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!