Nachi's Log

OKINAWA - WORLD BUDO SAI

Friday 29.7.16:



Junbi Undo with sensei Larsen + an exhausting kihon under the lead of sensei Higaonna. Also at the beginning when all of us were gathered, yesterday a happy events such as engagement were announced. And today, someone even came out, stood before the crowd, said his name, whom he's been training under, called out to his sweatheart and asked her if she would marry him. Nice. I probably don't need to mention what the answer was.

Our group's today's classes were with:

Sensei Tetsuji Nakamura (IOGKF World Chief Instructor; Canada Chief Instructor) - 7th dan
The class with sensei Nakamura was as good as always. We started with Saifa kata (2x) and continued with a lecture about looking in the distance and taking in our surroundings. And we did a couple of cool exercises practising that and our reflexes. They were a lot of fun, too. We need to try this with the kids in the dojo Well, not only kids, I'd say

Sensei Morio Higaonna (IOGKF Supreme Master; Okinawa) - 10th dan
+ Sensei Yonekazu Uehara (Okinawa) - 8th dan
Seiyunchin kata. Also another sensei (whom I didn't know) joined sensei Uehara in going around and correcting postures. I was really happy when he went close to us and nodded that our stance is alright Basically it was a class spent standing in Shiko dachi. But who would complain and stopped in front of sensei Higaonna? The class was longer than it should have been. It lasted almost an hour.

Sensei Britt Larsen (Denmark) - 6th dan
Sensei Britt had the lowest grade of all the instructor, but as far as I know is the second highest ranked woman in IOGKF. I never met her before, but her class was awesome She competed a lot in the past and spoke well and about interesting things about traditional karate.
We went through Gekisai Dai Ichi - same details and changing focus on different things - making each kata different. She wanted to show us another point of view and I thing she achieved that for sure. She also spoke about being always prepared to move and about the same look inthe distance that sensei Nakamura explained to us before. She also wanted us to not be sluggish when moving between postures, explaining how to do so and always be ready for action. Great class

In the evening, our friend who likes cooking prepared for us a home-made Okinawa soba (noodle soup) which was just delicious And a few of us spent some time talking about the next season with sensei. Because of my job I will not be able to teach the children classes anymore, but we'll see how it all goes

 

OKINAWA - WORLD BUDO SAI

Friday 30.7. 2016:

Last day of training, no common warm-up. Our senseis for today:

Sensei Linda Marchant (UK) - 7th dan
The highest ranked woman in IOGKF that I already mentioned and a very cool one at that!
With sensei we started with some footwork - transitions and kihon. Then we tried an exercise in groups of five practicing the first steps of Renzoku kumite for both sides, each of us going three rounds and faster and faster. Not easy at all. I joined a group of three guys from Germany and I didn't want to screw up. I was nervous for the first slow round, then I cleared my mind, stopped thinking about the sides, just react and I think I did pretty well, actually!
I stood in the second line in front of sensei, and although she usually called on a girls probably from her dojo as an assistant, for this combination with a take down, she brought me to the front. It ended with an armbar (? if that's the word) where sensei was standing, putting bressure on my elbow and controlling me with knee on my head. I didn't have to tap out, she always stopped just in time, but when she suddenly tried real fast, uf, I was a bit worried. But obviously sensei knows what she's doing. We then asked about something and she made sure to show me the pressure points to use on me. She did put some pressure, but well, it's not comfortable but not really something I believe would stop me or someone else...

Sensei Juichi Kokubo (Peru - Chief instructor) - 7th dan
Sensei started with unusual warm-up/stretching and had us practise mae ukemi from the horse stance and ushiro ukemi. It was a bit wild as there were a lot of us. As soon as I got up I had t jump out of the way of someone else a couple of times
Then he showed us very unusual applications on Gekisai Dai Ni kata. The first being a strange throw that begins with both partners standing in a horse stance. And one forces the other in mae ukemi and hits him when both end on the floor while controlling the other's arm. He explained thoroughly and let us try. I tried on my partner and thought it went quite ok. And sensei saw it. He stopped everyone, called us to the front and told me to show how it's done. :vanish:
I started and sensei went on to show a bit harder way, he suddenly didn't like the slow step by step version he showed before. But it worked well. Then he let us try group by group so we had enough space. But an accident of one person falling over the other still occured. Again, very interesting class!

