Thursday 25.11. Sensei is still in Portugal in a hospital, so classes are on Sett and I till whenever sensei is ok to return. I am imagining we'll be teaching everything at least till Christmas, but we'll see. On the other hand, the Covid is getting seriously out of control here. About 70% of people have been vaccinated, but there are those who are just against and resisting all the government's efforts to make them get the vaccine. We have a lockdown for non-vaccinated people since the start of the week. We also get a new record of newly infected people per day like every few days. Basically the situation might be worse than ever and the Czech Republic was in a fairly bad state before. I just read that by nimber of newly infected per week, we are now the second worst country in the world. Again. The government doesn't really want a new general lockdown, but they'd change opinions withing hours, so despite promising otherwise, today they declared a state of emergency staring as soon as this midnight. Yet again. There were elections a couple months ago, though, and the government is about to change, so we can't really tell what's about to come and if classes and seminars would actually be happening all the way to Christmas. Bad times. Karate Kids This class was taught by Sett, I basically only assisted. He had a nice warm-up with balls and after Junbi Undo we had the kids do some running and pads. I found today's class rather interesting from the teaching perspective and some kids' behaviour. The biggest trouble maker who just can't keep himself still, calm and so wasn't present. There are two boys, though, who also can't keep themselves still, but has to keep beating each other. Even when promising there would be a game at the end if they act up and we don't have to spend time "punishing" them by burpees, to which they oftern straighten up and start behaving, it only lasts them like 10 seconds. I guess some really just can't help it. We also have a boy, who is 10 yo, but is biggest of his class and looks at least 13. He is a bit overweight, but he's been coming for around two years and enjoys karate very much, which I am really happy about. We can see canges in his behaviour. While he was a cry baby who would sulk when he came and found running too difficult it would bring him to tears, despite the fact that he's the type to probably get bullied, he is becoming fairly confident, which is a nice change. On the other hand, though, he kept shouting to his partner for pads (who had to run up to him, do a few punches and run back) about how he's slow and that he himself would be faster, etc. I reprimanded him that if he wanted to shout something, it had better not be challenges to his partner, but cheering him up. And he actually changed his tone and started cheering right away, lol. I never expected him to turn the attitude 180° like that straight away. It was a very nice surprise for me As expected, when they switched roles, the big young boy was much slower despite his challenges and had to stop to catch his breath several times and was actually the slowest among all the kids. His partner, though, was awesome, not uttering a word, no laughing back at him, just holding the pad properly, waiting for him. I had to praise him at the end of the class. I don't think many kids could stay this calm and still helpful. What an awesome attitude. Then there we have two little girls. A tiny one coming with her brother. The siblings are so awesome, you wouldn't hear them utter a sound throughout the classs, but they'd work hard and actually listen and react to corrections. Then there's slightly older and taller girsl, but of a small build, who has been coming also for at least a year or longer. She is incredibly shy. When she first came she hid behind her dad and didn't want to enter the dojo at all. You can tell by her expressions and body language that her shyness hasn't gotten my better. She looks almost frightened all the time, never smiling, only fear in her face. But, she came late today, entered the dojo by herself and when I bowed to her, she didn't hesitate to come up and join the warm-up right away. During the whole class, I would never hear her utter even a peep, but there is still progress to be seen. And since a few classes back I started noticing that when I come up to her and correct her or only look at her and smile at her with encouragement, she would right away return an incredibly bright smile! I couldn't even believe my eyes for the first time! It is so awesome! I would have never even guessed she could smile like that! It makes me so happy when I see her like that. We do have awesome kids in our class Karate adults Game of Tag for warm-up. Adding a couple of rules. Such a simple game yet so fun. It got the men in the knees breathing hard by the end. After Junbi Undo we as usual did Sanchin kata a couple of times. One boy came after a few weeks of absence, so I went through the first kata with a quick explanation on the go. We reviewed San Dan Gi quickly and had 45 mins left, which I planned to spend reviewing kata. There were at least a couple of people who were absent for out thorough explanation before, so this was mostly for them and for the others to improve the kata. Potential grading is near, so... (well if any grading will actually happen). We split the class - I taught the beginner group and Sett took the advanced boy who needs Saifa for his next grading. With my group I went through the kata step by step, explaining the more difficult moves properly and we repeated the