2011 Workout #2: Basics until you drop…

Last night’s workout was very difficult for me.  It never is as apparent that you’ve been living on practically no sleep and working flat-out for days as it is when you’re in the middle of a karate workout.

Sensei Tarrant devises these combinations that we do (usually 4-8 techniques) and has us to them on the right and left side 20 or 30 times and then wraps things up with once up and down the room with speed and power.  Often times, he will create these so you can replace punches with kicks and you have a whole new set of things to do.  By this moment you’re usually blasted from the first combination and things start to hurt really badly.  Paul B and I have decided that this moment in a workout is equivalent to most of our Wednesdays at the office, so we refer to this moment in the workout as “Wednesday”.

Tonight’s combination was slide in jab, slide back inward block with the same hand, slide forward jabbing with the same hand, and slide forward once more with reverse punch.  The kicking equivalent of this was slide in with rear leg front kick, slide back with front leg front kick, step forward with rear leg front kick, then kick with the rear leg and step back in stance.  There were two other variations, but I don’t feel like typing them out right now.

We followed this by doing some sparring, so intense that one of the guys in the dojo had to stop and throw up.  (He was suffering from some persistent stomach illness anyway, but it was one of the first times I can recall this happening at the dojo.)  I got across from a guy in our school named Kevin that reminds me so much of Mark Dirst that it isn’t even funny.  Strong technique, natural body movements, hard blocks, and speed.  My technique was really crappy for some reason tonight, but I was able to match him in speed and timing.  Sensei Tarrant seemed pleased with this.

We wrapped up the class with kata, by this point I was very tired so I opted to go slowly working on proper technique.  I did Sochin, Hangetsu, Jitte, and attempted Gankaku (screwed it up).  I asked Sensei Tarrant for help so he led the entire class through the kata once, and then we wrapped up with our own kata (Sochin for me) at full speed.  It was a good workout, but I was happy when it was over.

More soon!