2006 Workout #37: Saint Louis…

The first session of class was taught by Sensei Kerrigan, relating to shifting and use of one’s body during sparring. We ended up doing several very interesting sparring drills, however many of them had some footwork that just plain didn’t operate if you were taking the time to think about what you were doing. I spent a lot of time avoiding other sparring pairs, the dojo just wasn’t spacious enough for the amount of people doing drills in a free-form fashion.

I enjoyed the seminar and I found that a lot of this stuff we already do, however the slightly different tilt really gave me some new things to think about. Some of the combinations that we did worked great for me, others I don’t think I quite had a handle on.

Sensei Brewer’s session was excellent. It was everything that we expected from our “preview” on Tuesday and then some. Learning to chain techniques together is something that has classicly been difficult for me. Since I’ve started my work on Sochin, this is starting to turn around a bit now that I am building up my center but I still have a LONG way to go. The extra stuff that Sensei Brewer provided during the seminar was great. I can clearly see now how it is that he can teleport around us as we spar… he’s mastered how to turn on a dime and use his body to generate unreal amounts of power. Maybe someday I can do the same.

We then had a lunch break, followed by Sensei Hassell’s discussion on karate instruction and how to do it right. Many of the elements that he provided I recognized immediately as things done by Sensei Brewer and . That means we’ve got good examples to follow. Other things he mentioned I recognized as areas that I can improve on. Oftentimes, when demonstrating things I can get too fancy or throw too much at my students. The message I took away from the workshop was that simple is better. Fancy stuff should be left only to the advanced students, who will invariably get a good workout despite the fact that things are “simple.”

Something else that I appreciated was the addition/revision of an instructors datasheet to be used to evaluate us fledgling instructors. Because of the overarching stress during a teaching session, often the constructive criticism that comes afterwards gets quickly forgotten. Having a hard copy of what improvements can be made would be a good way to help us raise our game, and I’m glad to see this sheet as a standard across our national organization.

After Sensei Hassell’s session was the Dan Preparation class. We were lucky enough to get to receive input from Sensei Hassell himself, which is something that rarely happens. and I did two Sochin kata for him. We received a few technical corrections, and I received some re-emphasis on the feeling of a “toned” center (which is different from tensed), but by and large there was much less exception taken with my kata than I was expecting.

The part that really blew me away was what came next. Sensei Hassell gathered the group together and pegged what was wrong with our sparring purely based on our kata performance. He wagered that I don’t have a problem getting in or holding my own, but often times I have trouble getting back out of the way or to either side. Yep. That’s me alright. He offered that I should keep a toned center and be conscious of my butt sticking out at all times during sparring. I got to try this notion out against McCabe-san right after this, and it does make a difference. Sensei proceeded to go around in turn and peg everyone else in the group exactly the same way. It was astonishing… part of me wondered if he hadn’t found my blog and was just reciting every third post to me.

After this class was over, we asked Sensei Hassell if we could skip the Dan Test and go see in the hospital. I think he had planned to use some of us to spar the black belt candidates, but he understood the importance of such an effort and before we knew it we were off to see Geoff.

A long, protracted car ride back to Pekin rounded out the day. We got the worst service on record from Smokey Bones in Springfield, but the food and Samuel Adams was excellent so they basically just break during the experience. We had quite a jovial trip down and back, but that may end up being another blog post for another time.

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Sochin Counter
Accomplished / Goal == Percent Complete
504 / 2000 == 25.20%
Average Kata per Workout: 16.80
Estimated Completion Workout: 120
Workouts that gained more than 1%: 13