kata on count several times. Then I wanted to check how everyone was doing, so I asked one of the adult men who did well to come to the front and dictate the pace (it's quite a nice thing to be able to have someone good enough stand in so I could just watch and correct (it's actually quite a nice feeling to be in the role to push someone else forward ). We did a few rounds like this, I took turns focusing on different people so I could give corrections to everyone. The younger ones had trouble with putting any strenght in the techniques. But an unclosed fist and swaying through the whole kata wouldn't do. So I tried to awaken their fighting spirit a bit, which did work for one of the two, at least. We did the kata with techniques as strong as possible, then as fast as possible, then as strong and fast as possible. After variations like this, everyone except for the boy who was learning the second half of the kata for the first time today seemed to remember it, so we had everyone sit down in seiza and called the people up one by one to show their best kata and we'd give everyone a couple of things to work on. The boy learning didn't originally want to, but after being encouraged by ohters and I offered to do the kata with him so he could copy, he realtively easily agreed to give it a go. The other boy, who did the kata very weakly all the time tried as well. He seems to be very meek and doesn't have any fighting midset, thus is probably mentally unable to do any techniques strong and fast with any muscle behind it. I did shout at him to imagine the greatest enemy in front of him and fight! And in that second, he straightened up and his techniques actually did get significantly better! When he was done with the kata, such an effort seemed to have mentally depleted him, so he sat in saiza and exhaustedly planted his face right into the mats and stayed like that. Wow, it must have really put quite some effort! But I think I saw a smile on his face We got positive feedback, a couple people said the class was over too fast and they enjoyed it a lot. So nice. I am very happy about that!
Sunday 28.11. I had my birhday today. We celebrated a bit yesterday already as there wouldn't be much time today. Sett had a very suprrising present for me, which made me very happy indeed. He actually got me a Taiji sword! As soon as I told him my teacher said I could start learning hte sword form starting in January, Sett actually contacted him and went to my Taiji school to buy one of theirs. I definitely didn't expect that! The sword is so pretty! Now I can't wait to start learning it! Now this might also at least partly explain why the teacher kept pushing on me, how I was so enthusiastic about learning the sword etc., and how I wanted to learn it, etc., which struck me as a little weird as it was his idea in the first place. Today I spent the morning cooking as we planned a very early lunch. I tried something new and fitting the autumn weather - baked pork neck with carrot-ginger purreé with a bit of lemon juice and chilli and buckwheat. It was very tasty It actually started snowing - the first snow (at least in Prague) this year. At 11:30 we set out on a journey to the south to a SAIFA KATA SEMINAR Senseis V and R wanted to organize it originally after they did a Gekisai Dai Ichi seminar, but our sensei stopped them as he wanted to make some events in Prague, too, so it was planned to be in our dojo. However, as sensei caught covid and got stuck with it in Portugal, senseis V and R then re-organized the seminar in their city anyway. Due to many people being down with covid or in quarantine or afraid of Covid, there were very few attendees. We have 5 dojos, but only the organizing one and ours participated. Sett and I picked two guys along the way (both orange belts), so our party of four made the whole attendance from Prague, while the organizing senseis brought 6 children with up to yellow belts. As we were riving south, the landscape changed into one of white, completely and nicely covered in snow. Winter is here! The seminar lasted four hours, we started with Junbi Undo with a bit of kihon mixed in, then went throguht the kihon techniques just as they appear in Saifa, later working on Saifa itself. The last block was about Saifa bunkai, though we didn't have time to go through all of them in order to have some time left for stretching. Both senseis did spend quite some time with Sett adn I, giving us, well, probably mostly me, plenty of corrections. I've returned to training karate properly since September, but since we have a dojo full of mostly beginners, I keep practicing the basic techniques and got a bit rusty in the katas. Also I kind of transferred some little body movements from Taiji, which I think should be alright in some techniques, but apparently not in others O Sensei R actually told us that he hopes he didn't discourage us with correcting us that much, so we assured him it's just the opposite, that we appreciate every correction very much. Since neighter of us has attended many classes of our sensei in the past year, due to him having trouble with covid and Sett having a surgery and me being ill etc., so being able to attend a class face-to-face that someone else is teaching and actually goes out of their way to give us plenty of corrections to help improve our kata was definitely most welcome! I burned over 1300 kcal and thoroughly enjoyed myself! More than I thought I would, actually Also this week I managed to make it to all my regular trainings + a weekned seminar, which means I had around 16 hours of Taiji and Karate training. A nice bilance if I dare say so! I couldn't resist taking a picture with the sword in the snow ^^
