Saturday, January 31, 2009

I'm A Bit Stiff And Sore...

...from all the sparring Thursday evening, no doubt. Not bad or bruised sore, really good workout sore. Mostly in my shoulders & rib cage from all the upper-body work on jabs and blocks.

There are times when you get more of a workout than you thought, I think this is one of them.

Now I need to get physical today a little to get things loosened up and blood flowing to begin the strength building.

The little aches and pains are signs that you're making progress - it's the big ones you have to be careful of.

Right now, I'm just grateful I get to continue after all that business with the YMCA membership last year.

Sayonara,

Dan

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Sparring 'Til We Drop...

...this was a great class. I was in for a makeup session at Sensei's invitation because I missed Tuesday last week. We started off for 20 minutes in a side room with stretching and then kick, punch, and self-defense techniques.

After that, we went to our usual Dojo and geared up for sparring, and we spent the next hour sparring.

One of the guys my age and about a foot shorter was really jazzed up and wound tight because he has a tournament a week from Sunday, Feb 8th. He was very fast & aggressive, but I managed to make him work for most of his points.

I sparred most everyone in class except a couple of the kids, and wound out the session sparring our Purple Belt.

All said and done, it was great exercise.

Sayonara,

Dan

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

For those Inquiring Where The Patches Go On Your Gi...

...see this post from last year:

Promoted...


Sayonara,

Dan

A Little Learning, A Little Teaching...

...This class was mostly about kata - I got to learn the first half of Takeoko Kai Go - which is the second kata required for my next promotion. We also went through all the white belt katas, from Empi to Takeoko Kai Ichei, Ni, & Son. I go to practice Shii as well.

Later in the class, Sensei had to work with our Purple Belt - so he had me instruct the two white belts there on the most basic Takeoko Kai - Ichei. I think they both made good progress.

At the end of class, since there was no sparring, Sensei asked us what we wanted to do. I requested kicking drills, because I need the aerobic exercise as well as the form training. We did roundhouse kicks, front kicks, jumping front kicks, side kicks, crescent kicks, etc.

All in all a good class.

Sensei also warned us that with the economy, he might be forced to work a second shift instead of first shift. If that's so, another black belt will be taking over the class. I'm hoping not, but I completely understand. My employer just announced that we will take a 5% pay cut through June, and that they are suspending 401k matching funds. The economy is bad for people's health this way. I've read of people who were losing weight and getting high blood pressure under control, only to be forced into eating cheap fast foods and having all their health gains go out the window.

Hopefully things will get better soon.

Sayonara,

Dan

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

I completely missed class this week...

...I was off yesterday for Martin Luther King Day, and it threw me off my usual routine. I was up early in the morning, and couldn't sleep. This is not good, because I work 3rd shift. I tried to take a nap for a couple of hours before class so that I wouldn't be so dead to the world at work tonight, and I blew it setting the alarm. I woke up when class was already half over.

I'll be back in next week, but watch those holidays against your routine, it's easy for the unusual to goof schedules up.

Sayonara, and thank you for reading,

Dan

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

A bit of confusion, a bit of teaching...

...class was good tonight, but started off a little weird. The Y only really has one room big enough for larger exercise classes, and there's an aerobics class ahead of us. It appears that the aerobics instructor on Thursdays before our karate class asked the Y for an extra 15 minutes in the classroom so they could cool down. The Y went along with it, because there are more students in aerobics class than in karate class.

I guess it doesn't matter that between the two nights there are probably 25 of us, and our schedules, which we all thought were set, well, they just don't mean a thing.

At least Sensei is being fair. If the aerobics class gets an hour and fifteen minutes when they paid for an hour, our class is getting an hour and fifteen minutes. We're starting the first 15 minutes in a smaller classroom in the new wing, and then moving to the big classroom at 8:15 instead of starting in there at 8:00. Class now runs until 9:15 pm.

At any rate, we started warm up with kata, all doing Takeoko kai ichei thru son, then our highest kata once.

After kata warm up, we did 45 minutes of sparring. At first it was one-on-one, and I was doing pretty well I thought, holding my own. Then we did two-on-one, and I got to be the man in the middle for 2/3rds the time. Wow, that was a workout!

After sparring, we worked on kata for another 1/2 hour. Some of us got to help others perfect their forms. I worked with one of the white belts on the first three Takeoko's especially ichei. If you get that one down, the next two only differ in which block and punch you're using. I thought the guy I was working with made some solid improvements.

We finished up with a couple of repetitions of the Empi kata, which is all elbow strikes for the most part.

There was a lot of good discussion after the class too. I really enjoyed it.

Until next week - (I'm only doing Tuesday nights right now)

Sayonara,

Dan

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

1st Class Back In 2009:

Ahhhhhhhh. It just plain felt good.

I had a little rust around the edges because of how busy it's been through the holidays. It was good to shake the rust off.

We started out with a few kata repetitions, everyone doing their highest kata. (I'm still at Takeoko Kai Shii) I need to get back into the groove with that, but it was a good warm-up, especially since I was three minutes late to class. (I know, I know! I couldn't help it, there was ice and snow on the truck & driveway when I woke up. I work 3rd shift and sleep until it's time to get ready for class.) Being late meant there was no time to stretch out before class, and after a month with no practice, I was a bit nervous. Everything went fine, though.

After about for reps of kata, we got our gear on and started sparring. I was surprised, I did really well, and was holding my own against several opponents, even a purple belt.

The fun part was after everyone in class had had a chance to fight everyone else. At that point, Sensei had us each get in the center of the dojo and declare who had been our greatest challenge in sparring so far tonight. Then he would have another student referee and call points while he coached us against our toughest opponent for the night. Three people in a row picked me as their toughest opponent tonight! I'm sure a good part of that is that I'm 6'6" and 319lbs. I have a very long reach, and I'm tough to push off balance. By the time the third bout was over, I was just about ready to keel over from exhaustion.

The person that was MY greatest challenge was our purple belt. She is barely 5' tall, and I'd be surprised if she weighed 120lbs. HOWEVER, she is very fit, extremely fast, and several belt ranks more skilled than I am. There were a couple of points where she literally hooked her arm in mine and climbed me like a tree to bop me in the head! (Makes me laugh, my Sis's daughter calls me Uncle Tree 'cause she likes to climb on me. I call her Squirrell.)

The best news was in the locker room after class. I like to weigh just before showering, for obvious reasons. Weight before the holidays: 314lbs. Weight after the holidays: 319lbs. Only a gain of 5, Not. Too. Bad. I was very grateful I hadn't lost much ground.

At any rate, it was wonderful to be back in class. There are a couple of new white belts, both doing quite well.

Happy New Year, and sayonara.

Dan

I get to go back to Karate class tonight!

Wooohooo, yeehaaaah! Er, dang, that is going to be great.

Sayonara,

Dan

Saturday, January 3, 2009

Just updated my YMCA membership...

...changed from full-family membership to program-only. Cost: $54.00 per year. Had a $34.00 credit from an unused swim pass, so $20.00 for this year. Signed up for next karate session, $60.00. All told, I spent $80.00 to get back in. It will now cost me $60.00 every six weeks to attend. I need to set aside $20.00 per paycheck. Not too bad.

Sayonara,

Dan