I will speak of both of these workouts together because they were largely the same. The main difference being the presence of Sensei Brewer for #37.
Either way, we did the classic pencil control test during the first class. I helped instruct during workout #37, but last night’s workout I got to actually try the drill. I broke my pencil with a slightly extended front kick, but it was turning into a monster anyway. It’s probably better that its life was ended quickly and it didn’t suffer this way.
At the end of the first class of both workouts, Sensei had the three of us that are testing next month perform our katas for the rest of the class. Erbe-san did Jion twice, I did Empi twice, and McCabe did Empi twice. Sensei told me that I need to slow down in order to show my tension and timing, so I consciously slowed it down to about 3/4 speed for the next kata. It felt 100% better and I’m pretty sure it looked better too. It’s probably the best Empi that I’ve done in recent months and that was the key difference between an average kata and making it look/feel good.
Last night Sensei Hartman picked Jion for me to do and for some reason I was breathing an unneccesary amount. I don’t know what it is about that kata but it really gives me a hard time. Knowing my luck, Hassell will pick it for me. Either that or Kanku Dai, neither of which I want to have pressure on me to perform.
The rest of the class was taken up with sparring drills and it was nice to have that release. I really feel the urge to spar lately, but I don’t want to beat the hell out of myself in order to satisfy that itch. This training regiment is starting to wear on my body a little bit… I’ve been sore for the last three days and my left knee/hip are feeling the effects of the repeated jumps in Empi.
I’ve decided that it will be this week and next week at this pace and then I’m cutting back to three workouts a week. I haven’t decided which three, but I know one of them will be Saturday.
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