Monday 29.11. Karate Kids After warm-up we spent the class teaching breakfalls. We don't do them too often and its something they should start learning and also n exercise that we don't need to practice in pairs. Sett half volunteered to teach it. I think I've never really taught them before and Sett is much better when it comes to talking then me, so, since I already came up with what to do this class... ^^ There were only 5 children today, all of them on the older side, so it went well. We could also help them individually. Karate adults I thought we could go through Sanchin kata with expaining it properly once more as there are at least two guys who were missing the last time we spent the whole class with it. One of the two didn't show up, so as we planned we decided to postpone it and do something else. The guy in question, though, came a couple of minutes later, so we proceeded with Sanchin. Sett wanted to start with it right of the bat, so he explained and we practiced, which took around 40 mins. I then did only very fast stretching. A tiny work-out and Sett planned on doing kihon and kihon ido - not much explaining, more action. I had to laught a little, when his "action" involved like 5-10 mins practicing stances at first We started the action right after, though. Basic techniques on the spot and then in motion. Sett was demonstrating the technique, then counting and watching, so I stood in front of the class practicing with them (I wanted to train, too). Still, 2,5 hours of training altogether and my Polar stats were showing ridiculous data. Was it really so relaxed? Time: 2:36 Max HR: 153 Average HR: 84 (! I thought this is my average HR for standing on the spot.... was I really just stranding on the spot?) Min HR: 54 Training benefit: Recovery training Kcal: 412 (and this isn't much more than the base metabolism, is it?) Fat burn: 62% Cardio load: Low: 50 I spent most of the time even below the HR zones, 30 mins in the first, 9 in the second, half a minute in the third and 17 s in the fouth...
Tuesday 30.11. Morning Taiji Didn't get much sleep today (5 hours) as I was catching up with work in the evening so I could go to all the classes today, and got up a bit earlier in order to practice staff before the morning class. I did that, went through the form twice, then again gave in to chatting with a friend. The usual instructor stayed in home in a quarantine today, so I led the silk-reeling. When we were done, I split the people into the two usual groups, but I had no idea what the beginners were supposed to do etc. and the teacher not the instrucotor, who was supposed to stand in were not here, yet, so I went to fetch someone. The teacher came right away, so I could relax and joined my group in doing the form. When we finished, our group joined the two ladies working on Flashing Turn to Back again. I thought there aren't any more details the teacher could go into. I was wrong! Well he focused the training around how exactly the main joints - hips and shoulders move so we could flow through the move without ever stopping. I think this was also aimed at me, as the teacher asked a few times if I understood and checked on me. I couldn't do the two most difficult parts too well, but I now understand the move much better and when I learn this, it will improve the move overall! I should figure these details for the whole form, but in the later moves it will be difficult. The teacher said we'll go like this through the previous moves in Decemeber. Nice class! I then spent a few minutes chatting with the teacher and only stopped the Polar training after that. The measurements also includes a 10 mins chatting just before the class, yet it seems more difficult than yesterday's karate: Time: 1:36 Max HR: 144 Average HR: 107 Min HR: 54 Training benefit: Basic training Kcal: 515 Fat burn: 63% Cardio load: Medium: 67
Tuesday 30.11. Taiji Kung-fu We started again with silk reeling with fajins mixed in. The first were awful as usual, but then, when we moved onto the two-handed ones, I again felt I could do better than last time. By doing basincally karate kime mostly for the core, then to the arms and keeping the hands more or less relaxed, I felt I could actually put some power into the fajins, unlke at the beginning when it didn't feel right as I couldn't figure out the mechanics. I hope my progress is in the right direcition, at least... Also I think I am bending the elbows when I prepare for the fajin and I think that's incorrect, but it's still not my main concern now. Then we split into two classes - the teenagers and adults. Our group wsaa taught by the head teacher R, who wanted to continue working on the next few moves to the detail. Today it was Forward Move, Backward Move and Parting the Wild Horse's Mane. Those are moves I am not very confident in and I was pretty sure the teacher would find many mistakes for me there. We practiced them over and over with the teacher's advises. After a while he decided to still split us in two groups that would be practicing the same moves, but with a different focus. I was put in a group with the two most senior guys there. So I was a bit nervous about what was to come. The teacher explained many things to do and change in the way we were doing these moves, corrected some of my mistakes. I understood what he meant and when he demonstrated the way he wanted me/us to do it, it seemed pretty obvious, but