Sensei Pervez Mistry (India - Chief instructor) - 8th dan
Sensei is the author of a new book - Sanchin, the three battles, that I brought with myself and got signed from sensei Higaonna. I was bringing it with me for the whole week in case I run into sensei Mistry. I didn't let the opportunity pass and asked him to sign it. I certainly wasn't the first one But he was surprised there was sensei Higaonna's signature and even tried to decipher the Japanese characters. I think he appreciated it And I got a second great signature
Sensei knows a whole lot about Sanchin, but unfortunately that wasn't what he practised with us. We did some kihon and he was explaining blocks like yoko-uke aren't stupid, but can be used fast and efficiently in a fight. He also went into detail of blocks in kata.
He ended the lesson with saying how meaningless the pressure point are. That on like one person our of three they wouldn't work. And he went on to prove his point by pointing to one of us students to stand up and pressed a point. The student made a painful face and tiptoed. He pointed and a second person, and the exact same thing happend. When he pointed on fourth, he pressed the same point, but the person stood there and kept smiling in his face. Lol, he had it all counted up! No, really, that was exactly even the same point sensei Linda tried on me earlier, but I acted more or less the same. Hmm, and I wanted to learn the pressure points well, but I guess they aren't too useful on too many people :thinking:

There was a final block in the main gym that consisted of us all practising for tomorrows demonstration and a short video that will be taken. A few minutes of kihon - all participants together just for show. Sensei Bakkies was organizing the whole thing. After this, all the colored belts were supposed to leave and do so quickly, while the black belts would reorganize, take off the upper part of their gi (only men) and demonstrate Sanchin. We had to practise how to move such a mass of people quickly and I just loved sensei Bakkies' loud instructions that were as simple as possible: "Kihon! Then, kyu grades - bye bye! Run like hell!" Lol
Sensei Higaonna then went on to talk about the history of Goju-ryu karate, having sensei Nakamura as a translator. Which was nice. I did my best to translate most things to my friend who doesn't speak English as usual, but It was a bit hard, since he was speaking about some very subtle and somewhat philosophical things, too.

In the afternoon we made a last visit to the Shureido shop, then went to a dinner with the Scotch group and sensei talked me into going to the dojo bar with him. We originally planned to, but except for sensei we decided not to. But he convinced me. I completely forgot today was the big anniversary day, so the bar was incredibly crowded. They tried to lure us in for snacks, but forcing our way through the crown wasn't worth it. We had a chat with the karateka from Burundi and especially his companion, who spoke English and returned still quite early.



Sunday 31.7.2016:

Our departure day. We participated in the whole group demonstration, listened to the Japanese hymn and other two songs sang by miss Natsuko and watched various other demonstration. Of another opera singer and a man with a gigantic drum, which was completely mindblowing and looked totally exhausting, not only the whole beating with all his strenght and at a fast pace, but also the fact he kept staying in a very low zenkutsu dachi the whole time. Then there was a whole group ofdancing drummers (Churasa - see the video below ), likewise very beautiful. I just loved both performances. Then came the various martial artists - iaido (I think), aikido, shaolin king fu (just cool) and then demnstrations of our senseis - from kumite to kata and things some countries prepared. It was great, but it was longer then it was supposed to, so we had to left when all the kata demonstrations began in order to get to the airport in time to chack in even with my bo staff and check-in. We flew to Nagoya in Japan, where we had to stay the night. I finally caught my friend's sickness - no wonder, I kept partnering up with him for the past few days - and layed on some bench with a headache and a temperature, no doubt. It got better in the morning, though. And another friends old eye injury opened up, so he suffered throught the entire journey and we were happy when we finally landed in Prague and safely got our baggage.
It was a completely amazing trip, though, and I enjoyed every bit of it. Karate and the friends I like to spend time with and Japan. Awesome. I think the time is slowly approaching for me to start saving for the next World Budosai, which is goin to happen not in four as usual, but in three years! (Because of the Olympics in Japan and teh IOGKF 40th anniversary ). My goal is to either go there with a black belt or to do the grading there If everything goes well

