2007 Workout #8: More work to do…

Thursday was a class chock full of white belts… eight of them to be exact. I had the urge to channel some of the latent energy floating around the universe and led the group through a warmup that consisted of 100 abdominal exercises (including modified leg raises courtesy of ) and 20 pushups.

By this point, Sensei Brewer had showed up and he ran everyone through a good basic workout before dispatching Garls-san, Oedewaldt-san, and I to take the white belts into the other room. I was elected to lead the class, so I ran them through punching, front stance, kiais, and lunge punching in stance. They did so well I threw in some reverse punches for good measure, and that had lapsed by 20 minute block.

The second class was opened with some black belt katas… we did Bassai Dai facing four different directions, Empi facing the front and back of the room, and then Hangetsu facing the front and back of the room. After that, it was sparring time.

I was feeling pretty good on Thursday night. Sensei Brewer made the recommendation that I stay lower and move around more. He also told me not to bounce, but I am having trouble figuring out how to be mobile and yet solid enough to launch a meaningful attack. I know I just need to work on it more, but when I try to stay mobile I feel like there is a lot of transition time in my stances where I am not strong.

He recommended that I keep my feet on the ground and slide as I move more and watch some of the Japanese championship sparring videos. He says I am built a lot like those guys… thin and quick. Don’t be surprised to see a few more karate videos pop up as I start to research more.