when left to practice by ourselves, ugh... it didn't go well at all! I was growing a bit frustrated, but looking at the other two's expressions, I didn't seem to be the only one, which calmed me down a little. One of the guys, who was in front of me was the one I saw in a video some time ago and actually kind of used to come to classes earlier to watch him practice in the group before my class- because his Taiji is simply awesome. By my standards. And the teacher obviously thinks very highly of him, too. Anyway I saw he had one of the moves figured out, the one that I got completely lost in, so I asked him for help and though he repeated a few times that's how he understood it and how it works for him, but is unsure if it's correct. Well, it looked good enough for me and more or less like what the teacher demonstrated. The guy was nice and explained, after which I understood a bit better. The first hour of training was over before we knew it. Next as usual the class of Cannon Fist started and for a warm-up - Wuji meditation and Lao Jia Yi Lu - the whole form, we joined. The teacher sent the three of us forward, but though sent forward, I made sure to stand in the second row just behind that senior, who would take the lead of the warm-up. We meditated in Wuji for longer than usual - about 10 mins. I got nicely centered, tried to keep my posture as good as possible and let my weight sink. It actually started feeling very comfortable. And when we started the form from this position, it felt pretty good and I felt my body nicely connected. This was the feeling I am going for all the time, but is hard to achieve. It didn't last past the first 5 moves, though. When we finished, everyone was looking at the others questioningly - whether to continue with the Cannon Fist form and looked questioningly at me, too, as I was promptly leaving, for no matter how they'd decide, I was out of there. Before they regroupped, the senior guy actually came back to me, asking if I wasn't going to practice with the rest. Well, I couldn't. For whatever reason he wasn't going to join them, either, so we still practiced together and as per the teacher's directions moved onto the Fair Maiden Works Shuttles. The teacher didn't want us do the basic variation here, either, as it doesn't flow through the move. What he showed us instead did seem to make more sense, but not surprisingly, was pretty difficult for me to do. When the time came for us to practice, I stood behind the senior, shadowing him where I could and well, a bit to my relief, he seemed to be struggling with this, too. A bit at least. Also considering he's taller than me by a head and a half, I made sure to always leap far enough to be able to shadow him properly. No slacking! It was again close to the end of the class so people arrived for the next one and were watching us fail time and time again.... (well, at least me) - "great". Thought I was frustrated, this class was still very motivating for me! I used to find it very inspiring to just watch the senior guy practice. Who'd have thought I'd shortly be practicing with him like this? I'm nowhere near his level, which is why I can learn a lot from him After the class senior then went to ask the teacher something about the upcoming sword class that he was planning to go to and he took me along. Thanks to that I learned there was actually a limit on the number of people for that class. So after confirming with the teacher, I went and signed up for it, too. It would be too sad to not be able to attend now that I have a sword of my own! Taiji - 63 moves I went to a restroom and stood at the back of the group who were already meditating with the usual guy in front. There was a lady who apparently liked shadowing me, moving to the back when she saw me. I wander what her motivation is, but I'll take it as a compliment (hopefully she wasn't planning to learn from my mistakes specifically) After finishing the form, our group was taught by teacher R again, today. We practiced High Patting on Horse and later the first half of Crossed Feet (which I struggle with, though especially the second half). I were drilling these two over and over according to the teacher's explanations. I wasn't payed attention to this time, so I kept drilling doing my best to improve these moves. Very surprisingly today, my knees didn't really hurt! Well they do hurt a little all the time and a bad turn here and there sends a bit of sharp pain, but the parts that always tend to feel sore and stiff after training weren't today and even after getting out of the tram after sitting for 20 mins, stepping down very carefully as usual, I realised I didn't have to, my knees weren't stiff at all, nor did they hurt. Looks like they indeed are getting better! It's not like they are completely fine, yet, but already so much better compared to September/October! Yay' Time: 3:14 Max HR: 166 Average HR: 116 Min HR: 54 Training benefit: Basic training, long Kcal: 1152 Fat burn: 41% Cardio load: Very high: 179
