Before I get into the information about my class, I need to rant.
For about the last 30 minutes of class, Sensei Brien had us work on anchorman drills. This drill has one person standing in front of the group, then each person comes in and throws a single attack and the anchorman has to block and counter. Now, in our club, we are taught to use control with our kicks and punches. When I say control, punches are close to the face and kicks, GENTLY touch the headgear. Notice the capital letters in GENTLY. Each person had a chance to be anchorman while the rest of the class attacked. My wife was in the anchorman position and one of the black belts, who should know better, hit her with a full power roundhouse kick the head. He kicked her so hard that she doesn’t even remember what happened and she had to sit down for the rest of class.
Now I understand that this is Karate class and not basket weaving so there is always a chance that someone will get hurt but when a black belt, who is at least a foot taller and much heavier than my wife and even many of the guys in class, hits a woman that hard he should get some mental help. If he has to show that he is so big and bad by hitting women and everyone in the class full power, he needs to find another club or stop being a jerk right now. I plan on telling Sensei Brien that I refuse to spar that guy and I will not let me wife or son spar with him either. He can say sorry all he wants but I will not let this big jerk near my wife or son.
This was the first time that I really considered quitting Karate since I started taking class over four years ago. I am still really mad about this and I am not sure if I am going to continue taking that class even though it is an excellent class when I don’t have to deal with jerks that have something to prove.
Rant off.
Exam cram…
Sensei Brien had us go through all of the basics for our test. We did all of our combinations, almost non stop for at least 20 minutes. It was tough but I really didn’t loose much power even though I was tired.
After we did all the combinations, Sensei had us work on our kata. He had us go out in groups of three or so and do our kata in front of the rest of the class. Sensei knows that I have issues with my hips so understands my stance issues but he did tell me to try and stop leaning over and that my kata was good.
We spent the next half hour working on anchorman drills. Like I explain above the drill itself is pretty simple. You stand in front of the group, each person throws one attack and block and counter. When I was in front of the line, I only remember getting hit once but I was only able to counter a few times out of a group of 15 people. I need to be able to move back in after my block much faster if I am ever going to counter attack. After my wife got hurt, I didn’t have the focus to keep doing good attacks so I did as best as I could and always keeping control of my moves unlike someone else.
Until the problem, the class was really good.