2008 Workout #33: A photo op and a bunch of good karate stuff…

Tonight we had the newspaper come to do an article for the Lifestyles section, so a few of our club members got interviewed and a guy took pictures of us.

The first class was a lot of basics followed by some partner drills, I got the opportunity to help some of the younger yellow belts gets through the drills. By the time I was done with this, I was itchy for some action. We had the good fortune of having join us following his wedding, so I took the opportunity to spar him in between classes. He got me once in the ribcage and I didn’t notice it until halfway through second class… I was tight during this round of sparring, but by the end I was relaxing quite a bit and I was able to reach out and tag him in the nose once and I knew that was a good spot to stop.

The second class started off with some sparring combinations to warm up (as if I wasn’t warm already), and then moved into Heian katas. We did two or three of each kata and then ended up the night with sparring. I got across from Erbe-san, Rush-san, and Oedewaldt-san as the night went on… I was pretty keyed up and I felt like I had a good night.

I took some pretty good hits… Oedewaldt-san caught me by surprise and took a few layers of skin off of the inside of my lip so I reciprocated. I’m struggling a bit with what level to ratchet things up… I want to be pushed and punched and bruised, but I can tell from body language that others in the dojo might not want that level of intensity.

I don’t have any qualms about the Breakfast Club crew… I just don’t know how to handle those that don’t join us for the butt-busters. Ah well… either they will figure it out or I will! Bring on the sparring! 🙂