Today was the first workout of our Kangeiko spirit training week. Morning came for me at 4:30 am, and after a relatively uneventful drive to the dojo the workout began. It was packed in there, probably around 50 people in a room not much bigger than the Pekin dojo. Everything is made logistically more difficult with that many people in such a small space, but we still muddled through.
Class began with warmups and some basic combinations. I was buoyed by the fact that Sensei Yaguchi kept the combinations very basic, probably for the benefit of the lower ranks. He stood in front of me for much of this section and didn’t have any corrections so that made me feel good. We then moved on to a very simple one-time partner drill, rotating among the myriad of 6th, 7th, and 8th dans at the dojo to use as partners. The drill consisted of the attacking side stepping in with lunge punch, and the defending side doing rising block from standing position, then stepping straight back and counterattacking with a reverse punch. Sensei Yaguchi made it a point to talk about how going straight back helps to get a sense of one’s partner, and deflecting and stepping to the side disrupts your power and makes you weaker and more easily beaten. Class wrapped up with kata, with each segment of black belts getting the chance to do a slow iteration of Bassai Dai followed by a fast one.
I felt good at the end of the workout, however the intervening workday and birthing class (coming up in a few minutes) is really sapping my remaining energy reserves. It is going to be a much-needed treat to go to bed early when I get home. More soon!
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