night and I feel very exercised.  Well see how I feel tomorrow!

Big Sweatin'

I just realized I haven't posted since August!  Well I'm back for at least three sessions before travel and work get in the way again. 

Back in August we decided to work on the house again  which meant that we'd be working every night and every weekend.  It's been grueling, but we've made major progress.  During this time the only time I've had to myself to practice is really early in the morning.  Three katas a day has allowed me to keep most things in place.  I was rewarded in class when Reed Sensei said, "well you've obviously been practicing", boom!

After a brief warm-up I taught, or retaught, Sarah the staff routine and after a few goes at that Reed moved me back to the Kusanku and refined my boo-boos.  I got learn the next section which was a lot of fun. 

On the ride home I realized I haven't been moving like that in a long time.  Lots of ab work to jump around.  Argh.  This weekend I turned 49 so I felt pretty good that I still move pretty well and kick pretty high.