Wednesday 1.12. Taiji - 1st move - assisting There are two parallel classes starting at 6 at my school, taught by teacher P and instructor H. Instructor H couldn't come today, so she asked me in advance if I could stand in for her since I would be coming for the class at 7. I led the silk-reeling for both groups, then teacher split them up and had me go through the form with the more advanced group that was learning the 8th move. The teacher then talked a little about theory for everyone, then taught the more advanced group and tasked me with practicing the 1st move with the beginners. I managed not to get nervous, point out what to focus on and went through the forms many times with different focus. With silk reeling a few time in each position before moving on, or with stoping in each position giving everyone time to adjust the stance, etc. I think it went quite well. Teacher P came once or twice to check, also mentioned a thing of focus and asked me to practice that with the group. It was nice he didn't just let me be, but helped with telling what to practice for now, while he went back to the other group. Taiji - 18 moves - assisting The class I usually help with. There were very few, only like 5 people there today. After silk reeling we went through the 18 moves once, then teacher P led the class explaining more details about the last move and had us practice the last 3-4. Sometimes he'd be at the front, sometimes he let me do that while he watched how everyone was doing. We went again through the whole 18 moves once toward the end. A normal class, I'd say. My legs hurt a bit after yesterday and still doing two hours of training today. Knees also hurt a bit again. Nothing terrible, though. Until I twisted my worse knee at home when I was taking off a shoe. I hope it'll be better by tommorrow morning. Now on to catching up with work to be able to make it to all the classes tommorrow!
Thursday 2.12. Got up early for Taiji, but as soon as I stepped out of bed, I still felt the sharp pain in my right knee. Not good enough, yet. So I opted not to go today Since I was already up, though, I didn't go back to sleep, but unfortunately got a slight headache that I tend to do if I don't sleep long enough, so I didn't have a particularly productive day. Karate Kids I still went to help out with karate trainings. By now th knee didn't hurt all the time, but it only took a maybeslightly careless step and it would start hurting again, though not as much. I put on a knee brace and it surprisingly helped quite a lot! Still I thought I'd take it easy today. Luckily, once Sett startsthe class, he tends to go on untill stopped or unless he runs out of ideas, so I was happy to let him take charge. There were 4 benches stacked in the dojo, so we thought we'd use them. We let the kidsrun over them in various ways, then had a warm-up and worked on the benches some more, still. Plus some kihon. There were quite a lot - 11 - kids today. I am starting to have second thoughts about going to these classes as they haven't had the vaccine andare basically in and out of quarantine due to covid appearing in the school. And it's impossible to keep the distance. We might at leaststart to wear respirators for these classes. I don't want to catch that damn thing. Karate adults 9 people altogether today. We spent the first halfan hour doing Sanchin three times and helping adjust everyone's posture and explain the breathing once more. Then we used the benches for some exercises - push ups on one or between two, tricep push-ups and walking along their bottom while kicking mae geri etc. We originally planned to do ippon kumite today, but seeing how only about 30 mins were left, Sett decided to do breakfalls like wehad with the kids last time. It took just till the end of the class. I was doing the Sanchin, the bench work-out and trying the breakfalls as well, but wasn't that energetic today - knee and head. I burned less than 400 kcal in the 2,5 hours of training as a result. The knee did get better bit by bit, though, and Friday morning feels ok at least now.
The original plan for the weekend was to attend an online karate seminar, but then we had a family celebration and we assembled a couple of IKEA wardrobes finally. Monday 6.12. Karate kids We decided the two of us would wear masks for this class. We don't want to catch whatever and the children seem to be a greater risk. We had them run with some exercises in between, after Junbi Undo we had an exercise to put plastic "coins" into their hands while we practiced various strikes - we tried to make them keep their fists tightly shut, which several of them struggle with. A game at the end. There was the troublemaker boy today. All the kids were really nice, but he got into a completely unbearable state. At times it seems to us he's not actually doing what he's doing on purpose, but he just can't help himself. Basically no matter what we're doing, he'd do it in a distractive way. I scolded him when I warned him not to go sit on sit when we're just explaining omething, he can keep standing for that 20 seconds, but no, he had to go sit on a windowsill. Or we called them to an etiquette at the end of the class, but he'd go and push a smaller boy so he fell. Despite me trying to ignore his attempts to get all the attention, this was over the line. There were two parents watching the class. One of them said she admired our patience, she couldn't deal with him. I don't really want to be too strict or unfriendly, but I don't really know how to deal with it. I do not know his parents, but I might just talk to him after class to try and find out if there's some kind of a problem or if he just hates our classes. Karate adults A nice attendance today again. Sanchin kata for a warm-up, then Junbi undo, a short work-out and the rest of the class was spent practicing kihon ippon kumite. We are going through all the syllabus for the grading. But we're not practicing in pairs - at least a small measure to keep a bit of distance, which is a pity for many techniques, but hopefully we'll be able to catch up in that area soon.
