Posts Tagged ‘Karate’

Last nights class was a belt rank exam. I wasn’t supposed to sit on the board this time, in fact, I was hoping I’d get to “play” with the test candidates >) . Sensei had invited Mr. Brian Strictmeyer (sp), another local Matsubayshi ryu black belt (and, incidently, one of the baddest mofo’s I’ve ever met) to sit on the board with him and Mr. Kuehner. Unfortunately, Mr. Kuehner was inflicted with the illness that’s going around, so I was a last minute addition to the board.

The kids test went really well. The test started out with Eddy leading the kids through a pretty darn tough warmup session. The kids were pretty well tired before they even got started. There were only 2 students that I thought were even questionable, but neither Sensei, nor Brian agreed with me… which I found surprising, because Brian is VERY hard-core. In fact, Brian was extremely impressed with the kids. That’s a good sign. Brian is very old-school. He’s the way I was when I was much younger… except he actually has knowledge and skill… but he believes in “The Forge” method of training (those of you who were training in the 80′s and earlier should know what I mean.

The adult test was a whole different story. Tania was testing for 3rd Kyu, and Brendon was testing for his yellow belt (which I think is 8th kyu here). Brian had Nathanial lead the adults through a barn-burner of a warm-up. I’m not even kidding. I wanted to pass out from exhaustion just wathing them. It was only about 15 minutes long, but it scared the bejeebus out of me; because, my black belt test will consist of at least, AT LEAST, 45 minutes of that type of insanity.

After warmups, the test began. I’m not even gonna lie. It was rough. Probably close to 2 hours (I lost track of time). Unfortunately for Brendon, he got the privelage of being Tania’s partner for most of the test. Even though he’s only been training for about 8 weeks, he went through most of the brown belt test right along side Tania. He did very well. He never quit and gave it his all. I have no doubt that he’s gonna pass his test. Tania did pretty well herself, but she is definately in need of work in several areas. She hung in for a test that I’m not sure I coulda survived, and gave it her best. Whether she passes or not, I’d say is up in the air. She did good though. She should be proud of herself.

Just in case some of you are wondering, the students don’t find out for several weeks whether they passed or not. After the test, the examiners spend time in private consulting with each other and then Sensei makes his decision. Base on our pow-wow, I have a pretty darn good idea of how well everyone did, but I’m not at liberty to say; just in case they might stumble on this post.

After last night’s test, though, I am much more concerned that I was; and more determined. I have got to lose about 60 lbs, and work my a$$ off over the next several months to get in shape for the test. The estimation is that my test will be somewhere around 6 hours long; most of it simply a gruelling torture session. They are thinking maybe in August, in a building with no a/c, and they are hoping the temperature is close to 100 just to make it tougher. And, I already know the caliber of the folks I’ll be facing. There’s about a 90% chance that Brian will be one of those people. As I said, I’m terrified. Its not because of the beating I’ll take, or the torture I’ll endure. Its because I’m afraid I’ll look like and idiot and embarrass myself and Sensei Walker (as well as Sensei Brewer, Hartman, and Evans). That would be the worst thing that could happen to me. Oh well. I’ve got some training to do.

I really need to start posting closer to the actual class. I can barely remember last Thursday’s (12.07.2006) class. In fact, I cannot honestly even remember if I went. It seems like I did, because I remember watching ER late that night, and I only usually do that after class. I’m sure part of the amnesia is due to the fact that I was pretty sick last week. I called in sick to work on Friday, and didn’t get out of bed until 5:30 pm. I spent most of Saturday sleeping as well. Anyway, I’m sure it was a good class.

Monday night was Ms. Shindo’s night to teach. She started out with about 40 minutes of talking about different historical and phylisophical points of karate. Then, she proceeded to kick our collective a$$’s for the remaining hour. It was actually a very good pre-test workout… wait… that’s it… that was last Thursday’s class too. I remember now. Mr. Keuhner went through a pre-test workout… anyways, back to the subject… Tania did quite a good job on that class (even if I don’t care much for the sitting and talking part).

Monday night was my turn to teach again. It was probably a good thing. My back was seriously hurting from shovelling snow over the weekend. I usually try to have some sort of class already worked out before I get there, but I just couldn’t decide what to do for class. The result was a totally *winged* class. I picked a simple theme and stuck with it.

