2006 Workout #124: Victory and Pain…

I did it! Before class tonight, I was able to get through 12 Sochin, putting my grand total over the 2000 mark!

I really appreciate the help from everyone to help me get this goal… special thanks go to and Sensei Brewer for all of their long hours spent to help me strengthen my training this year. I can’t really put into words the magnitude that their contributions to this endeavor have meant to me. Thank you both very much. I also appreciated receiving both in-person and remote feedback from Sensei Hassell throughout this process, he was very helpful, forthcoming with detail, and insightful to the beginnings of Sochin. I really needed some of the intellectual pursuits that he started me on to really get into this kata, that meant a lot when the repetitions started becoming tiresome.

Thanks also goes to and , , , Garls-san, everyone else from the Saturday crowd… you guys all helped carry me a long way through this one and I couldn’t have done it without you. I hope I can pay it back someday. 🙂

Last, but certainly not least, I want to thank my lovely wife, . She put up with a lot of lonely nights while I was at the dojo getting through all of this, she really is a saint. I’m sure we’ll both look forward to a little break from the pace that I’ve been going at. There are many others to thank, but I think that I will just say a blanket THANK YOU and leave the rest for another time.

The rest of the workout tonight was BRUTAL. led us through what appears to be some sort of waking nightmare of a workout, where we did basic combinations but at the end of techniques we would put our back knee on the ground and then move (forward or backward, as the mood took him) from this kneeling position into our next technique. Quickly, this grew into three to four technique combinations, and most of us were fearing death by the end.

The second class was some very fun sparring drills, working on combinations and one-time sparring, primarily. I still need to learn how to commit a technique and not worry about taking shots. Its against my nature, I guess.

Anyway, the night ended in a good celebratory mood. I am really thankful to have friends and dojomates like I do. I’m also thankful to have good instruction like I do. One of the Saint Louis black belts remarked upon hearing my goal “wow, you’d better hope that you aren’t doing it wrong all those times.” Interestingly, that never really entered my mind because I knew I was under the watchful eye of Sensei Brewer, , and all of my black belt superiors and peers. Learning it wrong wasn’t even an option.

Do I still have things to work on? You bet. Am I done with Sochin? Not by a long shot. I’ve still got to return the favor and help get to his goal of 1500 Sochin. I may take a little break for awhile toward the end of the year and sample some of the other wares that are going on around the dojo that I have been missing out on, but I’m going to keep practicing this kata throughout next year albeit at a much more sane pace.

I’ve got a lot more to say about what this kata goal has meant for me and done for my training, but I’m going to save that for another night.

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Sochin Counter
Accomplished / Goal == Percent Complete
2002 / 2000 == 100.10%
Average Kata per Workout: 17.11
Estimated Workouts Remaining: 0
Workouts that gained more than 1%: 42
Workouts that gained more then 5%: 2
Round Kick Challenge: 15 / 1000 == 1.50%