Didn't you every watch karate kid? Get the kids class you assemble the wardrobe and make out it is training
Haha, true Unfortunately, based on observation, I am worried the shape of the wardrobe I'd get wouldn't be the one I asked for
Tuesday 7.12. Morning Taiji Again I came a bit earlier to practice the staff/spear form with a staff. Again, I couldn't help but keep chatting with a friend while practicing, so I only did the form once and couldn't focus very much on what I was doing. Well, at least I practiced remembering it whole. THen another guy from the beginner group started talking to me, too, about how long I've been doing taiji etc. and it was too much talking already, so I gave up on the staff after the first form. The usual instructor arrived today and as per the teacher's wished, we did wuji meditation and then split into groups right away with our small group knowing the shole form skipping the silk reeling and doing the whole form as a warm-up instead so we'd have more time for the class then. The teacher arrived and started with: "You all do the form quite well, but...." And then there were a lot of buts I got a few corrections for me in particular, some I had the opportunity to work on when we were then practicing the first 25 moves and one from the end of the form, which I will need to practice later. It was a hard one I did understand, but couldn't figure out too well. We worked on correcting and practicing the 25 moves till the end of the class. Again, after not practicing for nearly a week - since last Wednesday, I felt quite stiff and it just didn't go too well.
Tuesday 7.12. Taiji kung-fu Wuji meditation and silk-reeling with fajins as usual. The first set of fajins with my right arm only never go very well, but today, the rest felt pretty good! I fell I am getting the hand of things. At least until the teacher checks and tells me my way is completely wrong Hopefully it's not the case, though. We then split into groups, I was in a group of four who knew the whole form. We started where we left off and practiced a sewuence of movements that appear toward the end as well as at the beginning of the form. There was only a couple of moves that weren't repeated before, so we focused on them - Double Wave Like Lotus and Fall into Split. We practiced the Golden Rooster Stands on One Leg, too, but didn't get ot it when the teacehr gave us corrections. I was given only one general correction today - that I was still moving in my waist - bending where I shouldn't. I was quite happy about the fact that I noticed I was probably doing it before the teacher told me. I just didn't put that much effort into eliminating it. It may sound trivial, but originally the feeling I got from this felt fine some time ago, until I focused as much as I could on keeping the back straight and unmoving did I realise the feeling that was wrong. So I did my best to eliminate it today as well. My knees were feeling fine today at the beginning, so when repeating it over and over, I tried to push my stances in Fall into Split. I wasn't falling into splits, but I did my best to take my butt as close tot he floor as I could while keeping the whole feet on the floor as well. I think I did better than ever before. One thing being the knees being ok, another was that I was warmed up thoroughly and also I am getting better at balancing myself in that position. Getting up wasn't an issue, either. In the next hour we again started with joining the Cannon Fist class by starting again with wuji meditation and then one form - Lao Jia Yi Lu. I was at the front, but I obviously didn't want to be there, so I pushed the two seniors, who were in my previous group there. They bickered a bit about which one of them is going to take charge, but I was safe, so I didn't really care anymore ^^ After that some people joined tha Cannon Fist class, some went home, the two seniors practiced push-hands by themselves, so I found myself a spot for solo practice. I practiced the moves we were polishing last week and today. I Focused on my back - keeping it straight, not moving in my waist and I didn't relax when it came to stances. I am getting more and more comfortable in the low ones and better at moving in and out of them or between them. Which I was happy about, although that process is slow. Taiji 63 moves I joined the next class right away without a break. It is an advanced class today, so the silk-reeling was omitted again in favour of practicing the form instead. It is nice. The only complain I have is that the guy put in charge of warm-up for this class does the form soooo slowly! I can't bear it and no matter what, can't keep his slow pace, so I sometimes speed up, then wait for the rest by slowing down to a seriously snail's pace. I am mostly angry at myself, though, as the slow pace is something I should learn, but I just