I started the class doing a kata-like exercise called oyo-tanren(?). We did that twice, then moved on to sparring combinations to warm everyone up. Started simply with jab; forwards and backwards. I had them do jabs shuffling with the front let first then jabbing, then I switched to jab first then shuffle. I did both ways forwards and backwards making sure to explain how both methods could be effective and when one would be, imo, more effective. I continued doing this with jab reverse-punch, jab reverse-punch front-kick, and jab reverse-punch round-kick.

After that, I moved on into a 3-5 time attack styled drill; making sure they did the drill using the full length of the floor rather than just 3-5 techniques. I had them do the drill using the different combinations we had just finished doing. Towards the end, I threw in the idea of the receiver finding that opening and trying to hit it. After all that, I did a quick intro to foot-sweep using the jab reverse-punch foot-sweep combo. They all like it, I think, but they were more than a bit frustrated by it; which was the goal.

After that drill, I had them move into slow-sparring. Slow-sparring is something that most of them have never done before; unless it’s been with me. They are used to putting on full gear and sparring 2 people at a time, one-on-one while the rest of the class watches. I explained to them that that kind of sparring (fully padded down), the way it is normally conducted, is meant to test their skills. The point of this section of my class was, instead, to hone their skills. I had to observe them rather carefully (luckily, Sensei was there by this time to help me watch them); as they were having trouble with the concept of slow and controlled; which was expected.

It should probably be noted that all the partner work done above was completed in intervals that I tried to keep between 2-5 minutes in length; rotating after every interval. This kept them moving constantly the whole night, and they were constantly having to deal with someone new. I never gave them the chance to “get used to” anyone. I did make sure to keep the white belts in the same line so that they were always across from a higher belt. This served as both a coaching environment, as well as an intimidating one. It also forced the higher ranks to be wary of and practice their control.

The last five minutes of class, I ran them through kata at a very, VERY, relaxed and slow pace. After all that, I actually had to keep telling them to slow down and relax. By the end, everyone was soaked with sweat and panting. Overall, I think it was a good class.

Not much to tell. Lots of trainng… although not as much as I would have liked. Missed a couple days due to another death in the family. This did allow me to train with my old dojo again though. That’s always a good thing.

That is all.

Not too much to say. Just some good training going on. I had to teach last Monday(11/6). I think it was a decent class. The whole point of the class was to show them different ways to do karate. I started by going through warmups that consisted of combinations of techniques that the students had never seen before. I intended it to just be a quick 15 minute warmup, but they were having a lot more trouble than I had expected; so I took some extra time to make sure they could do them. After warmups, I went over different ways to do kata. We covered some old-school, high tension kata. Then, we covered doing kata in a slow, yoga-like fashion. Holding each movement for a specified length of time, and making sure not to forget to concentrate on the intermediate movements.

Overall, I thought it was a good class, but I was a bit worried. Most of them looked like they hated me during the class, and getting them to show some enthusiam was a bit hard. I think it was just their reaction to doing things so differently than they are used to, because, after class, several of them told me how much they liked the class; and they wish we’d do more stuff like that. A good ending after all.

Haven’t been posting much. Too tired. I’ve been leavin the house at about 7:20 in the mornings and not getting home until 11:30pm. I’ve been averaging about 3 hour karate workouts three times a week. I’ve been training about an hour before class and at least an hour after class. My white belt training buddy is coming along fast. He’s a quick learner and very gung ho. I hope he keeps it up.

Last Saturday (21 Oct) was my tri-annual Shotokan instructor training course. Not much to say about it. It was a good 4 hour workout. Got some good info on kata and some new perspectives on teaching. It was good to see my old friends and get to train with them. I’m glad to see they are all doing well and really improvin in their training.

Wow. 4 classes and a tournament have gone by, and I haven’t posted. I’m really slacking. I can sum up 57,58,59 pretty easy: tournament prep. Lots of kata and lots of sparring. I haven’t been working out a lot because I’ve mostly been acting as a corner judge for the pre tournament sparring judges.

The tournament was Saturday at the YMCA in Jefferson City, MO. It was a better tournament than I expected. There was actually quite a bit of talent there. It was an “Open” tournament, but there weren’t a lot of eclectic styles there. Mostly traditional schools. It was a decent time, and we brought home our share of trophies. An interesting side note was that the winner of the black belt kata division (who I spent some time talking to) was one of Phil Koeppel’s, of Peoria, IL, students. He actually used to train at Steve Mott’s school back in the day.

