I took two classes to makeup for one of the classes that I missed while I was sick.
First class:
Sensei Noia allowed some of us to go work on kata with those who haven’t tested yet instead of sparring. Since my ribs are not totally healed, I thought that kata was a wise choice.
We spent the entire class working on kihon and kata with Sensei Gatch. We did the many of the standard kihon moves and combinations to get warmed up and then we moved in to kata. I really like Jion. Even though I just started doing it, it just feels like a good kata to me. I don’t know how to really describe why it feels good but it just does.
We started out with Heian Shodan, then Heian Nidan and Heian Sandan. After that, we did Jion and then Bassai Dai. Sensei Gatch gave me some pointers to work on with my Jion. Arm placement in the first move, along with hand placement for the move were we extend our arms before the kick, punch, punch, punch moves. After Jion came Bassai Dai. It’s always fun to do new katas but I had a hard time doing Bassai Dai. I am not concerned at this point, since Jion is currently my rank kata, but the hip movements and certain other parts of that kata were very challenging for me.
We also did some anchor man one-step sparring for those that are testing. Those who weren’t testing did the attacks and the others did the blocks.
That was the end of the first class.
Second class:
We started the second class with non stop kihon. We did six or eight techniques in row. Doing these moves like this is a sign for me to work on my endurance for my next exam. I was panting like an old dog and could feel my power level go down as I got more winded.
After that, we worked on kata again. We did Jion and Bassai Dai but many more times than the first class. After being tired from the first class and the non stop kihon a few minutes before, it was interesting to do Jion with so little steam left. Oddly enough, it felt good again. I lost count of how many times we did each kata but it was more than six.
I did push things a little too far tonight and even typing this is making my ribs hurt but hopefully I will be little better because I toughed it out tonight.