Tonight was my first Monday workout at Mapleton, and it’s pretty strange working out on the stage. Sensei O warmed us up with inordinately large amounts of bouncing, which sent the pork chop I had into a frenzy of dancing around in my stomach. Sometimes I don’t understand what drives that guy. McCabe-san noticed that he proceeded to talk incessently at the new kid in class even when Sensei Hartman was explaining things in pretty basic terms. I really tend to feel bad for new people when he gloms onto them.
Either way, the workout was good. We continued to work to break the old habits of dropping our back shoulders, and we also did some Nidan style 3-5 time attack. It was pretty strange having to move around like that, but it was working marginally well for me. McCabe-san found the same weak spot in my vision that Sensei Brewer exploited last week and socked me right below the right eye. Luckily, he didn’t so much hit me in the nose, because I’m sure it would’ve bled again. I’m still waking up with blood up there in the mornings from the last time. McCabe’s shot gave me momentary stars, so he’s obviously got a pretty solid punch.
I misjudged him shifting out of the way for Erbe-san as sparring movement and dented his ribs on the next exchange, so we ended up pretty even for the night. It’s hard to spar with the latent concern that both you or your partner could careen off the stage onto the gym floor. I think we’re going to try that drill again in Pekin tomorrow night so we can get a better feeling for it.
I think we’re making progress. I mentioned to Sensei Hartman tonight that I wasn’t remotely scared about this one like I was the last time around. He said that was good because it would show up on that day. I expect it to, so I’m ready for that aspect of the test. Plus, if we continue progressing at the rate we have been in the last two weeks we’ll be so ready for it that it will make no difference.
For those of you that read my blog to find out other stuff about my life, I’m going to try to add a bit about life outside the dojo over the coming weeks. I like having this blog as an outlet for those things too, even though it’s been a little Karate-centric of late. It’s just the way my life is headed right now. 🙂
Related Articles
No user responded in this post