Way of the Spatula

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.

This week finally marks my first time in the dojo this year.  Monday night Sensei Struchtemeyer returned with a killer circuit training workout that included 5 stations.  Station 1 was kata, station 2 was beating “the big blue bag” with open handed strikes in sets of 3, station 3 was clinch knee strikes on a kicking shield, station 4 was full power palm heel strikes to the shields, and station 5 was continuous striking against 2 heavy bags.  It was a killer workout for the class, and everyone was thoroughly exhausted by the end of the class.

Unfortunately, due to my injury, I was unable to participate.  Instead, I did kata for the entire hour and a half at the best pace I could. I think I did about 18 different kata at least 5 times each. I still had a pretty good workout, and it did me some good to review all the kata.

Thursday night’s class was focused on the kata Ananku.  Not as exciting as Monday night, but a good workout and something the class needed to cover. 

Driving home from another late night from work tonight, I almost #2′d myself when, suddenly, my passenger side mirror exploded and face and antlers of a deer smashed into my front passenger window.  It happened so fast, I didn’t even have time to freak out.  I never saw the deer in the front, and I never saw him in the rear view after the impact. 

I don’t know what deer have against me, but the same thing happened last year; only it was on the driver side.  I’ve never been a deer hunter, but I’m thinking about taking it up.  I need some revenge.  I’m losing the battle 2:0. 

Oh well, I get to talk to the insurance man tomorrow.

I’m still here.  Unfortunately, it’s been a bad start to the New Year. 
The entire family has been very sick since New Year’s Eve.  On top of
that, I got a killer case of Pink Eye (bacterial) in both my eyes.  I
have two days of antibiotics left.  Hopefully it will be gone by then. 
Until yesterday, I couldn’t walk more than about 100 feet without
having to stop and rest.  I honestly don’t remember being this sick
before.  I should be back to normal, relatively, by next week;
hopefully.