Tag: Zoom karate

Tuesday July 28th, 2020

My life has been non-stop karate for roughly four days, but as an ichi kyu just days out from my test, that’s appropriate. At least, that’s what I tell myself.

I did exercises this morning. In order to keep track of sit-ups, since I messed up the count yesterday morning, I held 5 little stones in each hand and dropped one after each set of ten. At first, the actual dropping of stones probably gave me too much of a rest as I figured out the logistics, but it did help me keep the count.

During class, I did forty push-ups, sit-ups and squats, so I only had to do sixty afterwards. At ten o’clock at night, I did my last sets of sixty.

During my lunch break, I practiced my bo staff kata and my two ura katas, along with Saifa. F has an exam tomorrow, and her second summer school class has started, so she didn’t practice with me. Yesterday, however, she was a trooper.

Tonight, Senpai TJ taught with DJ as our monitor. My son S and I setup the older laptop outside on a table in the back yard. We also have a flood light set up to turn on, once it gets dark. We have a flood light because, long ago, my my husband bought it to use as a night time light for a short film he worked on years ago.

During class, Senpai covered Gekisai Dai. Initially, S and I seemed to be on different sides from each other the whole time, but we figured it out by the time Senpai called on us to demonstrate. Once we were spotlighted on Zoom, we got it together.

Here’s an awesome video posted by karate35, that I often use as reference for that kata:

We also had a guest instructor join us, but for observation. He is the father of one of F’s buddies from choir. Several months back, Sensei invited him to teach a self-defense class, and it was cool to learn techniques from a different style.

I called him last night. He wanted to check out our Zoom classes. He had no idea about teaching over Zoom, however, so I suggested he observe a class.

Initially he had trouble because he was not terribly familiar with Zoom. DJ let him into the class, but we weren’t sure at first who he was. His video and sound were off and he showed up under a strange name. He couldn’t chat us or figure out how to unmute to speak to us. DJ, cautious, sent him to the waiting room. I texted him on my cell. He confirmed that he was, in fact, our mystery guest, so we let him back in. By the end of the class, he figured out how to turn on his video and unmute his microphone. After class, he talked with a few of us, and confided that this was his first Zoom session ever!

After speaking with our guest instructor, Senpais SF and T graciously offered to go over promotion requirements with S and myself. We drilled shodan syllabus as well as first kyu. I accidentally kicked S during the spin kicks at the end. Later, S somehow got me on the head while practicing one of the kata. At some point, we stayed far enough away from each other to have enough space to work, and far enough back from the computer that we could still be seen on camera.

Afterwards, we practiced several kata. I’m embarrassed to admit I could not remember Pinan Sono San during lunch. I had to look it up, so I asked Senpais to review that one.

Senpai TF has recently injured her rotator cuff, so we talked abut that for a bit. Sensei had warned me not to go too low for push-ups, and to keep my elbows in, in order to hit the triceps. During one of our recent training sessions with him, he had each of us (F, S and me) demonstrate how low we go, to make sure we were not going low enough to irritate the shoulder joints.

I shared that information with TF. I suspect her push-ups are too deep. Initially, when you stop going low, it feels like cheating. However, if you keep your elbows tucked in and you stop just before your elbows line up with the bottom of your rib cage, you can work those triceps well without injuring your shoulders. That, at least, is the idea.

Soon, the kids and I will veg out and watch an episode of Star Trek: the Next Generation. It’s not as funny as Buffy, but still entertaining.

Friday July 17th, 2020

Yesterday morning I did do my usual exercises, but I didn’t last night. During my lunch break, I went here:

I donated blood for the first time. This was something I have wanted to do for a long time, but I’ve been below the weight limit for most of my adult life, except when I was pregnant. At my last physical, I realized I was finally slightly over the limit and discussed it with my doctor. She said the need for blood donations now is greater than usual, due to the pandemic. So, after leaving the doctor’s office, I called the Red Cross from my car and finally made an appointment. Yesterday, I kept the appointment.

I had no idea what I was getting into, but many people do it on a regular basis and it saves lives. That’s good enough for me. Though I played the cool cucumber, the intake nurse noted my pulse was slightly elevated. I confessed I’d never donated before. She pricked my finger to check my ability to clot, and assured me, “That’s usually the most painful portion of it! You’ll do fine.”

A gentleman set me up for the actual blood draw. Their needle was no different from the kind used for blood draws for a physical. The time period was longer, and a nurse gave me a “gummy” toy car, enclosed in a glove, to squeeze. R&B played inside the Red Cross van; I watched in amusement as one nurse, the gentleman who set me up, grooved to the music.

