Kata, Sparring

This evening, we spent the first half of clasas practising kata. Four of us tonight were white belts, and the four of us together practiced the first three takeo's, working together to perfect forms. Takeo Kai Ichei, Takeo Kai Ni, and Takeo Kai Son all use the exact same "I-pattern" foot work. In Ichei, you use down blocks and low punches. In Ni, you use middle blocks and middle punches. In Son, you use high blocks and high punches.

We also practiced Empi kata, which is elbow strikes. We did this one twice.

After kata practice, we moved to our regular dojo room. There, we had a graduation ceremony. One of the yellow belts earned sixth degree, which is the last degree of yellow belt. For this, green bands are added to the ends of the yellow belt. Another yellow belt earned his green belt.

In the ceremony, all of us get on our hands and knees to mark the special quality of the occasion, and out of respect for our classmates' achievement. Unfortunately, google image search is failing me on this one. Maybe I'll get to scan a photo when my first belt rank is passed.

After that, we did sparring, and I got to break in the new protective gear. It all worked pretty well, except I had trouble with one of the bottom straps on the left foot guard cutting into the webbing between my next to little toe and foot a bit, and the skin split there at the flex point. The mouthguard was ok, but I got rid of the strap on it.


(My set is all in the metallic blue, and I got a separate Shock Doctor "boil-n-bite" mouthguard. Click on the picture to get the gear pictured.)

The last couple of rounds of sparring, Sensei had us spar two-on-one, and we each got to take turns being the middle person who was getting double-teamed. it's tough, but not impossible.

By the end, we were all pretty tired and thirsty. Definitely a wash-a-gi night.

Sayonara,

Dan