can't do it. Firstly, I try to take this opportunity to practice the variations of some moves the teacher taught me in other classes that I am not good at and they often mean shortening the moves and omitting some breaths or mean more dynamic movement and using the energy of one move for the next one. But if I di that in at least a few selected forms, I run ahead of everyone. The other thing is that no matter what, I just can't breath that slow to be able to keep such a slow pace. Especially not after a couple of hours of quite hard practice. So I am forced to breath pretty randomly and generally don't feel good about the form. For the main part of the class, we were taught by teacehr P, learning and practicing my maybe worst move - Crossed Feet. My legs didn't hurt, yet, but my knees did when I stopped for even a minute and my legs were pretty tired. So while I was able to keep the stances low, I wasn¨t able to keep balance in the various turns. And considering Crossed Feet is probably my worst move particularly due to the turn where I have a very hard time to keep my balance.... it didn't go too well. I was growing a bit frustrated with myself, but I just couldn't do it. I tried practicing the move slowly as the teacher also asked us to when this class was about learning it and while this wasn't surprisingly an issue for the kick, I couldn't get the 180° turn on my heel right after that no matter what. Grrr. I wonder if I'll ever be able to do this... Not that I never managed it, but the chances are like 50:50 at best, so I don't have much certainty there I stretched my legs thoroughly like I always do on Tuesdays, and I am completely worn out as usual. Time: 3:15 (maybe 20 mins of that was just stretching) Max HR: 172 Average HR: 134 Min HR: 78 Training benefit: Tempo training + (this shows I have spent a significant time in the 4th HR zone, 44 mins to be exact) Kcal: 1574 Fat burn: 29% Cardio load: Very high: 289
Wednesday 8.12. Taiji - 19 moves, assisting My knees feel pretty good considering the tough training yesterday! They're getting better indeed. Pretty normal class today, relatively relaxed. I led the Wuji meditation and silk reeling. For some reason ever since I bought the new shoes and don't practice barefeet, my left foot seriously hurts during silk reeling. Like almost cramping, so since halfway in a tend to adjust it, but it is really distracting, so I am then not doing very well. My right foot doesn't hurt at all... After we went through the whole 19 moves together. I wasn't relaxed too well yet, yet by the end I could feel the tips of my fingers feeling like "numb" (?) a little. That only happened very rarely to me, but I heard it was a good sign. The feeling laster for a bit, but since then we stopped to listen and watch the teacher's explanation, it went away gradually. The teacher explained about the last move this group was just learning - Stepping back and wrapping upper arms. The teacher showed it once and left me to practice with the group. Then he returned with corrections and I realised according to that, I was doing quite a big mistake - it is just that I just got used to doing a different variation teacher R showed us last time... Ah, I'll have to adjust. But I didn't feel too well in this, as I am not very confident in this move and surely have a lot to improve there. We then practiced the whole 19 moves at the end for a while.
Thursday 9.12. Morning Taiji It took quite the effort to get up to be early to practice the staff, but unfortunately there was snow in the morning and due to worse traffic the receptionist came later to open the school. I therefore didn't have time for solo practice, but I chatted iwth instructor O, who was interested in some similarities between Karate and Taiji. My legs were a bit tired, so I made a bit narrower stance for silk reeling. After we split into groups and our went throught the whole form once. OUr group was then taught by teacher P, with whom we praciced (one lady was learning) the Cloud Hands. We were trying first with one arm only, then the other, mostly in narrow stances. The teacher gave everyone personal corrections. I tend to do wider stances and therefore didn't have as much space as I'd like for the circles with the arms and got a bit sloppy with their opening and closing. The teacher said that when I have the basic things correct, I should move onto focusing to lead the strenght all the way up to the fingers and do the circles properly. Well it might have seemed I can do the rest well, but I got sloppy as I was focusing hard on synchronizing my legs with my arms and starting the movement in the legs. I also have some trouble with this in Cloud Hands. But as wer were practicing bit by bit, I might have figured out a better way to do this. Despite it being already Thursday, my knees are holding up quite well!
