Kata: Today was the last noon class for the summer. Won’t have another until Fall. 🙂
We worked Kata today. We did a round robin random Kata draw. I got Seisan and Konku after we drilled Taigo 1 & 2 a couple of times for warm up. In both cases I kind of messed them up, but had overall good focus and power on the parts I hit. Good class today.
Brown & Blackbelt class: We worked Kata. Largely did Taigo 1 5 or so times. Each time trying to up the intensity. I think I lightly tore my chest muscle punching so hard out of the Kata at one point. Very intense Kata. Really wore me out. Then we worked on Konku a few times and finally paired off to help another student with it.
To finish out class we did the Casket Drop that Mr. Togisala would do. I did it and completely dropped. Just about giving myself wip-lash. Fun times!
Weapons/Kobuto: We started with Bo strike drills; 20x strikes, 20x spinning down block, 20 strike combos. Then drilled Bo 1. We then split up and worked on Sai drills and Sai 1 Kata.
We started discussing putting some personalization into each Kata. In that we should be imagining a real fight and reacting instead of just going through the motions with our Kata.
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For the Brown & Blackbelt class, we talked. For the entire class we sat and discussed the weekend. We enjoyed each other’s company and just talked about our experiences. Very fun class and a treasure for sure. I really do love these people.
I attended the Karate Seminar with Mr. Togisala. For about 2 hours we worked on some traditional Shorin Ryu Karate. After a good stretch and warm up from his Sempai we drilled stances.
First was Kiba Dachi, by moving around the sides of our ‘box’ or the lines in the mat. Then we drilled Neko Ashi Dachi by moving up and down the floor into a block. I did Mi Bo Sey. The Zenkutsu Dachi by rolling or tumbling and popping up into our stance. To finish off the drills we did a burpee and popped up into a horse stance. Those drills were very cool.
Then we learned Pinan Godan. I’m to be responsible for it on my Blackbelt test. It wasn’t too difficult but it will prove difficult because i’ll need to keep it top of mind and record it. Pinan Godan is a pretty cool Kata too.
**Parting Thought**
I was told to stay after and clean the Dojo so it would be ready for the students for the next day and following week. It wasn’t a big deal, it took about 2.5 hours. What was bad for me though was that I had both my boys with me. Luckily a good friend helped me out and took them to meet my wife (they hadn’t eaten all day… and also attended the seminar.) I didn’t like that they weren’t taken into consideration at all. It felt rather unfair. I would have happily come back later that night or even 30 minutes later after I took care of my family ,to stay all night, if that’s what it took. I’ll just have to be smarter about where I position myself in regards to things like this in the future.
Brown & Blackbelt Class: Konku. We did Konku tonight, we finished the Kata. Kind of.
About 5 minutes before the first class was out Sensei called me to his desk and told me that i’d be leading Brown & Blackbelt class. We were to do Konku. The first 30 minutes was to be spent on review and getting another student caught up, then the 2nd half was to be spent finishing the Kata. Long night, and my brain is hurting but we got through it.
I had to ask the other 3 Blackbelts for their help in leading us all through the various stages of Konku, I surely wasn’t in the mind-space to actually teach it, But I did get them to teach it by walking us through it and reviewing it… 🙂