2007 Workout #78: Impromptu Clinic…

At least, that’s what it felt like! We were surprised to see that the following Senseis showed up for the workout: Brewer, , Quinn, Evans, Garls, , , me, and Erbe. Representing our kyu ranks: .

The class was already in full swing, as , Garls, Evans, and Quinn were very engaged and working on movements extracted from katas while the rest of the crew warmed up with the Shodan test syllabus. After that, we decided to continue putting through his paces and elected to do some one-time sparring in the same vein as the black belt test.

At that point, Sensei Brewer asked to continue the same lessons on distancing that we had been working on this week so we launched into a GREAT session of taking turns with different techniques trying to get in with them. Luckily, I drew Erbe-san who represents in one man everything that I have difficulty sparring, so we had a very enthusiastic hour or so together.

He split my lip with a reverse punch when I tried to hit him in between techniques… I won the battle but lost the war on that one. I have found that a well-timed kick can stop his forward momentum, but once that train is rolling its not something you want to get in front of. Moving to the side works, but I have to work on my mobility after I cut to the side as he has the ability to track me and hit after I move, or defend against my counterattack. There is always something to work on.

Also during the class, I took a few more hard blocks on the same shin that has been badly bruised for the last month and I could feel it starting to swell before I left the dojo. I woke up this morning to find two fresh knots on it… I think I’m going to have to don that shin and instep pad for the next few months until that thing heals all the way. I thought it was healed well enough to go without it, but apparently it is not.

At one point during the workout, I looked over to see Sensei Quinn and Sensei Evans sparring… talk about a clash of the titans. In the same vein, Sensei Brewer and were right next to Erbe and me and Sensei Brewer was sparring pretty hard and it gave me some of the same feelings of awe that I got 10 years ago watching the same thing. We’ve really got some great leadership and some great training resources in this dojo.

After the class had rounded up, went through great lengths to get some good shots of us for the instructors section of the Karate Club website that will go up very soon. None of us could believe how quickly the last hour of the workout had passed… we were all having so much fun that time just flew by.