Today’s workout was a fun one. My body is getting somewhat used to being up ultra-early, which meant I wasn’t quite as sluggish as the class began. Today’s combination was shifting back in front stance with rising block, without moving perform inward block with the same hand, and then downward block with the same hand. Follow that with a reverse punch, then a rear leg front kick, landing with a jab and reverse punch.
After a few iterations of that, we moved on to kumite. The attacker would do lunge punch to the face, followed by two reverse punches to the body (basically, sanbon tsuki). The defender would do the combination above, stopping after the first reverse punch. We eventually did this with both legs before the standard kumite time was up.
Today’s kata was Hangetsu. Sensei Yaguchi had us do the kata in groups, the first time slow to medium speed. I made it through pretty well, Sensei Yaguchi corrected me regarding my rear hip sticking out in hangetsu-dachi (a problem I know I have). The second time through the kata, we were told to perform in “in 30 seconds”. The more advanced black belts had to attempt it in 15 seconds. I got about halfway through, brainfarted and skipped to the last combination with the crescent kick too soon. Embarassing, but as he said yesterday “mistakes make you interesting.”
That about wrapped it up for the class, however in between katas one of my friends in the dojo gave me some valuable and hilarious information. Once during her training, she was doing Sochin and her instructor laughed at her. Later, she found out why: it seems when pronouncing the kata, emphasis should be placed on the first syllable (SO-chin). Said this way, it means “tranquil force” or “to keep the peace”. Emphasizing the other syllable (so-CHIN) has a very different meaning: “low grade penis.” Clearly, this is not something I’m ever going to ask Sensei Yaguchi about… I wonder if Sensei Quinn could confirm if this is the case. If so, I know I’ve probably mispronounced it and will be fairly embarrassed.
Either way it’s good information to have so I’m careful with my pronunciation.
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