My wife and I hadn’t planned on taking class today because of our upcoming exam tomorrow but we had a special visitor, Dr. Kathy Bailey. With her being there, there was no way that we could sit out.
Our special guest…
Sensei Bailey is very high ranking Karate referee, a very successful doctor, a Sandan in our Karate club and a great person to train with or under. Having her in class today brought up the entire level of spirit that I have not seen in some time.
Pop quiz…
Sensei Gatch had a great idea. He brought many pens and a bunch of paper and gave one to each of us. He then said various punches, blocks, kicks and stances in English and told us to write them down. He also asked a few questions and said that our homework is to research all of these moves and questions.
Basics….
Sensei Gatch started class out with some simple kihon. He had us step forward and back across the gym doing front punch. I really like this movement, especially when moving backward. It feels just right.  Sensei told me to take it easy because of my test but that is just one thing I cannot do in any class.
We did a few more basics and then moved on.
Hit the pad…
Sensei Gatch had us hit the pad. Now that I think of it, he had me hold the pad and let everyone else hit the pad. I don’t think I even hit the pad once. I always like holding the pad to see how hard some of my fellow students can punch. It gives me a good idea of how hard of a punch I can take the abdominals if the pad wasn’t there.
Control…
We spent the rest of the class working on the control test. We had a coupe of Sensei’s hold a pen and we had to punch at it with full power but extremely accurate control. They would then move the pen and we had change target while keeping the same power and contral as when it was stationary.
It was a great class and I hope that Dr. Bailey visits us more often.
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