I resisted the urge to make vampire jokes.

My husband did receive vampire jokes from me prior, and responded with fainting jokes. He donated blood before, and knows exactly what not to say. And I knew when to stop paying attention to his texts.

I think of the blood donation in the same manner as a kumite match, or karate fight. It will weaken you, but it is also a learning experience that, in the long term, it can make you stronger.

Perhaps, in the case of a blood donation, it is more about mental strength than physical, at least for me. Once the blood draw had actually finished, I was feeling good, and then I saw the bag of blood and thought, “That came from me?” I immediately felt a bit dizzy, then I thought to myself, “Well this is silly–one or two minutes ago, most of that blood had already left my body and I did not feel this way. I feel this way because I looked at that bag. That bag is a good thing–and I am just fine.” The nurse told me when to sit up and I waited to sit up until I was told, and I felt just fine.

I did have the orange juice, and an entire bottle of water. I thought about taking some of the treats, but had brought fruit and nuts in the car, for the specific reason of not needing to take any sweets.

Once the draw is done, you wait for fifteen minutes to make sure you are okay. The nurse who released me instructed me not to exercise for 24 hours, or drink alcohol. So that was it for both my evening and morning exercises, along with that evening glass of wine.

Today, however, the kids and I met Sensei in the Figure 8 Park for a work-out. He had us do two minute runs broken up with kata and exercises. We one set of 20 push-ups, sit-ups and squats. For kata, we first practiced three of the pinans. Roughly in the middle of the workout, we did the sokugis, or the first punching katas. We ended the workout with Gekisai Dai and Sho, and Sensei led. After a couple runs, we simply drank water and socialized.

During the kata drills, Sensei also had us pay attention to how much distance we need for social distancing during the pandemic: he recommends thirty feet, outdoors, when folks are exercising. He instructed S to count it out for himself, since S, who is quite tall, also has large feet.

Tonight, I am teaching and hope to run the IFK upper 17 moves after kihon. I will ask my kohai and co-teacher to run kihon. We will use this video after the break:

Wednesday July 15, 2020

I have been lax in writing in this blog, but not with exercises. I did rest on Sunday, but since Monday, I have managed to get in my usual 60 push-ups, 100 sit-ups and 100 squats in, as well as the additional 40 push-ups on my knees. Tuesday night, I was the Zoom monitor for karate class, so I did not participate in the actual class. Instead, I gave feedback to students practicing karate, or changed the Zoom spotlight as needed. Today, during our 3:30pm session, I also substituted for my son S while he finished up a Zoom D&D game.

Today and Monday, I went back to the jump rope intervals for cardio. Also on Monday, I reviewed Saifa kata, Tsuki No kata and Bo Sono Ichi. For Saifa, I found a great video:

This video was put up by a Kyokushin dojo in Cape Town, from the look of the poster. This gentleman is great because you can really observe his hand motions. For the life of me, I could not remember how this kata began. It has been over six months, possibly longer, since I practiced it. I felt I needed to re-learn it.

Still reading “Zen Flesh, Zen Bones,” though the stories are a bit odd. I understand there’s a moral, in a way, but the past couple do not necessarily deal with enlightenment, but rather its opposite: a nun has a golden Buddha; she’s so jealous of other statues receiving her incense that she devises a funnel to send her burning incense directly to her statue, and it turns the Buddha’s nose black. In another, a tea master is very particular about the hanging of a basket, and his astute observational skills are tested by a craftsman.

Saturday July 11th, 2020

Last night, over Zoom for karate class, N. was the instructor, but she traded off with DJ. DJ is an adult yellow stripe; she is having surgery next week, so Sensei gave her an opportunity to promote prior to her surgery. She demonstrated her knowledge of kihon, along with N. After kihon, she did the kata walk required for her rank, exercises and syllabus. She had fourth kyu, the one that features shutos, which, in my opinion, is one of the more difficult ones to learn. It simply has more moves. DJ did really well, though she struggled with Tsuki No kata. That one is a bear under normal circumstances, and she had to learn it in a hurry over Zoom. She passed her promotion, however. She is our first adult to promote over Zoom!

This morning, Senpai B, who is our youngest black belt–she earned her adult black belt at age fourteen–led the class. She called on me to teach kihon. I asked if she’d like me to alternate with F and S, since they were present for class. Senpai B approved, so we lead the entire kihon, alternating between us. F and I threw in some instruction where we thought appropriate. I did some instruction for performing ushiro geri that Sensei had given to DJ last night: he instructed us to chamber first, look behind you, perform the kick, draw your leg back quickly to your chamber, then set the foot down. I repeated the instructions, but had trouble keeping my balance! Nevertheless, I slowed the count and instructed folks to follow those steps, and struggled through myself. Senpai M, our Nidan who moved east, had given us similar instructions a while ago.

