For the second time in my karate career, it has come to time to leave my home dojo for an extended period. Thursday night’s workout was my last training in Pekin, Sensei Quinn nominated me to lead warmups and I was surprised to be asked to teach the first class. I decided to leave the class with a strong basic workout, and I made sure they were good and tired by taking the entire club through our Perfect Pushup workout. I really should dig out my labelling and add this post to that count, but I would have to go back quite a way so I’ll give this one up to the ages.
Sensei Brewer led us through the second class, and it took the more familiar format of sparring combinations, partner drills, and the day was polished off with the five Heian kata. I was panting pretty hard by the end of it!
As previously mentioned, the black and brown belts went out for a nice going away party for the Pekin group… and much fun was had by all. Sensei Quinn appears to be running for a local political office effective immediately, so be sure to think about him on Election Day.
This morning’s workout was my last Saturday Morning Breakfast Club workout for awhile. It took more of a “preparing for nidan test” feeling as we started with basic combinations focusing on using the floor, body movement, and switch-back. We tried this with partners, and Sensei Hartman took us through some true closet kata… we did Heian Shodan without moving more than a few feet off of the starting point by employing switch-back to execute the techniques. It was really interesting, I want to try a few of the black belt katas with that in mind to see how it goes.
The day was rounded off with the customary send-off… I was made to spar all takers. I felt like things were working for me today, despite Sensei Hartman turning into the Terminator and continuing to walk forward with attacks. I tried my best Sarah Conner impression but it didn’t really work too well! Mike, John, and Matt all gave me something unique and different to remember them by, and we capped everything off with a Sochin kata for good measure. I was tired, but it was one of the better workouts that I have had in a long time.
Since Sensei Hartman had to work on Thursday and couldn’t join us for an outing, he and the rest of the Saturday morning crew went to Steak and Shake for lunch. Sensei Hartman gave me a copy of the Shotokan Magazine with his article in it, amazingly we realized that Sensei Yaguchi was on the cover. I will be training at Sensei Yaguchi’s dojo in Denver during my time out there, so that was a strange moment of unintentional foreshadowing. He signed the magazine for me and gave me some pictures of the crew to have on-hand when I’m missing my beatings.
Sensei Quinn also joined us, and really floored me by giving me his own calligraphy of the dojo kun. He also gave me a wall scroll that had calligraphy that described an old story that described some warriors that were surrounded on four sides. He went on to explain that the details of the story reminded him of me and the Rabid Chihuahua nickname and so he thought I would like it. Just liking it is a gross understatement… I was so floored I could hardly select words to thank him with.
I have an immense amount of respect for Sensei Quinn, Sensei Brewer, and Sensei Hartman… these guys will probably never know how much their efforts in teaching and mentoring have meant to me over the years. Karate has given me the confidence and dedication to achieve many of my personal, educational, and professional goals throughout my life and it is due in large measure to those three men, in addition to the support and hard knocks that I received at the hands of my fellow dojomates.
I had Sensei Quinn come out and show the class a demonstration on front kick, and I joked that we all had to pretend like we were him for a few minutes to try to get our front kicks looking that good. It was only a partial joke… I think all of us that walk down Karate’s path strive to be more like our Sensei’s in both technique and personality. Any amount of praise from these guys is golden to those of us that have looked up to them for so long, and I had the honor of getting many well wishes and compliments this week.
These nice thoughts and words mean a lot to me, and I want to thank everyone who have wished me well this week. Everyone at work seems to think that I’m going to fall in love with the scenery out there and never come home, but I know that will not happen. I consider my family and my second karate family some of the most important things, and I don’t intend to be cut off from them at length.
I’m coming home soon enough, and I expect you all to punch me when I return!
Osu!
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