Kumite Enema: Part Duex…

Last night was pretty good training, I got my wish to focus on kumite again this practice. Before class I had the good fortune of running through the basic four black belt kata and it turns out a few of them (Kanku Dai and Jion) were more than a little rusty. This felt good for a change.

During the first class we did sparring drills and I was stuck with Alex-san, who was having sufficient difficulty not exposing his ribs when I was supposed to counter attack him.

To rectify this situation, I kept counter attacking him until he got it right. In the end, he was trying much more but was still turning away/flinching from 1 in 3 of my attacks. He’ll learn.

The second class was a kumite-arama, I started off across from Dimmett-san (sp?). She really has much better kicks than she gives herself credit for. This leads me to wonder what the hell is wrong with female karateka… they all seem to have decimated self-esteem when it comes to their own abilities.

Take and for example: they are both yellow or red belts which is very near to the beginning of things, but yet they are so self-deprecating despite the fact they could mostly whip the asses of every other green belt in the class. I know this has to be holding them back in their training, but try as we might, and I cannot convince them that they do not, in fact, suck. Anyway, I digress.

The rest of practice last night was highlighted by several sets of one time sparring with , who traded most valiantly with me. A small surprise was delivered by Dublair-san, as he exhibited superior control and timing for a purple belt (yes, that’s right) as he did a surprise jab that squashed in my gigantic nose just enough to make me know it would’ve rocked my world.

made the comment that I appeared distracted while I was sparring tonight, and I know that this was the case. I have been busy getting my tanden (center) lowered and tightened and as a result have to consciously tell myself to do some specific things in order to not have this be a problem.

The only point last night where I felt relaxed in doing this was with , but that was mostly because I like beating the crap out of that kid and I wasn’t really focusing on my tanden. I’m already starting to feel the benefits of focusing on this, it won’t be long before I can re-release the rabid chihuahua into my normal sparring regiment.