2005 Workout #73: Beatdown Station…

This morning’s workout got off to a slow start, as my valiant ride overslept and we were running a little late. When we got there, we discovered that only Garls-san, Raleigh-san, and Hickman-san had shown up. We warmed up with some basics and then proceeded onward to kata.

I hung back to help Hickman-san further with his kata, I think he’s starting to make some strides toward improvement. He still has some aggravating habits, but don’t we all.

Then sparring washed over the group, and and I decided to spar at length. I know I was irritating him when correcting the fact that he fish kicks his mawashi-geri. He’s still remarkably tough to spar, but I want to make sure I do my part to get him trained up in time for his Sandan.

I got to spar for a little while with Raleigh-san, where he asked for some pointers on how to kick faster. This got me talking about different approaches to my side kick. What most people don’t realize is that its not the speed of my kick, its the timing associated with it. Side kicks by design aren’t remarkably fast, its just a matter of setting up in such a fashion that your hips are ready to throw the kick before your attacker knows its coming.

I went on to describe how in Macomb I had to work out ways to hone this technique that Sensei Brewer showed me (reverse punch into side kick) because most everyone in Macomb would sidestep it and blast me. That taught me a few tricks about covering the technique in a volley of other techniques so they didn’t know it was on the way.

I hope it didn’t come off too much like “I’ve perfected this let me lecture you”… I was attempting to provide all the knowledge possible that I have so everyone else can hit me with it so I’ll be forced to learn something new. As Sensei Brewer has said… speed is nice, but treachery always wins.