2009 Workout #40: I converted one!

Last night Paul B and I went over to the Arvada dojo together.  Mr. Tarrant was very welcoming to Paul, allowing him to wear his gi and nidan to class.  The workout was the normal basics, partner drills, kata trifecta however we started out with some pretty hair-raising combinations.

My favorite (and most difficult) of the night was the following: reverse punch, rear leg jodan crescent kick, geidan side thrust kick without putting the foot down, backfist strike using the hand you punched with, landing in front stance with a reverse punch, then step forward reverse punch, then step forward with a rear leg foot sweep finishing with a third reverse punch.  We did that about 30 times.

I don’t know if this is just a regional difference or what, but they seem to do more crescent kicks and geidan kicks than we do back in IL.  In addition, they seem to intersperse a lot of the uncommon hand techniques from advanced katas as part of their normal routine, which is both difficult and interesting all at the same time.

We did partner drills, working on sen-no-sen, go-no-sen, and tachi-no-sen (also known as sen-sen-no-sen by the ASKA).  I felt like I did pretty well at the timing, however I was across from someone in our dojo named Kevin who reminds me a lot in body type of Dirst-san.  Powerful body dynamics, great power, and decent timing and speed… that combination made for a few “fun” collisions.

One interesting different interpretation: Mr. Tarrant had us attempt to do sen-sen-no-sen using a switchback with a back fist strike as the counterattack.  I was having a very difficult time (as was everyone) in getting this working in such a way that didn’t expose your ribs to the attacker as you evaded their strike, but Mr. Tarrant was able to do it without much difficulty.  Seems like something to work on, for certain.

We rounded out the night with the Heian katas, and our individual kata.  Paul did a good job getting through these, and I think was generally satisfied with the class as a whole.  He asked a few times about coming back to the club, so I think I might have converted someone to Shotokan!  w00t!  It will make it appreciably easier to get to the dojo since I have someone that I know that is going, also Paul can drag me out of the office when that gets in the way too often.  It’s going to be a win/win situation!