Tag: kata

Saturday June 27th, 2020

I still have shin splints from yesterday.

This morning, I got up to attend Sensei’s Zoom karate class. I slept as late as I dared, fed the cats and made myself coffee. The extra sleep, I’d hoped, would help with soreness.

N, one of my son’s buddies, lead the warm-up. She’s a green stripe, but I see her in every Zoom karate class. Afterwards, TF lead kihon. TF had not led in a while, so she was rusty at first. However, she was just fine once she settled into it. She has actually studied Japanese, and she has been an ichi kyu much longer than me. Many of my best fighting tips came from her. Due to her influence–both her suggestions and her brutal punches, I learned to block better, and also started wearing arm guards.

After kihon, Sensei went over the nunchuck kata he’d taught us last night. He also showed a video of it on-line, posted by Ryoji Okamoto on YouTube:

These guys are amazing.

The kata Sensei taught us was a more simple kata, but this was his inspiration. It will take us a significant amount of practice to reach their level!

So yesterday evening, while we learned part of the nunchuck kata, F and S helped me follow the kata. Today I avoided being completely lost because we reviewed much of what Sensei had taught last night.

Working with weapons is a lot of fun. Previously, when the dojo building was functioning, we also had a fencing instructor who taught on some Saturdays. Hopefully, the new club will be able to bring him back to teach.

I wrapped up the remaining things I needed to do regarding the Temple’s teacher appreciation gifts. I also set up a Zoom meeting parents, Rabbi and the teachers to talk.

Yesterday Jessica texted that she’d been feeling anxious, but she’s better today. That was good to hear. I’d been anxious, myself, during the past week: my lead had been told he will be on hiatus starting Monday. Once Thursday evening rolled around, however, and I was able to sit and watch “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” with the kids, I was happy.

Tuesday June 23rd, 2020

It is late for my ten minute write. Twice today I meditated: seven minutes in the morning since I was running late, and once tonight for ten.

B and I helped lead part of kihon. Rather, Sensei asked me to help lead class, and I drafted F and S to setup and start, since I’m not actually off work until 7 pm, and our business unit are sticklers. F begged off, saying she didn’t feel well. S set us up with Zoom but hit technical difficulties. SL, a very sharp junior shodan my S’s age, led the warm-up by the time I was able to join. We had a minimum amount of time on-line before completely losing our connection. I called in on my phone, though leading a Zoom class over a smart phone is not ideal. While on the cell, my husband D assisted S in getting our laptop dialed back into Zoom. We were able to lead kihon kicks.

Luckily, Senpai T, a Shodan, along with his wife TF, also an ichi kyu, were also on the Zoom. They taught Pinan Sono Yon. At one point, I was able to watch the class 0n the laptop and suggest a couple items for them to cover, based on what I saw students struggle with. At one point, Senpai T controlled the Zoom camera while Senpai TF instructed. That way, we were able see the kata moves more clearly.

Senpai also had a couple high rank students lead the kata, and then asked a couple of the lower rank students to lead the kata. Having lower rank students lead the kata was helpful for two reasons: first, they go at a slower pace, which helps others learning the kata keep the pace, and second, they show the higher rank where the lower rank students need help.

Overall, they did a good job of teaching the kata. In the future, however, we may want to queue up a video of whatever kata we want to cover, and actually play that over Zoom. I’ll suggest this.

At the end of class, the sound on our computer conked out. S and I put in the general Zoom chat that we didn’t have sound, though we still had video. SL, who had begun the class, ended it with a standing meditation.

I was so glad that Senpais T, TF and SL were there to help. We also had another junior shodan, G, as co-host, who helped “pin” students leading kata, admit us when we lost connections, etc. She helped a good deal, too.

Saturday May 16th, 2020

It’s late, 10pm, but I’m finally getting in my ten minute write. We had karate last night and K, a ten year old ichi kyu, lead kihon and taught a bo-staff kata. He is an intense, intelligent and quiet young person; he did a great job. When he started the bo staff instruction, I hurried out to find bo staffs for the kids. I thought we had three, but I only found one. I initially came out with a smaller staff, a wooden sword and F’s bo staff. S fetched his. I practiced with a broom stick (witch that I am.:-) It was fun.

After class, I did sixty chest-style push-ups quickly in the clover, and threw in twenty “tricep” push-ups on my knees. Squats went ok, but sit-ups on the concrete patio were hard.

This morning, Senpai N lead kihon, then K did his exercises and kata walk. S and I participated. F lurked on the side, off camera, for K’s promotion. K did great, particularly given he had to do it all over Zoom with us on speaker. Also, doing the walk following exercises is no easy feat. He had a great attitude, and quickly absorbed and incorporated any notes given by Sensei or the Senpais. By the end of the morning class, Sensei awarded K his junior shodan virtually.

Sensei wanted us to participate in giving notes. At one point, S and I suggested watching stances, or keeping his guard up, merrily participating, then I realized we were muted. I did not know how long we’d been muted.

After class, I called my sister while walking on the treadmill. I used an incline of sixty percent and walked for an hour. We talked nearly two hours. It had been a while since we talked, so we had a lot to get caught up on. She may be able to apply for Medicaid this summer; often, many of her child clients take the summer off from therapy. If this summer is typical, and we expect it will be worse because of the pandemic, her income may drop to the level where she qualifies. At least then she will have some protection from being bankrupted if she contracts this illness.