Tag: third kyu syllabus

Tuesday June 16th, 2020

I did exercises this morning. During push-ups, I am trying to stay up on my toes for more repetitions, and today was better. During karate class, Sensei had us do sets of thirty push-ups, sit-ups and squats in between various exercises. I had one more set of thirty to do after class in order to get in my evening ninety.

F lead kihon and did a good job, though she has not lead in a while, and spaced on the names of some moves that she normally knows. Nerves, most likely, but her form is crisp. She set a steady, quick pace. We were out of breath after her kihon.

Sensei returned to third kyu syllabus for another type of exercise: we did ten of each move on both the right and left sides. So, after doing this, it was easy to remember the syllabus. Also, it is a method of using the syllabus as a workout. He said the IFK will often have students do this for multiple syllabi.

A younger version of my step-mother appeared in my dreams for a few nights in a row. She read my diary, though this didn’t bother me. Since it was published, I was glad to have a reader. In another dream, she was in a room with a girl strongly resembling her daughter, my younger step-sister, who died about ten years ago. I should get in touch with my sister and let her know about the dreams.

Around lunch time, I went to the office to retrieve my things. The company is giving up one of the floors of our building, and they are moving other folks into our offices. I don’t know when this will happen. For now, most of us work from home and will in the near future, given we are not furloughed.

I enjoy working from home. I’m sure I’ve mentioned this before. We can thank the pandemic for significantly reduced traffic and more family time . One friend from the dojo, a parent of two, told me that her husband, before the pandemic, was never home from dinner. He drove to and from work for over an hour. His commute, in addition to working overtime, meant he simply arrived home well after family dinner. Since the shutdown, he has not missed a family dinner.

Obviously the loss of life and the isolation that many feel as a result of the pandemic are terrible. Hopefully we as a society will figure out how to be better prepared for these events in the future. If we can avoid or minimize suffering and death, while hanging onto improvements in quality of life, this is best.

Saturday, June 6th, 2020

The kids and I participated in karate class last night. Sensei talked briefly about the importance of kihon and the need to continue it; it is the foundation of karate. We also practiced the Ido Geiko drill we learned on Tuesday, and that was fun. S caught on quickly and was super-fast. Sensei asked him and and another fast boy who had mastered the exercise if they were good at math, or liked math. They both did. One of Sensei’s instructors had pointed out to him that kids adept at math often pick up Ido Geiko quickly.

Sensei explained that, when he was a student under the IKO, the teachers would often throw in an Ido Geiko exercise right at the end of promotion. The teacher would give students a series of exercises to do, off the cuff, and they’d have maybe two times to practice it before they were graded. So more like a karate pop quiz. I’m pretty slow at that kind of thing. I do get it, but with lots of practice.

Sensei also covered the difference between hiji ate uchi and hiji ago uchi. A hiji ate elbow strike comes around the body and usually aims for the chin, while hiji ago uchi starts low and rises up. The ending hand positions for these two strikes are clearly different. For chudan (mid-level) hiji ate uchi, as an example, you “post” your elbow forward, with your fist tucked into your chest, whereas for chudan hiji ago uchi, your fist ends near your ear. This is useful information for both kihon and IFK’s third kyu syllabus. Even when I learned third kyu syllabus, I remember struggling to understand the differences between these. Somehow, last night, it clicked.

After Friday night’s class, I ran through all the kata I know. I will need to be able to do the “walk,” or all kata I’ve studied, for the Shodan test. Some of the Pinans were mushed together in my head, so I worked on those. I struggled with Saifa and Tensho. Those were my last promotion kata, too, so I really need to get them down again. I will ask the kids to show those to me. I don’t know if they know Saifa, but they do know Tensho.

This morning, I attended karate by myself. We covered many of the exercises from Friday and Tuesday nights.