2006 Workout #136: The end of the line…

Today was the last official workout of 2006!

We assembled in loose fashion today to have a triumphant run through of the 27 kata that and had been studying this year. That included good ol’ Sochin as well, so I was pleased to have a nice capper to this year.

Unfortunately, we ended up a little lost because our fearless leader had another commitment today and couldn’t make it (or at least, that was the last I heard).

That left the rest of us (Erbe, , , Garls, , and ) to figure out the katas that we had forgotten ourselves. To make matters worse, McCabe-san had showed up to videotape our attempt at all of these kata for posterity.

Let’s just say the blooper reel for that one may be longer than the actual film itself. It was so bad for awhile, we were taking turns trying to translate from the “25 Shotokan Kata” book while one or two of the black belts stepped through and attempted to remember what felt right.

I was a little surprised when I was able to (somewhat) decipher Bassai Sho in this fashion, armed mostly with residual memory of what looked like doing this kata when I used to watch him years ago.

Miscues and screw-ups aside, thanks go out to all of those guys that gutted it out. We made it through some semblance of all 27 kata, including my favorite Sochin. I’m pretty tired after that attempt, however some sake for endurance certainly did help the afternoon go smoothly.

Those of you that have been keeping track will notice a change in my Sochin counter after the first of the year. I will be taking off the averages and estimates, but I will still be keeping “official” track of how many katas I have done next year, taking special care to be accurate through the 21st of January. That day will be a calendar year of Sochin, it appears that I will easily crest 2100 Sochin.

Since we are moving on to sparring, I might not push the envelope much past 2100 initially, however I do have some thoughts at setting a light pace that will keep the kata sharp throughout 2007. More on that after I think about it for awhile.

Anyway, thanks to my dojo compatriots for pulling me along this year and helping me achieve this goal. It has been really incredible to look back at my spreadsheet, charts, pictures, and video to see what changes have occurred throughout the year and I couldn’t have done it without all of that help.

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Sochin Counter
Accomplished / Goal == Percent Complete
2094 / 2000 == 104.70%
Average Kata per Workout: 16.23
Estimated Workouts Remaining: 0
Workouts that gained more than 1%: 43
Workouts that gained more then 5%: 2