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H50Pb4uj8Ak"]美ら㕠CHURASA ï¼’ï¼ï¼‘ï¼– (第７回 世界æ*¦é“ç¥*) 沖縄県立æ*¦é“館 - YouTube[/ame]

 

After the Okinawa I spent a few busy days at home and then went for a week to Kentucky for a business trip. And I was busy again (starting at the job and preparing some things in order for me to move) when I returned and didn't make it for the couple of trainings. And I did completely nothing training-wise...

Until recently a fellow karateka tagged me in a 22 push-up challenge - to do 22 push-ups 22 days in a row. And I stylishly started, without realising it, on August 22nd

22.-24.8.16: 22 knuckle push-ups (to challenge myself more and to learn them properly)

Thursday 25.8.16:

Finally made it for a training! Without sensei today. There were 4-5 of us and most of us came late (my working hours are until 19:00 or 18:00 some days).
We only did kata & bunkai, but I was happy because as for the newest bunkai we learned, I forgot completely. Although we only had a little while to train those:
The training took around 1,5 hour I think.

Each kata 2x (except for only one Shisochin):
GKI, GKN, Saifa, Seiunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru + all the bunkai for all of them, once for each side. Struggling with especially Shisochin & Sanseru - I forgot them, I even had some trouble with Seiunchin bunkai. I got really rusty :/

22 knuckle push-ups

 

26.8.16: 22 knuckle push-ups

Saturday 27.8.16:

We spent the weekend at hour cottage and I squeezed a 30-minute training in

- 22 knuckle push-ups
- kicking practise with 1 kg ankle weights - mae, yoko and ushiro geri slowly about 5x for each side, as high as possible, stay in the position for a count to five or something, the same for mawashi geri, but 10x for each side, traing to go higher and higher
- Kata practise: GKI, GKN, Saifa, Seiyunchin, 2x Shisochin and 2x Sanseru

 

Seems like you had a good time in Okinawa!

It also appears that the women are much more attractive in karate than they are in MMA :hat:

 

KOBUDO demo class

Sunday 28.8.16:

A while ago I mentioned one rather new student to our dojo, who does Kobudo. Or rather, joined our dojo because he wanted to learn Goju ryu karate in order to improve his kobudo (he does different styl of karate originally). In Croatia I watched him practising with various weapons in preparation for his 4th dan grading that he successfully passed. I started aking about him teaching and about possibilities of him teaching or at least giving us a lesson in our dojo. Neither him or our sensei were against (and I even bought a bo in Okinawa! ), so we tried today, when he finally had some time.

I invited some fellow students whom I spoke to previously or whom I thought might be interested. And six of us came today for the first demo class to the dojo.

The teacher told us briefly about kobudo, the Matayoshi style that he practises, he handed us (well them, I had my own) bos - the long wooden staffs and we started. During the 1-hour long training he showed us and let us practise quite a lot of things. More than I thought we would do:

- kamae + the kobudo version of neko-ashi dachi and zenkutsu dachi
- how to hold the bo and how to change the sides - step by step
- how to hold the bo when striking + hikite
- a technique that could be used both as an attack and a block and plays a part in the etiquette
- etiquette at the beginning of techniques or kata
- rotating the staff in front of us with one and preferably both hands
- rotating the staff around us and how to move and do it faster
- a way to hold and use the staff in order to be able to surprise and confuse the opponent and be fast enough and without openings with demonstration
- 3 ways of timimg of block+attack
- first technique from the 5-technique sequence for the first kihon/hojo undo
-...and the fourth - tsuki
+ the general basic things


