Friday, April 23, 2010

A Beginner's Point of View 158-159

Day 158:

Today is two practices before a tournament. This means Sensei wanted us to work extra hard (i.e. work to death). We had lots of students here today. We were actually full to capacity or so with very little side-to-side movement available.

We had a visitor who was from Ottawa. He walked on one of those metal canes in each hand because he had only one leg. It turns out that he was a sandan! He must be very dedicated.

We did endless rotations of kiri-kaeshi, over and over. Sensei wanted us to get lots of practice in since we would be expected to be able to show it in any promotional. I cannot go to the tournament because of my job. I have had many odd-hours shifts and I have missed lots of sleep. I need to rest and relax this weekend.

After kiri-kaeshi, we would do a lot of one-step men and one-step kote strikes. It was not one-sided, though. Any student who was shodan or above was expected to perform oji-waza on some of the strikes to practice counterattacks. We also did a few one-step kote-men.

After that, we vacated the middle of the floor and paired off for a lot of practice matches. It was only for one point and Sensei was the only shinpan. However, the beginner students who were going to their first tournament were given a lot of matches.

After that was done, we separated into two lines again slowly practiced one-step doh. One we had done this with every other student, we did more kiri-kaeshi drills.

Our visitor stayed with us the entire class, including a couple of practice matches where his opponent would only receive. It was a good lesson in seeing his very crisp, accurate strikes. He could not move very fast while hopping on his one foot, but he made up for it with his striking.

Day 159:

Today was more hard work. Sensei doesn’t believe in working us to death on the practice before tournament, but today we did not coast at all. We had a much smaller class, so we had room. Our one-legged visitor returned again.

We did a structured class of one-step men and one-step kote. We did not work on speed today, we worked on accuracy. Taking center before attacking is vital. Without it, you will miss. The dans again practiced oji-waza to sharpen their defenses.

Our beginner students also got in several practices matches to prepare them for tournament. At the end of class, Sensei asked our visitor to take turns striking all of us in kote, men, and kote-men. It was really interesting to see his crisp strikes from the receiving end.

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