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Worked out with the Central Illinois Shotokan this morning. Had to ventire out into the blizzard, but it was worth it. We did quite a few calesthenics to start with, followed by light basics, and some interesting combinations that Dalchersan brought with him courtesy of Sensei Yaguchi in Denver, Colorado. It was a good workout, and I needed it.

I had the pleasure of teaching classes last Thursday and Monday nights. I chose to stick with a theme for both nights, and that them was legs. We did lots of basics, as well as, partner drills, but all of them were done in deep stances: kibadachi, shikodachi, and zenkutsudachi. I concentrated a lot on shikodachi and kibadachi since most of our students really struggle with the concept of kibadachi and often end up in shikodachi very quickly; which is especially bad when doing the naihanchi kata.

Monday night, I also chose to challenge everyone mentally, as well as, physically. For the black belts, the challenge was in stringing techniques that we usually don't do together together; and also throwing in techniques that we just plain do not do in this dojo. For the lower ranks, the mental challenge was doing different techniques with counts that were not the same as the black belts; that is, they might be doing a simple downward block while the black belts were doing multi-count techniques right next to them.

I really enjoyed the classes, and I hope everyone else learned something and enjoyed them as well.

Last night's class was lots of basics. We had a new student, so Sensei kept it simple. Basics alone and with partners. I often feel bored with basics, but then I realized that I am probably the one that needs basics the most.

Last night's class was short, but packed. We covered almost all the the black belt kata twice in about 25 minutes. Not an incredible class, but had a good sweat going.

Decent karate workout tonight. Was rather short, and I just did kata; but I feel moderately tired. On a related note, tonight saw the triumphant return of one Gamal Castile to the dojo. I actually got him to show up. It's been almost 6 years since he donned the gi. He was a bit rusty, but he's still got it in him. Great to have him back.

Tonight marked my triumphant return to the dojo after the birth of my second baby. Before class and during the kids classes, I took the opportunity for some much-needed kata training. I focused on Shotokanryu kata tonight covering the 5 Heian, Bassai Dai, Kanku Dai, Jion, Empi, and Wankan. That had me pretty sweaty, so I snagged one of the other black belts (Craig) and did some slow sparring. Even though I was very rusty, it felt good for the most part.

The adult class was very small tonight; just 4 black belts. I was the senior rank, so I decided we'd work on basic sparring. We covered rather rapidly over the course of 30 minutes 5 step, 3 step, and 1 step sparring. There wasn't much talking, and quite a bit of sweating. I focused on covering the progression from 5 to 3 to 1 step sparring and on to 3-5 time attack and slow sparring. I also quickly covered the progressive training of these exercises from beginner to shodan, as well as, how to cover the same progression during a single advanced adult class. The others seem to really enjoy the training, and the prospective instructors thanked me for the ideas and insight.

Overall, I think it was a good night.

Good class tonight. Lots of kata in deep stances. Practed Kushanku Dai (ShitoRyu), then did some bo kata, finished up with some tournament style point sparring.

This one goes out to my gaming homeys. I watched this movie last night, and I laughed so hard I thought I was gonna vomit. It reminded me so much of our EvensBrook campaign.

The Gamers: Dorkness Rising

Last night we had a belt exam for the children.  It went really well, I think.  I was actually blow away by how well some of the children did; and likewise frustrated by how well some of them did when compared to their regular class participation.  The little buggers showed us what they can do; and I think the classes are going to start getting a lot harder now.

Missed Monday night class again due to work.  I managed to make it to Thursday’s class, but was about 30 minutes late.  When I got there, the class was doing yakusoku kumite drills (think 5 time attack all you Shotokan folks).  There were an even number of people, so I elected to do kata on my own rather than disrupt the class.  I did 15 bo kata in about 30 minutes with about as much power as I could muster.  It was enough to make me pretty sweaty; not too mention sore the next day.