It was quite a lot to take in, but definitely interesting to try and well explained with examples, too. I'm happy I have stuff to practise, now - and a lot of practise needs to be done based on my performance today
In the next 30 or 40 minutes we were shown an introduced to probably all the weapons of the style. The teacher demontrated the techniques to us and mentioned interesting points about all of them. He seems to be experienced and as he cross-trains in several MA styles, he tries to find the logic and usefullnes in techniques, which is great.
I think all of us enjoyed the class a lot and at least four of us are looking forward to the next class! And the teacher is willing. So as long as I organize things, I should be able to learn at least a bit of kobudo! Yay! :banana: :happy: :hat:

As he and other people say, kobudo is a sister art to karate, they go hand in hand and one improves the other. The old karate masters used to learn both, although they were taught separately. Just recently in Okinawa, sensei Higaonna was speaking about the history of karate and he metioned that sensei Chojun Miyagi - the official founder of Goju ryu - saw his teacher, sensei Kanryo Higaonna practise with a sword and a bo when he practised by himself and was stunned by his skill. Sensei Higaonna mastered the weapons, but he, I think, only ever taught karate.
...And this is also another reason why I want to learn kobudo

+ 22 knuckle push-ups

 

Yes, of course! Who wouldn't? But we certainly enjoyed it as much as we could!

Hahaha, I won't be a judge of that

 

Obviously.

Just a light hearted remark.

Sadly there aren't any women that regularly train at my gym. They never seem to stay and it's quite a hyper masculine atmosphere, which is a real shame.

 

No problem at all.

Also I think it's not ok to use comments like these, but this was obviously meant as a joke/compliment and I wouldn't take it to heart. If you said British women were more attractive than Czech, although it is not really ok, I also wouldn't get offended, it's just such a broad statement and not really aimed at anyone in particular, that you really can't draw any conclusions from it... (especially since Knee Rider has no women in his club he could have meant)

He also didn't say it didn't matter what they achieve. The achievement wasn't mentioned in any way. He didn't say he wouldn't look up to a badass woman On the other hand he regretted there were no women in his club, although you can assume they would be weaker and smaller and maybe not as challenging sparring partners as men. So I wouldn't connect the appearance to achievements.

I don't think similar comments are alright, but I wouldn't think too much about something like this.

It was a compliment, so the gesture was nice, anyway.

 

Monday 29.8.16: 22 knuckle push-ups

Tuesday 30.8.16:

Sensei made a training in the dojo after a long time and just before the start of the season! :banana:

100 mins. karate training:
Although it's great sensei made a training, there were still only five of us - sensei, one other man and us three girls. Because we didn't have a training with this sensei in a while, I expected somehting exhausting would come And indeed sensei planned hojo undo for us. During the junbi undo he changed his mind, though, and decided we would only work with the kongoken and he would explain the exercises in more detail. We only have one kongoken, so only one person exercised at a time, the other waited for their turn. Well, working with kongoken - 1 exercise at a time doesn't take too much time, though, so we didn't wait forever

Kongoken (= around 24 kg weight, I think):
- Lift kongoken up, while sinking into shiko-dachi and back (into standing position, kongoken on shoulders) - 1st round: 15x, 2nd round: 13x
- Rotating kongoken on one end resting on the floor, hitting the shoulder muscle and (for girls) the biceps - it is also a wrist and coordination exercise, so we did it for a while to rest a bit. I discovered I did better with left hand, although I'm roght handed. My right hand coordination was much worse
- Steering wheel = turn kongoken held horizontally 180° and sink into shiko dachi - 1st round: 10x, 2nd round: 20x (20 is actually my record, I think!)
- sliding to sides in shiko-dachi + turning kongoken - a forearm work-out - for a while for "relaxation"
- "Throw" kongoken on your outstretched arms while standing in shiko dachi and holding one of the lond sides - I was hoping this exercise wouldn't come. I can't do it... no way! I did once, but failed the second time and couldn't do well even with senseis help. And I always worry I'll smash my shins with its full weight.... although I already expect it and learned how to dodge in time when the kongoken is falling
- Push-ups with kongoken on neck - I actually did 20, which was a slightly more than the guys, which is unfortunately because I can't go too low and the push-ups aren't what I would like :/ I still struggle with that. Sensei showed nice ones with elbows close and going down all the way. I want to be able to do that, toooo!
I also can't help but mention the funny moment when a friend, a girl, went to do this. Sensei urged her to look in front just before she started. She did, and immediately fell face-first into the tatami, pinned down by the kongoken She was laughing all the way, and I admire her courage to follow senseis instructions that closely!

