Tonight’s workout was an interesting kata-flavored event. During the first class, it was left up to just us Nidans and we elected to split into belt-level groups to work on kata. I ended up with Jane-san, so I got to work on Heian Yondan for an extensive period of time.
We had a really good time, she was asking questions and we ended up focusing for quite awhile on the side snap kicks and the elbow strikes. For awhile it was too loud in the dojo, so she and I ended up in the yard adjacent the dojo since the weather was nice. She has a lot of potential to have insanely fast footspeed, so we played around with that for awhile before getting back into the kata in earnest.
Sensei Quinn showed up for the second class and ended up teaching in his street clothes, explaining that this happened commonly in Japan. It was a first for me, for certain! We had a master’s class on the kata Empi, which I had done as “my kata” for well… most of a decade. As always, Sensei Quinn took us on a very detailed path of exploration through the kata, and many of the suggestions really helped to hone areas of the kata that always felt a little off to me.
His application of rising punch is fundamentally different than I had ever experienced before and I had some trouble with it. In addition to that, I found that my stance has gotten a little weak and my legs were screaming at the onslaught of doing the downward blocks behind me.
It is very tempting to give in to the overwhelming feelings of frustration and inadequacy that come along with having a kata that you thought you were comfortable with exposed from a new perspective, however I left tonight’s class energized because I got to learn some new things that felt better in practice.
All this and we only made it through the kata once!! I’m going to steal a page from
P.S. –
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