2008 Workout #49: A Lament for an Off Night

Tonight was a great night again… we spent the first class on basics and partner training. Mercifully (for a change) pitted us across from the white belts as we worked on partner basics. I was across from this young kid that was able to raise his leg in strange quarters that I have not even seen do, his kicks were a little pushy but he wasn’t afraid to make contact. It was really fun to watch him have fun.

Sensei Brewer took over for the second class, and we started out with some basic techniques. My hip action felt like it was working pretty well and I was covering some decent ground with the techniques. By the time we started doing a few partner drills I was starting to tighten up. I had this unshakable nerve about me tonight… it was ok while I was with but as I progressed through the rest of the class it got increasingly worse.

I got across from Sensei Quinn again, which is always a good time but I was tight, tentative, and unsure of myself. I knew halfway through sparring him that my rabies were in full force, I was making some weird unholy noises but was still calm on the inside. Usually that is a good thing, but for some reason it was less than effective on him… I think I might’ve gotten one or two techniques in that I would consider passable. The rest of the time I just ate a whole variety of round kicks, reverse punches, and front kicks.

Among the other banes of my existence tonight was Erbe-san. He was like sparring a large angry yeti, complete with his manhandle attack. Once (and I mean once) I threw a round kick that would’ve brained him had I connected but of course he came in after that and threw me around like a rag doll. That aggravates me a little bit that I can’t figure out how to get away from his charge when that happens, but I will persevere!

I had good moments tonight, but as pointed out my brain was having difficulty switching between kill mode and recover from attack mode, so that was probably a major contributor to my lack of an expeditious retreat. It was still a very fun and cathartic night, much needed after a few long weeks of work related stress.

That’s the real reason I love karate, how readily you can sweat out the normal stress of life. Even when you have an off night like I had tonight, you can still walk away knowing you did more in two hours than most of your coworkers have done all month. That perspective feels good, no matter how much your body hurts at the end!