Then we moved onto kongoken exercises done in pairs:
- Pendulum - throwing one end of the kongoken between us. I was paired with both the other girls, ding two rounds, since there was an odd number of us. This exercise is luckily easy...
- Steering wheel - version for girls or smaller people - held by two people turning it at the same time. It was much easier, but after a while, I still wouldn't mind sitting down... But sensei again must have thought I couldn't have had enough, so I did two rounds again.
- Moving sideways in shiko dachi, after each step, you hand the kongoken to the partner facing you - meaning you need to hold it in outstretched arms for a little while, which was pretty hard. Girls were then allowed to just hold it in between them and move and outstretch arms as far as they can. I didn't have to do this twice, a friend did. He was paired with me and I soon coudn't continue, so we did the girls version, at least.
- Sort of "throw" the kongoken to your partner, by going up from shiko dachi and turning the side (I really suck at explanations )
- Same thing, but don't turn it, only throw the kongoken up, while the partner catches it


I'm glad sensei did this with us. I wouldn't have thought I'd last through all these exercises, but maybe because of the breaks, it went rather well! Or I caught a second wind I got caluses, though and expect some soreness tommorrow
Sensei kept telling me from the very beginning to work with kime by also breathing strongly. I tried my best, but sensei kept urging me to breathe louder, which helped. I do need to improve the strenght of my breathing...

- A bit of kihon: Hiki uke, haishu (?) uke, otoshi uke, tora guchi
- 3x Gekisai Dai Ni kata with details and corrections

Great training, I'm glad I came.
I will need to force myself to do the 22 knuckle push-ups still

 

Wednesday 31.8.16 - Saturday 3.9.16: Only 22 knuckle push-upseach day.

I wanted to go to a planned sensei-less training on Thursday, but had to return when I was already on the way because of something that came up
On Saturday I spent around 20 minutes practising some moves with the bo.

Sunday 4.9.16:

There was a small meeting about the next year's European seminar. We talked for a few hours and then two of us waited for the second kobudo lesson People showed interest, but most of them were away today, so it was only two of us and sensei (at least we had plenty of space and could keep away from the mirrors). We had a bit of time, so we quickly went through some technique before sensei came.

19:30 - 22:00 - Kobudo class:

- We quickly repeated all the things we learned last time. Including rotating the bo in the "8s" around us. I'm helpless, I keep hitting myself. When going slowly it's fine, but then I hit my shin twice in a way it resounded throughout the dojo and just after that I hit the knee hard enough to knock the staff out of my hands and let it almost fly into a direction nobody was standing at, luckily. And to top it all, when we were swinging it in reverse (so I couldn't hit my shins), I swung the bo faster and hit myself in the middle of the head clicking my teeth together. I started on my "ouch-ouch-ouch" tirade, while sensei couldn't believe his own eyes, saying he never saw someone hitting his head and always thought it impossible I was very careful with the bo then, moving anything I could hit out of the way of the staff, doing a weird wavy dance that sensei forbid
- After we went through all we knew, sensei explained some of the principles of stepping forward and backward and how to do that and how to use the body and hips during techniques - something I stuggle with quite a bit. He also kept correcting my posture, because I tend to stick my butt out. Not that I want to, but my spine is just crooked that way, I was told that by a doctor year ago. It's really hard to keep the spine in line, it took me quite some practise to be able to do that for Sanchin... But I will need to keep it in mind. Sensei thinks well, reminding me I might have real trouble with my back later...
- Then we did the first set of kihon - basic techniques that are needed at the first grading. Last time we did one and briefly went through another one. We practised more today: jodan uchi, jodan naname uchi, chudan yoko uchi, gedan yoko uchi, kake uke and tsuki
- We also tried two exercises in pairs - strenght exercise for some of these techniques, where one person always pushes with the bo, another yields and puts some pressure. Like a bo version of kakie

