2008 Workout #89: At long last, Sensei Yaguchi.

Tonight, after much prodding from Sensei Hartman, I made the time to get down to the Denver dojo and train.  I didn’t know if I was going to get lucky enough to meet Sensei Yaguchi this time around, but I was excited to get to train.  I got there around 6:15, which was plenty of time to get changed but I thought it appropriate to introduce myself to Sensei Yaguchi prior to suiting up.

I got to talking with one of the guys I met previously (named Mike) and headed downstairs to change.  Sensei Yaguchi must have just arrived because he was in street clothes.  He spotted me and said “No shoes!”, since I was wrapped up in conversation with Mike I walked right past the shoe rack on the way downstairs to the changing area.  Great first impression.  Excellent.

So I apologized and quickly made my way back upstairs to take off my shoes.  I went back around to Sensei Yaguchi’s office and introduced myself as a member of Sensei Brewer’s dojo, and that we were affiliated with Sensei Hassell’s organization.  He asked how Sensei Hassell has been, and said that I would be welcome to train with him.  He outlined the monthly costs and the registration fees with the ISKF and JKA and then I excused myself to suit up.

Quickly it was time for class to start, they went through a pretty standard warm-up that felt very much like ours.  Then Sensei Yaguchi took the floor to teach “some basic warmup combinations”.  The first combination was stepping backwards with a face level knifehand strike, then using hip action swing that same hand in a circular motion around into a face level ridgehand strike, then reverse punch.  And we did like 30 of those on each side.

After this, we immediately went into another combination: stepping back with downward block, front leg front kick, then two reverse punches with the same hand.  We did these in chains of three steps backwards, which is about all of the room we had to move forward and backward.  By this time, I was pouring sweat and practically panting… the elevation had set in!

Several times Sensei Yaguchi would stop in front of me to watch and would say “You’re a mile high!  Take it easy or you will fall over!” then he’s slap me on the shoulder and chuckle a little.  Graciously, he stopped us for a water break!

After this, we got into a partner drill.  One side attached with a face level punch, the other side stepped back and did two rapid succession rising blocks with the same hand using body vibration.  Sensei Yaguchi indicated that this might not be very effective, but it does disrupt the power of the attack and is a good timing drill.  This rising block combination was followed by a switch back reverse punch.  We did this about 30 times each side, and switched partners once.  My legs and lungs were burning at this point, and I’m afraid my technique was showing the strain… Sensei kept correcting me on my rear hip drifting out and my shoulders leaning forward.

After another short water break, we did three iterations of Tekki Shodan, focusing on the foundation of stance and hip movement.  Sensei Yaguchi had a few differences from the way we tend to do Tekki Shodan, the circular punching combination did not rely on pullback, in fact he corrected us to not let the elbow break the plane of the shoulders.  The power of the technique as he demonstrated it was due to body vibration and the snap of the wrist.

The last portion of the class involved doing your “own personal kata”.  I selected Sochin, since I was used to doing that kata while exhausted.  Sensei Yaguchi corrected me on the brushing block/backfist strike combination toward the end of the kata, taking special care to show me my mistake by putting a lunge punch right in my face.  Apparently I wasn’t moving my hands at the same time to provide protection for my face, an important detail for sure!  He told me that Sochin was a special favorite of his and the kata was very special to him so he looked forward to working with me on it.

That was all for the class, Sensei Yaguchi took the time to tell the class that I had come from Illinois and they should introduce themselves to me before they leave.  After class had bowed out, I thanked him for the opportunity and he thanked me for coming to his school.  I was very impressed by Sensei Yaguchi’s matter-of-fact teaching style and his demeanor during the class… I am sure training under him is going to positively impact my training!

One of Sensei Yaguchi’s head black belts told me that this was an unusually hard workout, altitude or not… so I don’t feel so bad about my performance.  That being said… I am TIRED and already starting to get sore from the workout.  I have a social function to attend Thursday night, but I plan to be back at it on Tuesday… and I’ll probably need at least that long to recover!