Self Defense. Very small class. Just 3 of us.
First class we worked 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th set really fast through a few times.
Second class we worked 7th set. 360 for 15 minutes then we did Blasting Elbow about 25 or 30 times. Sufficiently seasoning the Brown belt in class. 🙂
Fun times.
Brown & Blackbelt class. We had O’Sensei Hess for class again. We built upon what we started for Self Defense in the earlier class. Adding a shoulder toss and then a quick parry and block maneuver. We worked pretty hard and I enjoyed it immensely. The thing I liked most was having O’Sensei tell stories of Zen Shotokai and more about the old days of Karate.
Last we went over the Zen Shotokai challenge coins and the rules and gifted O’Sensei his. Great, great night of Karate.
Self Defense. We had O’Sensei Mr. Hess teaching class tonight. Legend to our Dojo and Zen Shotokai style.
We worked on some basic falls and rolls then did a basic hand control technique. Drilled it over and over for the whole class. Good stuff.
Self Defense. The class i’ve been wanting for several months. And I wasn’t ready…
Sensei set class up by working through some Qyudo style Seiza and Kiza sitting instructions. Getting up and down with discipline and control. My legs and toes were burning.
Then he set up the Self Defense portion by saying he was going to attack us, knock us around and see what we could handle. This got my nerves firing. I hadn’t felt this nervous in a while in a class – I knew he would start with me and I really wanted to react “correctly”. But NOPE. Once he’d made his rounds we paired off. I paired off with two other students that equally love to hit each other, so I have some good bruises this morning.
Sincerely, it was a great lesson and as I reflect on last night I realize how much farther I have to go. I’m strong and I’m tough enough, I was just surprised at how I couldn’t access my energy and “attack” to get the job done.
It’s a mentality thing, not a physical thing. Though strength, toughness and technique weigh heavily, the mind must also be trained to act and react.
I need to study this more.
Final class of the Self Defense series this week. I’m happy and a little bummed it’s over. I was starting to really look forward to it each week. I’m going to see who all I can get interested in doing more, I really want to teach and continue what we do at the Dojo.
Everyone showed up and we reviewed our drills and then worked on Push Kick and Walk In. I had them drill Walk In several times each and then again on each other.
Then we ended with me giving out their certificates and a quick good bye.
Best part was Sensei came out to check it out – pretty freaking awesome. I’ll never forget it. 🙂