- 22 knuckle push-ups

 

Start of the season

Monday 5.9.16 - Sunday 11.9.16: 22 knuckle push-ups a day, nothing else
As for the push-ups, a tiny painful and darker spot has appeared on my knuckle. The skin is getting harder and I feel like a badass! :evil:

There were some trainings without senseis, but I was to busy or didn't feel too well for the past few days, so I stayed at home

12.9.16:
However, today was an official start of the season and I couldn't miss that! I felt quite alright, but started feeling not wery well even during the Junbi undo. Changing the periods of faintness, nausea and difficult breathing. All mild, luckily, and I didn't want to give up. I managed through the whole training, although a friend who was standing across from me during the final part of the training told me that she was preparing to catch me should I fall Lol, it wasn't that serious, but it spoiled the otherwise great training for me

18:40-20:40 - Beginner adult class: ...although most of the beginners were missing, but two new young girls came! Hopefully we will see them again even after today...

- Junbi Undo - including swinging legs, practising sanchin breathing, stretching for splits and doing 10 knuckle push-ups with legs in the farthest split position. Now I regretted I'm almost there, because I can's stand on my feet anymore and its... well, challenging
- 10 Neko Undo
- Around 50 "short/half" crunches and maybe another 50 with legs up.

- Footwork - sliding to all directions - practising avoiding and fast movement
- Pendulum in groups of three (10 swings with each person)
- a bit of Kote Kitae (iron body conditioning) with one partner - uchi uke, ko uke and uchi barai uke and hitting each other's stomach with only open hands today (getting me a bit closer to throwing up )
- 10 jumping squats holding partners by the shoulders
- push-up pyramid - 10x, 9x, 8x, ... 1x (with the partner checking if our chest goes as low as a fist's distance from the floor. Making it significantly harder for me But I paid careful attantion to touching it every time... at least with my gi if not chest exactly :Angel:
- Tsuki and hiji-ate practise. Going through some easy combinations to 1, 2,3, and lastly 5 tsuki per one count. I was worried I wouldn't make it, but I really felt worse while just standing than moving and working out, so it was ok in the end
- Stretching and a shorts relaxation

Great training. But I hope I'll feel better tommorrow

Oh and I don't think I'm going for the 22 knuckle push-ups before sleep today. I think I've done enough push-ups in the class today. But not knuckle... hmmm... I'll see yet

Also I now have a full time job and therefore less time but more money, so I decided, or rather, I need to go to the dojo by car. It's so wonderful that one way takes around 25 minutes instead of an hour! It so easy to get lazy ^^

 

I did no more push-ups yesterday after all... :Angel:

Tuesday 13.9. 16

18:30-20:00 - Advanced karate class:
Yeah, the training is half an hour shorter compared to last year :'( We've lost some training time...

- 2x Sanchin kata, not full effort
- Sanchin kata with eyes closed - I ended up completely turned the wrong way. I knew I would. I didn't know it would be this much, though. Although sensei was going around, correcting and he tried to turn me, but it seemed exaggerated to me at that time
- 2x Sanchin kata fighting style with fast techniques and not the deep breathing
- Sanchin kata full effort
- Practising Tora guchi - sensei explaned something about it, and I got corrections - quite big ones. Of things no one really cared about so far. I think I need to pay a lot of attantion to doing tora guchi right from now on. We also practised each hand's role separately while moving forward or backward. It all took some time, sensei was thorough, which I appreciate
- Short stretching
- Kihon (ido) in pairs - partner drills:
- Kizami + gyaku tsuki
- Kizami + gyaku tsuki + jodan mawashi tsuki + gedan mawashi tsuki
- Kizami + gyaku tsuki + elbow (jodan) + elbow (chudan)
- Kizami + gyaku tsuki + mae geri
- Kizami + gyaku tsuki + mawashi geri
- Kizami + gyaku tsuki + yoko geri
- Kizami + gyaku tsuki + ushiro geri