After kihon, B took back over and taught Pinan Sono San.

When class was finished, F went back inside to work on her English literature class and S stayed outside with me to practice Bo Sono Ichi. Neither S nor I could remember it, so we did a quick run-through of Pinan Sono Ichi Ura. We did well with that, except that we forgot to do blocks instead of punches during part of it.

We googled Bo Sono Ichi and found this very accomplished video of a black belt demonstrating it. Not only did this gentleman do an awesome Bo Sono Ichi, but he had up videos for Ni and San:

From what S and I can tell, this video and the other bo staff kata videos were first posted about nine years ago by members of the South Delta Kyokushin IKO Club. They appear to be re-posted about 2 years ago. In any case, this karateka is awesome and you should check out his other two videos.

S and I watched the other bo staff kata, then returned to this one and watched it at a quarter speed to learn the hand switches. When Sensei had taught this, and to be fair, he’d taught us bo staff katas more than once, he’d had us drill the hand switches. It was fun to do, but it has been several months since we practiced it. However, I need it now for the Shodan test. S caught on very quickly, then critiqued me while I practiced. Finally, once I had it down, he left to play Mindcraft with a friend, and I drilled it until I felt more comfortable with it.

To mix things up a bit, I practiced Pinan Sono Ichi and Ni Uras, then went back to the bo staff to practice some more.

Wednesday July 8th, 2020

I worried about doing exercises this morning because I’d experienced some pain in my left back shoulder blade and shoulder area last night. This morning, it was better and I was able to do all the exercises. In general, I should try to slow down and not rush through the exercises; if something hurts, then I need to modify what I do or do different exercises.

Since I’d had pains in one thigh last week, and last Monday’s treadmill run did not cause any new pain, I decided to stick with that and avoid jump rope intervals. Mentally, it was a bit of a challenge because I was watching the time go by pretty intently. A good podcast can help, but those commercial breaks are always an excuse for me to look at the time I’ve already jogged and mentally calculate how much time I have left. That is something I’m not proud of.

Last night, Sensei taught karate class over Zoom! A group of us had a small meeting with him after class to talk about promotion, since he’d suggested to a few students that they are ready to promote. For two adults in our group, he felt strongly that they should promote to green, which is the beginning of the advanced level. It would be good for the club, since they could then help teach. He suggested the club hold a promotion soon, particularly to reward the kids for sticking with karate during this pandemic. We are not sure how to pull that off, at the moment. TF suggested compiling a list of everyone’s current rank, and the last time they tested. Then, we can go over that list with Sensei and discuss who is ready.

We also discussed reaching out to a family that recently moved to the East Coast. Three of them studied karate with us for years, and we’re hoping to have them participate with us over Zoom. F has been in touch with the daughter, also an ichi kyu, who chose to set aside her junior shodan in favor of her adult rank.

The class was fun: Sensei went over the nunchuck kata again. SL, one of the junior shodans, also demonstrated a different nunchuck kata that he learned. He is one impressive kid.

This morning, while writing outside, I wrote this: it’s so pleasant–cool breeze, sunny but I’m in the shade; birds are singing, squirrels chirping and mosquitos buzzing. Mosquitos? Out this early? They’re the little “tiger” ones, new to this area.

Tonight, I admit, I did not do exercises. Instead, TF put together a kata study group that included the two yellow belts promoting to green, her and me. We drilled Tsuki No Kata together. It is one of the longer and more difficult kata. Once you get it down, though, it’s very cool. It focuses, at least in the beginning, on stances (kiba, sanchin, zenkutsu dachi) and emphasizes both reverse and straight punches (gyaku tsuki and oi tsuki). Lower-ranking kata will tend to have more mirrored moves and more straight punches, in contrast, and they follow a more clear pattern. This kata also starts from standing meditation, another mark of more advanced kata.

There are two versions on-line that actually look like the same performer, though one version is pretty blurry. I’m posting the more clear one, though I think we actually watched the other while we practiced.

We practiced this kata together over Zoom for roughly an hour and a half. At the end of it, I was pretty tired. I did a few push-ups, and rushed, despite planning not to rush through exercises. D came outside to check on me. I did not do squats or push-ups. It was after 9pm, and I was pretty tired. But I felt good after practicing the kata with friends. Also, kata practice is a good work-out by itself, so it’s an acceptable substitute for evening exercises.