Tonights class marked the first class of the new format. Essentially, monday nights are Sensei Walker’s instructor training program. 4 of us are taking turns teaching on Monday nights for the forseeable future. It should be interesting. Tonight, Tania, led the class and she did a pretty good job. Had a pretty decent workout. I’m both a little sore and a little tired. After class, I spent some time with Brendon showing him different tricks for training different kicks. He’s really coming along. He’s gonna be a really good martial artist if he sticks with it. I certainly hope so.

Overall, it was a good night.

Last Tuesday’s class was a lot of solid kata. Getting geared up for the tournament, so we focused on that again.
Last Wednesday, it was just me and sensei Kuehner. We did a LOT of Chinese and Fillipino drills. It was a nice difference to do stuff like that.

Unfortunately, I missed Thursday’s class due to massive fatigue. I’ve been working out a LOT between karate and the gym. I was so tired I fell asleep at 6:30pm and slept till 7am.

Before class tonight, I got to the dojo in time to knock out at least one of every shorinryu kata I know. I probably spent 30 minutes doing that.

Tonight’s class was lots more tournament stuff. I had to spar one of our brown belts because he’s competing in the black belt division. He’s 18 and about 6’2″ or so and lanky as can be. Very reminiscent of vanirtjones. Sensei wanted me to school him a bit. As predicted, he won the match. He beat me 5-1, but he spent a lot of time on the floor and was limping in pain when he left. >) I’m evil. He did really well though, and I think he learned a little bit. He got in several good shots; busting my lip once. However, I’d take one and give back 3. I haven’t had that much fun in a while. Unfortunately, I had to wear all the crazy rubber armor crap that they wear. First time I’ve ever worn it. It was very uncomfortable, and hard to move in. I guess I better get used to it though.

After class, I stayed with Brendon (one of the new white belts) and we did some old school tension trainng for an hour. We were both exhausted before it was over.

I haven’t been posting much. Not much to say. The last 4 classes have just been good solid training. I haven’t taught in a while because Mr. Kuehner has been back from vacation and ona teaching roll. We’ve got a tournament coming up in a few weeks, so we’ve been doing some training for that.

Tonight, we pretty much just covered kata. Lots of it. Towards the end, Sensei had everyone do their kata, tournament style, in front of the rest of the class. Then each of us would say one thing we thought the performer did badly and one thing we thought they did well. It was a good experience, since several of our students are new and have never had to do that. It was a little embarrasing for me. I’ve never competed in an open tournament, but I had to pretend I was. This meant that I had to do the whole thing where you yell at the judges who you are, your style, and what kata you are doing. Additionally, I don’t really know any of the Shorin ryu black belt kata well enough to do in a tournament context so I ended up doing Fukyugata Ni (Geikisai for you goju folks out there).

I’d have to say that it was probably one of my worst performances ever (I’m sure Sensei Hartman would have disowned me for it ), but they all were very impressed. Several commented that they were disappointed I wasn’t going to compete because they thought i’d win for sure. LOL. That makes me laugh. I think they were mostly impressed because of my intensity; those of you who know me, know I go a bit overboard at times. Sensei even commented that several of the other students eyes about popped out when I did the kiai.

Anyways, I’ll try to post a bit more often.

Last Monday’s class (8-28-06) was interesting. Sensei started class by having me lead exercises. Those of you who know me know that I don’t like to do cookie-cutter karate. It didn’t go over real well with the other students. When I would tell them to do an exercise, they would just look at me like I was speaking greek. Things went a little slow, but we made it through warmups. I did smoke them, as well as myself, pretty good though. The following Thursday, I discovered that I was not the only one in the dojo who was still sore.

Last Thursday’s class (8-30-06) started off with me leading warmups for the kids. For the second class, Sensei had me lead warmpus again. This time, despite being sore, everyone was far more receptive to my style. In fact, I discovered that most of the students actually liked the way I did the warmups. After warmups, I was surprised by Sensei asking me to teach. I ended up teaching a little over half of the first class. After Sensei took over, he actually told me and the class that he was very impressed by the way I taught the class. I was quite humbled. Additionally, some of the kid’s parents told me that they liked the way I led the kids through warmups.

This Thursday’s class (9-8-06) was kept on the me teaching run. John is out of town this week and Sensei was late to the dojo, so I started warming up the kids at the appropriate time. After warmups, I led the kids class until Sensei got there. I ended up teaching half the class. For the adult class, Sensei had to speak to some of the parents. Thus, I was put into the position of leading warmups again. After warmpus, Sensei had me teach the class. He even jumped in line and worked out. It was interesting and fun.