- Final Sanchin


I felt my breath was too short and difficult during Sanchin. I kind of stopped doing Sanchin every day since Okinawa - there was too much going on and I was too lazy to start after that. But after today's class, I think it was a good habit...

 

Wednesday 14.9.16: Nothing at all

Thursday 15.9.:

19:25-21:30 - Beginner karate class:
It starts at 19:00, but work caught up to me,so I had to go to the back room sensei allowed me to use if needed for situations like this, and came a bit later for the class. But apparently they had only managed to stretch, so I stessed the stretching into a minute before joining the hojo undo they were about to begin. Each station was for two people, so I joined sensei as my partner, since he was free. So I pushed myself a bit And because I came late, I couldn't usurp the kongoken station first to be fresh for it, and instead went there much much later

Hojo Undo:
There were six stations in total, and the hojo undo took maybe a little over 30 minutes, so at least 5 minutes at each station.

- Chi-ishi - I copied sensei and only did the basic exercise. For the right arm and left as long as you can. Sensei did 3 rounds and stopped the rest of us, so I did three rounds on my right and only 2 for left :/
- Wall bars - we started according to my usual routine:
- 100 "half" sit-ups
- 50 "half" sit-ups with raised legs
- 30x stretched legs up and down (while lying on the back)
- 30x legs and butt up
- 50x legs up and down - but each leg separately - like scissors
- 20x stretched legs up and from there swing to the max right and left position without putting them down
- Nigiri Game - Nigiri Game kata 2x - first rather fast, second with deeper sanchin-like breathing and slowly raising the vases, hich proved to be much more difficult
- Kettlebells - half of the round 3kg kettlebell on foot (instead of tetsu geta) - for me 10x slow front kick for each leg and 10x stretch leg to the side also 10x for both sides
- Then we changed and the second half was the improvised makiage kigu (wrist roller) - a 3kg kettlebell on a string on a wooden piece. Sensei did unbelievable 10 rounds without putting it down, I only managed 5 and while resting at each max position :/
- Kongoken - lifting kongoken up while sinking into a horse stance - I really didn't want to look bad, when sensei managed 50 reps, but I was still done after 10 But sensei told me to go for 20. I agreed I will somehow pull to 15, but apparently sensei wasn't satisfied yet. He had to support the kongoken for me a bit for the last three and I engaged all the muscles that definitely shouldn't be engaged, but somehow did the 20... :lifting:
- Then turning the kongoken and hitting chest (of biceps for women) and shoulder - easy, to relax
¨- Steering wheel :cry: - I knew it would come! I had barely lifted the kongoken, but somehow went up to 20 (I really don't know how and the form was definitely bad, but still ), even though sensei wasn't looking (now that I think about it, I'm not entirely sure why I pushed myself so much ) :thinking:
- Makiwara - I did mostly tsuki, but also some shotei tsuki, ko-uke and haito and shuto uchi

- The rest of the training was about kihon - practising it while adding techniques to a sequence resulting into kizami, gyaku, mawashi and kagi tsuki, shuto uchi, ashi barai, morote nakadaka ippon ken tsuki, "head butt", yoko hijiate and a choke + shuto uchi

- And finally Gekisai Dai Ni kata 2x and 2x in front of the other people - two people at a time. I went with a friend black belt and didn't really get any corrections this time, because sensei was focusing on her since he gets to see me often...

The advanced class was canceled today as the dojo was dirty after summer, so we cleaned it instead.

