2007 Workout #17: Distinguished Fury…

Tonight’s workout was fantastic. It started off reminiscent of Thursday’s workout, only the dial was turned up to 11. The warmups already had me seeing sparklies, but I made it through. The whole first class was gutting out basics, over and over again. It seemed somehow less strenuous than Thursday and Saturday’s efforts, but I could tell from sheer numbers that we were doing about the same amount of technique.

This indicates to me several things: I am learning how to relax and I am getting stronger. There is an outside chance that I am just doing crap technique, but I think most everyone’s technique turns to crap after one does hundreds in a row. By the end of the first class, we had generated enough condensation to cause a few of the brown belts to wimp out after the first class. I derided a few of them for leaving and I only feel marginally bad for having done so… to my mind there are certain limits that you must actively stretch and try to overcome, and if you just want to throw up your hands because you’re too hot, or tired, or (INSERT REASON HERE) you will probably earn a few comments from those who stay.

There were plenty of people left to play with for the first class, which made me happy… took our two Sandan candidates into the other room and we took turns (in pairs) swapping out as their sparring partners. We didn’t sit idle though… we did combinations in sets of 50 for the entire workout. This quickly transitioned into 5 of our own kata, then 3-5 time sparring. It was all very fun!

and I traded a few good shots, she should be proud of that. It stinks to take a few, but you grin and grit through it and come out the other side a little stronger.

Speaking of coming out stronger, I had the distinct pleasure of accompanying into the other room to pair off with and Garls-san. Man, talk about rockin’ and rollin’. It got to the point where you just went into the blind haze of free sparring and knew that you were taking shots but just didn’t care. Sparring so hard that you forget about pain is one of the most distinct pleasures that come with a little experience in karate. I can remember hitting me in the face so hard that it turned me around a little, but I snapped right back and clobbered him right in the chin. In the end no lasting harm came to anyone, although I did catch someone’s nail right underneath my chin and it left about a three inch scratch. I also got hit so hard in the stomach at one point it felt like I had a stitch there for about 20 minutes… but I didn’t realize it until halfway through my second of five Sochin that we were told to do afterwards.

War wounds, gotta love that.

Even though the workouts are brutal, I want to continue down this path. I can’t imagine the unspeakable level that we will attain with regular workouts like this. I already feel like I am able to control those rabid feelings that I get when I spar much, much more. Tonight it was getting to the point of being aware and using them to my advantage, but as astutely observed after class… Sandan is being able to nonchalantly bring controlled intensity to sparring and using that intensity to control the opponent. I feel like training this way will get me there, because I’m already starting to be able to see that endgame a ways off in the distance.