We were a little concerned when 6:40 pm rolled around and the only people at the dojo were three black belts and half a dozen white and yellow belts. A few scraggling brown belts drifted in eventually, and Sensei Brewer arrived right as we were getting ready to put our heads together to formulate a lesson plan.
It was a very good basic workout for the first class. Sensei Brewer split the class into four groups and had each of the black belts spend a few minutes teaching a specific technique. He would come around, check our progress, add in a few corrections of his own, and then rotate the groups so we had a fresh batch of students. I got lunge punch, which meant my job was relatively easy. Most of my corrections revolved around squaring up shoulders or pulling back harder “like you’re ripping someone’s nose off.”
The second class was MUCH more intense. Sparring combinations up and down the floor followed by rapid fire Heian kata. I don’t know if it was just me or what, but I had a really tough time getting my wind during the katas. Thankfully,
The remainder of the class was Sparring Bonanza. The class was split up to spar with the two testing candidates in a fashion befitting their respective test, and I got the honor of being across from
I got the chance to rotate over and do jyu-ippon sparring with Rush-san. It was fun, but I don’t get as much pleasure out of landing single techniques when they know what is coming. I’d much rather put the thrusters on full auto and run right through there with whatever comes out. The class felt like it was over too soon, I would’ve liked to rotated around once more for some additional free sparring.
For those curious, yes, I did wear a shin guard over my 3″ wide dark purple bruised shin. When we were doing combinations, performing a round kick made it throb so I figured it best not to invite more blunt force trauma.
With
Now if Sensei comes up to me tomorrow and says start thinking about it, that may change the game but if left to my own devices it will probably be awhile before I even consider it. The training is the good part, the belt rank is less important.
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