 

Nothing done of Friday and Saturday - I wanted to practise the kobudo, but I was really busy and it was rainin anyway...

Sunday 18.9.16:

19:10-21:30 - Kobudo:
The last at least 20 minutes was spent talking about theory, so not really practising, but I still gained useful information, so I count it as class time. And I kept practising the rotating of the staff, so technically I did practise a little bit

Sensei bought like a 50 rattan bos, and one for each of us. It's better for practising since it doesn't matter if it's scratched (unlike my Shureido bo! ) since it's dirt cheap. I found a marker so we can all mark our bo. I chose to draw an angry and smiling emotikon on each tip of the bo, that will be pointed to the opponent. And depending on my sympaties, I will either show him/her the angry or smiling face

- There were two people who couldn't come last time, so we went through the same stuff as two weeks ago. Which was great. I could see I did slightly better then the ones missing the trainings. It was great again, sensei teaches things that make sense, although working and holding the bo still doesn't come naturally to me
- When practising the rotating in 8's, I didn't hit myself too often (but we practised shortly) and the rattan bo isn't as hard and heavy, so it didn't hurt as much, either
- He put bigger emphasis on moving - walking forward with strikes - the body mechanics of that. Nothing too natural, either
- At the end of the training I asked sensei how to rotate the bo continuously on one place and he showed senveral ways and some tricks. I really didn't get some things, but he waved me away to practise the basic rotation for now. I have to admit, he had a point

 

Monday 19.9.16:

18:30-20:00 - Beginner karate class:
- Junbi Undo
- Kihon in pairs - variations of tsuki, hiza geri, uraken uchim, mae geri & mae tobi geri
- A lot of tsuki at the end

20:00-21:30 - Self-defense class for women:
First class on the season, only three women and a few of us from karate.
Warm-up with a game of tag with feet. We did footwork - how to avoid, a bit of theory and hiza geri and some other strikes.

One of hte new women is a mom of one boy who used to come to my class for little kids last year. She said he was asking for me and even brought a flower :heart:. Too bad I can't have that class anymore and a friend of mine took over

 

18:30-20:00 - Advanced karate class:

- Game of tag with variations
- Junbi Undo
- Hiza geri - some cominations and a bit of work-out in pairs
- Three combinations - first solo, then in pairs
- Saifa kata 7x + bunkai
- Final belly work-out

 

19:00-20:45 - Beginner karate class:

- Warm-up with footwork
- Junbi Undo

Twelve people today, so we got a full dojo and started with Hojo Undo. In teams, where in each team there is one higher grade, one of which was me. I got two friends with me.

There were only 4 Hojo Undo/ Work-out stations:

- Wallbars:
- 100 half sit-ups
- 50 with raised legs
- 30x legs up (for lack of space when there were three people.... and complaining of my team if I want them dead or what... we didn't do stuff like the pendulum). But there won't be any slacking in my team! :evil: so instead we did:
- 25x short sit-ups on the lateral side - 25x for each side
- 10x back exercise - lifting the front of the body when lying on the belly up to a count to ten
- Pad - instead of a makiwara: 2x20 tsuki for each side + 10x with kiai. We should have done 2x10, but we misunderstood and then didn't have time to finish...
- Kongoken:
- 20x lifting up
- 20x steering wheel
- 2 rounds of pendulum
- 20 push-ups (with 2 or three breaks...)
- Chi-ishi:
- 10x series of three basic moves (always on each side)
- 5x move the chi-ishi in a shape of "8"
- hiki-uke move with chi-ishi 10x
- lifting one end purely with a wrist - 15x

- Kihon: Started with tsuki, then added second one, always 10x on each side. Slowly making it into a combination from last week going from simple tsuki to more advanced techniques. We did it in a fast pace, until everyone was short of breath. Except for me, I was clever today and took my medicine to help with breathing and I could just smile and watch everyone gasping for breath :evil:

- stretching

No advanced training today, either, sensei celebrated his birthday and dojo had an anniversary, so we had a party and cake instead