Tuesday Karate class – 11/20/07 – Exam preparation and my son is now 4th kyu!

Do you ever have days where you just don’t feel well and class is going to be really hard? That’s how I felt before class but oddly, things turned around really fast.

Warm up went well but I still felt slow for some reason. As we were stretching, Sensei Noia gave out the previous weekends test results and my son was awarded his 4th kyu. He wasn’t feel well for his test on Sunday but ended up getting three stripes, which in our club, is very good. I cannot believe the how much he has improved over the years and how good his Karate looks now.

Next came torture for those who have not tested yet, including me. We did some kihon to get the blood flowing and for some reason, Sensei Gatch thought that push ups would be fun for everyone. We ended up doing 60 (4 sets of 15 reps) by the time class was over. I didn’t have any issues with the push ups and for some reason, they got easier as I did more.

We did the normal kihon with the various blocks and reverse punch. After those, Sensei Noia sent us with Sensei Gatch to work on our advanced kihon and kata. We also did front side thrust kick and roundhouse kick and then roundhouse kick and front side thrust kick. I was really nervous when I found out I had those moves on my exam since I never really practiced them but they seem to be getting easier each time I do them as long as I am warmed up.

I felt that my knife hand block, front snap kick and nukite is getting better. The issues that I was having with my kicks seems to be gone or at least minimized. We then did outward block, horse stance with elbow strike and backfist. I am having a bit of a problem shifting from the front stance into the horse stance but nothing serious from what I can tell.

Then came kata. We only did a couple since we ran out of time.

By the end of class, I was feeling really good except that my hips were very sore but it was a complete 180 turnaround from how I felt before class started. I always felt that working is the best medicine and I guess tonight it was.