Thursday, July 24, 2008

Still Thrusting For That Kick...

...and it's been a bit elusive. I've got the general pattern of Takeo Ko Kai Shi down, but am perfecting execution as yet. Sensei & our new Brown Belt evaluated myself and one other Yellow Belt in class Tuesday, and the consensus is that we are not yet ready to move on to the next kata, neither of us. I agree.

The prior Thursday, we had sparring, and I learned the value of shin guards, which I do not have yet. Myself and another gentleman my age were sparring and jamming each others' kicks, and both of us were bruised up around the shins.

I'm up to about 55 on squat thrusts, which is an improvement.

My weight has plateaued or dropped by a pound, so not too bad. I'm holding at either 320 or 314, depending on if I use our home scale or the medical scale at the YMCA, respectively. That beats gaining in my book.

I have to also say that the extra leg strength is helping ease the arthritis pain in my knees. At 46, I've got a bit of that going on, and Dad tells me it runs in the family. I'm hoping I can take more weight off and reduce both low-level, whole-body inflammatory response, and also weight strain on the joints.

I need to figure out how to get a bit more aerobic exercise in on non-class days. Either that or calesthetics, or a mix of both. I'll work on that and report back later.

A side note, my wife and I watched Step Up 2 The Streets this past weekend. I love that Stepper dancing, but it is way beyond anything I did even back in the Disco / Soul era. I used to love dancing, but I'm not sure I could handle anything like that even if I were in perfect shape at this age. Wow.

Still, even getting back to a little Disco in the basement wouldn't be bad.

Sayonara,

Dan

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Rain-out...

Class was canceled Thursday night after rough weather moved into the area. We were all there & in uniform, but things got ugly up above, and there was a tornado that took out the high school back in 1990. Several teachers & students were killed. I think Sensei must have been in town back then. He sent us all home.

Safety first -

Sayonara,

Dan

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

I've Been Chasing That Takeo Ko Kai...

Squat thrusts and practice, this one is a tough one to master.

Last week Tuesday, we did kata for the first two thirds of class and sparring the last third. I wasn't at my best in sparring, but so be it.

Thursday, I was out of class for another commitment.

Last night was about 15 minutes of kata followed by sparring the rest of the class. It was one great heavy-duty workout. For the first half of sparring, we were one-on-one, but the rest of the time we were two-on-one. I did really well because of my reach.

Definitely washagi.



Sayonara,

Dan