Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Sweat Classes vs. Thinking Classes, or The Yellow Belt Cometh

Tonight was what I would call a "thinking class." These are classes where Sensei dives into the minutiae of forms and techniques, gives explanations, and has us practice them.

Sweat classes are the ones where he either has us do strength-building drills, or sparring, or both.

I enjoy both kinds of class, and they both have their place.

I was tested tonight for yellow belt - and passed. I tend to think just barely so. You can bet your whatever, that I personally am not satisfied with my own performance, meaning I will drill on it even more.

The ceremony should take place in less than two weeks - time to get my patches and such also in order.

Interestingly, when we started tonight, the class's juvenile body dummy was slightly damaged by someone carelessly throwing it in a closet. Sensei was quite angry, not that I blame him.

We were, however, able to pull most of the dent in it's support base out...

It was a good class.

Sayonara,

Dan

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Last Thursday, This Thursday

Wow, it's been awhile since I could get here. Sorry 'bout that, but these gas prices have driven me onto the commuter trains - which means my commute has gone from two hours round-trip to four. I'm going to have to be a bit more sporadic, not that I like it any.

At any rate, last Thursday was great - we did kata, kata, kata like crazy. Sensei is getting ready to test several levels in the class, so we were really drilling.

Ed and I got to spar the last 15 minutes of class, and it was a good session. He got me a serious blast in the nose, but he also taught me something I'd already suspected: I need to stop pulling my kicks to the point where they don't contact. I'm missing a ton of points in sparring that way. I've always been afraid that if I do make contact when kicking, I'd injure someone. I think maybe now I'm getting enough control I can keep it to light contact.

Tonight, however, was started with Kata, and followed by combination routines on the Wavemaster. (See THIS POST for an explanation of what a Wavemaster is.)

After beating bag for 45 minutes in numerous combinations, we adjourned class.

The last thing Sensei said to myself and the other uniformed white belt in class was that we "should treat every class as if it were a test from here until we're tested in June." I take it there's more meaning in that than just what it seems on the surface.

On that note, Sayonara, and thank you for reading.

Dan

Saturday, May 3, 2008

I Got My Roundhouse Kick Back!

Although I haven't mentioned it much in these pages, I took Tae Kwon Do at a different YMCA for a year & 1/2 - to yellow belt. I used to be pretty good at the roundhouse kick - then I broke my foot. MALL WALKING, of all the silly $#!++, but I went on hiatus from martial arts for about 2 & 1/2 years. When I came to karate, my roundhouse kicks were like wet noodles slapping the Wavemaster. Well, last week Thursday, I got my snap back - and I was moving that bag a couple of feet sideways. I overheard one classmate say she'd never seen anyone kick the bag so hard.

On to that, this past week I just have been swamped with things that kept me out of class - so I'm hoping to make it yet today.

Sayonara,

Dan