2005 Workout #105: Oh, for the love of God, more Sochin…

I guess the “seek and ye shall find” adage is alive and well… tonights workout was kata for the first class and more kata for the second class. Oedewaldt-san broke us out into groups to help teach kata, and I got the two purple belts (my Dad and Dobbleaire-san). That left Jerry-san left over, so I had him come along with our group because I’ve noticed him watching Tekki Shodan from the sidelines as we do it before class.

We went slow enough at it so Jerry could keep up and so Dad and Dobbleaire could work on the finer points. They did a great job, thankfully Sensei showed up to take Jerry to do Heian Nidan which allowed us to speed up for a few reps. Both the purple belts are doing well at this kata, they’re down to refining the small points.

Before class, we had a pool going as to what the “correct” blocking/striking motions were after the upward spearhand thrust in Sochin. I had my theory of doing the first block/strike with the front leg front kick, Mike and Matt went for doing them as you did the second kick. It ended up that I was both right and wrong in the same space… well… within the span of a few minutes. When we asked Sensei, he showed it to us and it seemed almost as if he did the first block/strike in between the kicks. We consulted a few books and decided that I was more wrong than the other guys. I was doing it too early, the others a bit too late. The only one that had it anywhere near right was Oedewaldt-san. I guess that means he wins the pot, which stood at exactly $50,000 worth of Superman trading cards.

The second class we focused on Sochin and Hangetsu. After three straight classes of outward tension stances like sochin-dachi and kiba-dachi my legs are about ready to fall off. I can already feel them stiffening up as I type this. I’m beginning to think that the only way through Sochin is through Hell Itself. We’ll find out, as I’m planning on doing still more Sochin on Saturday. I want to do this kata until my legs stop protesting.

We rounded out the night with the world famous Kill the Black Belt drill. I escaped largely unscathed, but I have a mystery scratch on the inside of my left forearm. The only shot I remember landing in that region was when Mike put a front kick into my funny bone that make my left arm go totally numb and have a involuntary opening of the fist reaction. Very strange, but it only lasted about 10 seconds.