I slept late today. That felt wonderful.
Sensei came to our home and we did a black belt training workout with both kids and me for about forty five minutes. It was just so nice to see him in person, even though we needed to be cognizant of social distancing. He had us sprint down our street. He timed us and encouraged us to cut our times by one or two seconds during the last three sprints. In total, we sprinted about ten times.
In between about every three sprints, he had us do push-ups, sit-ups and squats in sets of twenty repetitions. I did mine on my knuckles on the pavement, in front of the nearest parked car. He verified that the black belt requirement is sixty knuckle push-ups, or one hundred on your hands and/or knees. So I’m good. I had been pushing beyond that sixty more recently, just in case I needed to get to one hundred.
Sensei also corrected my punching form during squats. I had been imitating a particular move I’d learned a while ago in leaving a fist out, mainly to keep track of which “side” I was currently on for punches. He said to bring the fist all the way back into hikite. This makes the punch more powerful, and makes the twist proceeding the punch happen more naturally. Your uraken shita-uchi is much stronger when you start with your fist pulled back. So I will practice this in the coming week.
We also did karate over Zoom. Sensei had us do nunchuck exercises. They were basic, which the grown-ups among us definitely needed. Then he taught us the beginning of a nunchuck kata. Class was fun!
After class, he spoke with Senpai T and me about the teaching schedule for July.
My husband D and I also walked the bike path in Burbank, and listened to a couple podcasts. I now have shin splints, but I really got in a good workout. Now I should meditate for a bit, read and sleep.
This was an awesome day!