I headed back to the dojo tonight, and wow what a workout! We opened up with nearly 10 Heian Yondan kata, followed by side snap kick drills, utilizing the dance studio’s bar to keep our balance. We did a bit with partners on this, where they would catch the kick to check foot angle before we continued. After that, we did some partner training, one-time semi-free sparring like on the Shodan test, and then we moved on to semi-free sparring where punches were not allowed. Only striking.
So after a myriad of failed elbow strikes, backfist strikes, knifehand and ridgehand strikes, palm heel strikes and the like, we moved on to kata. We did a bunch of different ones… Heian Godan, Bassai Dai, Jion, Jitte, Sochin (woot!), Nijushiho, and Tekki Nidan. It was a very hard but very interesting workout, and as is our way we closed the night trading some karate stories. Sensei Tarrant and Paul B. almost have me talked into re-attemping my Sochin goal, but there’s some logistics that might get in the way. We’ll have to see how that shapes up.
I think I’m going to need some co-located commiseration from my buddies back in IL, so let’s get to it!
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