kihon Archives - Page 2 of 2

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.

Saturday May 9th, 2020

I did karate class over Zoom Friday evening and Saturday morning, but the kids skipped both classes. P lead kihon Friday night and had us do five rapid-fire moves for each exercise. It was a good work-out!

I’m proud to report that, after Friday night’s class, I was able to do sixty push-ups on my toes in the clover, without pausing. After class, I felt so energized that I wanted to see if I could do it, and I could! I did! I also did my eighty squats and sit-ups on the concrete patio.

Sensei had ended the class with a Tai Chi exercise. Reach up to the Heavens and bring down heavenly energy, he instructed. Then, reach down to the Earth and bring up “grounding” energy to your heart, he continued, then pull it down to your chi area and mix the two. Then, reach behind for any unfinished business, affirming to yourself that what needs to be done will be done.

When we reached up to the Heavens, I wanted to see the the sky. Our outdoor patio is shaded by the second story, so I stepped clear of the ceiling in order to see the night sky. While we pulled up the grounding energy, I stood with bare feet on the ground. All this literalness is a bit silly, I know, but it felt holy. Sometimes there is no mental substitute for the real stars above you and dirt between your toes. Why settle for an idea when reality is right there?

Saturday May 2nd, 2020

I woke up in time for karate class at 10am. While half-asleep, I remember arguing with my alarm: “I don’t want to get up! I’m so tired!” But I crawled out of bed, sprayed down the kitchen with disinfectant, setup the older laptop outside, and followed the link to the karate Zoom session. Both kids slept in.

Sensei R lead the class, but our Shodan and Nidan Senpais were also on-line. He had us do the same one-leg challenge we had done in class last night” you balance on one leg, while Sensei keeps time, and see how many kicks you can do before you lose your balance or the time elapses. Usually he times us for one or two minutes. Last night, I was able to do fifty-five on my strong side. This morning it was closer to fifty.

Senpai Nidan understood, from Sensei’s instructions, that we should only be doing Mae geris, and to be fair, Sensei did say “front kicks.” During yesterday evening’s class, any kind of kick counted, and many of us followed that rule. Sensei had us do our second, weaker leg in the manner of our Nidan: only Mae geris. That was a lot harder.

For the “kyoku-kids,”or children six years and under, Sensei called the kicks. We then performed ten in a row, while balancing on one leg. I should mention that there were three and four year olds able to do this!

Both during last night’s class and this morning’s class, we went over Fifth Kyu Syllabus. Again.

Oh, oh, I forgot to mention: during last night’s kihon, Sensei asked me to call kihon. Both kids were with me, on either side. If I was too slow in remembering the Japanese name for a move, one kid would whisper it to me. I know the moves and the terminology, but am rusty. However, it came back and I needed little help at the end.

Also, Sensei complimented me on one technique. Unfortunately I do not recall which it was, since I was focused on remembering the terminology. Nevertheless, I will brag anyway: he said that particular technique was “perfect.” When, if ever, do you hear you did something perfectly? I was so proud!

After this morning’s karate class, I moved the kumquat bush closer to the back patio. It was in too much shade in its old location closer to the loquat tree. One day, perhaps, it will grow as large as the kumquat tree belonging to my friend’s mother!

I also ran on the treadmill: twenty minutes, with an additional ten minutes of walking.

All in all, today was a productive day!

Saturday April 25th, 2020

We had Kihon on-line with Sensei yesterday evening. The kids and I setup the laptop outside, like we had on Tuesday. We worked out on the patio against a backdrop of Trees of Heaven. During class, we did twenty push-ups, sit-ups and squats. When class was over, I did forty more: 20 knuckle push-ups “tricep” style on the concrete and 20 “chest” style on the overgrown clover. The clover is pretty soft, as long as I didn’t worry about bugs.

S was concerned about a wasp stuck to the back door. He thought it would build a nest. This morning, it was gone, but it had left behind a tiny little post, which I knocked down with a shovel.

We drove to Culver City and dropped off loquats with Mikage and Jerry. The kids and I stood on the sidewalk while they stood at their front door, and we talked. It was so good to see them.

Their dog, Cherry, can walk now. She’s elderly and had had surgery. They had been afraid she would not walk again. A few weeks ago, after Jerry had taken her out, she walked to her water bowl on her own. Her vet had also taken her off of a pain medication, so maybe that helped. Since then, she has been walking more and more. Jerry brought her out, and, almost as if to demonstrate her newly regained skill, she wobbled a couple body lengths in the grass then stopped to lay down. Her gait was that of a drunken sailor, but she took the initiative to explore, and seemed content. Her people were clearly joyful, as were we to see all of them once more.

Afterwards, the kids and I drove down Washington Blvd. towards the beach, then turned up Ocean and followed it into Santa Monica. From there, we picked up the Pacific Coast Highway.

We drove along next to the ocean. Fog covered part of the view and made the green, hilly countryside opposite the ocean, itself bursting with green trees, succulents, flowers of all sorts, feel like Hawaii. The kids wanted to listen to eighties music. On our first camper trip two years ago, we drove up the PCH, listening to eighties music, but we could stop and walk out into the sand. Now all the beaches were dotted with police cars, enforcing quarantine.

Somewhere past Point Dume, we turned off the PCH and headed inland, in the direction of the 101 from Calabasas. From the 101, we made our way south to the 134 and Burbank.

I should mention there was little traffic, except for the PCH. On the PCH, we were in bumper to bumper traffic with other folks, most likely thinking what we were thinking: they could watch the ocean from car windows.

I thought we had turned off the PCH onto Highway 23, but now I think we may have been on Mulholland Drive most of the way. At some point, we saw signs indicating it was Mulholland. That drive was treacherous: 25 miles per hour along hairpin curves and switch-backs, but also verdant countryside, bursting with unique plant life.

I told the kids, this drive will remind os all of how big the world is.