Wednesday July 1st, 2020

I wrote most of my entry in the doctor’s office. I had my annual check-up this morning, and wrote while waiting for Dr. KC to arrive.

My weight is only about three pounds higher than it was last year. That’s a good reality check: I’d worried that I’d gained a lot of weight in the past few months. Apparently I have been ten pounds heavier for at least a year. I hope a good chunk of that weight is muscle. I don’t feel bigger but my clothes do fit differently. Some items are too small. My arms are visibly larger and my shoulders more rounded–that is definitely more muscle. I can also lift bags of cat litter more easily or open jars that I’d once struggled with.

Here’s another upside to the weight gain: I can donate blood! I’ve not only met, but exceeded, the weight requirement. I called the Red Cross from the parking lot of the doctor’s office and scheduled an appointment. Seriously, for years, when blood drives came to the office or to my college campus, I wasn’t able to go, and felt bad about it. My friends donated, and I couldn’t. Now I can! And, according to Dr. KC, they really need blood right now.

This morning, I rushed through push-ups, sit-ups and squats, but I got them in. I did not clean or sanitize in the kitchen or write. In order to get in an hour of work before my appointment, I clocked into work at 9:15 am.

I should mention my doctor said my blood work was great. She even told me she finds my karate practice inspiring! I need to tell Sensei. Last year, Dr. KC saw me when I had what was either a badly bruised or fractured rib. In class, we’d had a hard kumite match for practice. She told me, “Don’t quit karate! Let that heal, but don’t quit! You’re one of my healthiest patients!” I was able to tell her today that my rib healed fine and I passed my ichi kyu test last August. This August, I told her, I’m hoping to test for my shodan. We are not quite sure how that will work. Sensei has ideas, however.

Later today, my son S taught the martial arts club’s first class. He had about eight students. S lost the Zoom connection at least once, but rejoined and kept teaching. He lead them in a review of the Pinan kata.

I took a lunch break and was there for roughly half his class. He had us do a set of twenty push-ups, sit-ups and squats. I did some kihon with him. I don’t know if that really counts as a cardio workout. After work, then, I only had to do eighty of each exercises to have in my second set. Push-ups after work were chest ones, on my fists and toes. I got through my sixty and was relieved to switch to tricep ones on the mat.

Today’s exercise sets were better than yesterday’s. For some reason, yesterday was a real struggle. I got in both sets, but I struggled and even lost the count during squats in the morning. I need to put up yesterday’s entry so any readers will realize that every day isn’t awesome. Just some. Unfortunately, I often feel more like going to bed early on those days that are not awesome. Yesterday was one.

Friday June 26th, 2020

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!

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.

Tuesday June 9th, 2020

My paper journal and this blog have diverged as of late. Part of me wants to write in order to inspire others, rather than simply recording my personal ups and downs. That part of me, on some level, I’m sure, wants to put my “best” self forward. Granted, that doesn’t always make for good writing. So I’ll have to wrestle with that demon. However, I have no idea who, if anyone, is reading this. I have not emailed many friends and family about this site, or taken advantage of any of the tracking plug-ins provided with WordPress or Bluehost.

I did not have a lot of time for writing this morning. In addition to my usual kitchen cleaning and sanitizing, I watered the kids’ bonsai and cleaned the glass door leading out to the back yard. After cleaning the glass, it was really nice to be able to see out. But in any case, I started writing when I had eleven minutes remaining before needing to log into work.

And speaking of home projects: I have a major one in mind: dismantling the trampoline. S likes jumping on it with company, but he won’t go on it by himself. F doesn’t really get on it very much. S will jump if I or one of his school buddies comes over. I don’t know when that will happen, since we’re still in this pandemic. If we took it down, however, we’d have the whole back yard as space for karate practice. If F and I are going to test in August, we will need space for kata practice.

B, our sixteen year old adult Shodan, lead the karate class over Zoom. She has a free account, so class was only forty minutes. She is also still in school this week, so none of us can blame her for keeping the class short. I did exercises after class, and watered a kumquat tree at the same time. It’s pleasant to do exercises outside, though the concrete on the knuckles does give me sore knuckles.

Sensei announced a beach workout for this Saturday. We are all looking forward to it. We’ll have to bring masks, but I’m guessing no one will wear masks in the ocean. I am really hoping we will have many more beach workouts together as a dojo community with Sensei. The karate beach workouts are some of our fondest memories as a family.