2007 Workout #52-53: It took 17 years…

Not much has been happening lately in my karate training, as work has gotten the best of me the last few weeks.

I did, however, have an interesting workout last Thursday. We started the class by doing reverse kata again. I have found that working on kata in this way is really a brain exercise… it takes a lot of thinking to break years of ingrained combinations. It is interesting how hard it is the first few times, but after you get yourself out of the normal frame of things it isn’t really that hard to get through the kata. Doing kata in this way certainly spotlights how infrequently we do certain motions with the opposite side. Before I knew it, first class was over. We ended up going a little late to get all of the Heian kata in, but it was worth it.

After a break, we launched into one of Sensei Brewer’s patented fast burn second classes, where we warmed up with a rapid fire volley of sparring combinations. I was feeling pretty good with the combinations, and was covering a lot of ground as we moved across the room.

Then we broke up to do partner drills. We were working on go-no-sen (taking the initiative later) which basically means we were taking turns doing one-time attack where the other partner was blocking and counter attacking with anything they wanted. I ended up with and and things were going great. I found that my timing felt good, I was able to get past defenses a few times with my attacks, and there was generally a nice level of give and take. I like go-no-sen, it tends to be my default mode of operation.

My last partner of the night was . Sensei Hartman and I had some great exchanges, I ended up landing one of my attacks (pretty proud of that, as always), and he did the same. We were starting to amp up the speed and power quite a bit as we tend to do, and then it happened.

This is my recollection of the events, but as you will soon understand the full picture is a bit dodgy. I did my chudan lunge punch, and he did a short switch-back with his feet. I thought for a brief second that he had gotten tangled up with his footwork (yeah, like I actually believed that for a moment for some stupid reason) and then out of the corner of my left eye I see something moving. I knew it was a hook kick, and I knew there wasn’t much I could do about it at that point. It came in a little hard around my arm and I felt the racquetball sized impact of his heel on my neck.

And then, briefly, my lights went out. Not for long though… the next thing I realized is that I was falling and I hit the ground pretty hard. The Voice In My Head said to get up, and I tried but my arms and legs were less successful than I would have hoped. Sensei Hartman was telling me to just stay down for a minute, and it didn’t take much for me to oblige. My field of view was all smeary for a minute and then I was able to get back up.

Class was finished shortly thereafter.

In 17 years of karate, I’ve been hit really hard but never been knocked out before until now. It wasn’t the greatest experience in the world, but it also wasn’t that bad either. It was a beautiful kick that did it too, it just hit in a really good spot to cause such things.

Even more interesting than all this is the next day. My ribs hurt. I thought at first that I had fallen on them, but it was the wrong side. It was a burning pain like a cracked rib but nonspecific. I had a chiropractor appointment scheduled on Friday anyway, so I told him what had happened without telling me where I was sore.

He asked whether it was the opposite side of my neck or my ribcage that hurt. I told him it was my ribcage, but that I didn’t understand why. Apparently, the nerve down the side of your neck anchors in those two places (opposite side of the neck and ribs) and one or the other will hurt when the nerve is damaged.

I got my adjustment and went on my merry way, it took four days before it stopped hurting all the way. Saturday’s workout was fun, but my ribs kept giving me waves of stabbing pain when I tried to do techniques so I was forced to half-ass a lot of the combinations. It was a strange place to be in, but as Sensei Hartman said: “any workout is a good workout.”

I agree with … I should work on my hook kick. 🙂

Tomorrow: Gasshuku 2007 in the hot, hot sun!