A Dark Side Adventure

Friday – light Intuflow only

Saturday – got some big mirrors sorted – workshopped some kata, finetuning in Hangetsu and Sepai, mainly working on timing and tweaking technique details important in gkr. The mirrors are essential for this, really big help.  DId some hip flexor stretches prescribed by the physiotherapist, then general stetching, spinal rocks and some yoga to see how the strained muscles were coping. Very enjoyable and all good as long as I don’t twist the hips. Elbow flow. Only about an hour, still very light.

Sunday – more kata.

Wednesday -  The physio said – do nothing. I did nothing.

Holy moly the tv is bad on a wednesday night, I had no idea.

Thursday – physio again. Man that elbow of his is a fine weapon. He wants me to have xrays to make sure theres no damage to the top of the hip joint, he’s gotta be thorough I guess.  But I don’t think there is any damage – it already feels heaps better. So … I’ll do some Intuflow tonight, carefully, with music!

Yes I will have to take it easy…

Teaching tonight – the kids did a range of moving striking drills, very gkr but trying to get a little flow happening, then kata.

Seniors – did Intuflow with quad hops and spinal rocks to warm up. Haven’t tried these with the group before, very hard on a cold wooden floor even with leg pads stuck under their backs. Then open hand and elbow drills, some moving/striking partner work, kata and sparring to finish.

The kata was harder than I thought and i should have just let my sempais demonstrate. Damn its hard to take your own advice…

Went to physio today and its just about as I thought - torn gluteus medeus and some ligament damege round the hip joint. Actually I’m relieved, I was worried it might be the joint itself. Muscle stuff is fixable with time. The physio rubbed the point of his elbow onto my backside for half an hour…apparently I fall into a small category of patients who laugh when he does this sort of thing.

So no Ashihara tonight but I went down to the dojo to explain. I’m forbidden to train for a while, will go back to physio on Thursday for some more loving and see what the progress has been.

Once I would have just sulked the waiting out but the great thing is that now theres still fun stuff I can do  - Sanchin, Intuflow, spinal rocks, elbow flow…

I’ve stuffed my back/hips – excessive high round kicks and some overstretching, and then I just kept training. Started a week or so ago, got real bad Wednesday night, not better since. Muscular I think, probably going to need physio. Bugger. So taking it somewhat easy.

Thursday- light Intuflow, a little Sanchin flow stuff.

Friday – mini Dark Side Circuit – spinal rocks, some rolling stuff, elbow flows to focus pad, clubbells, Intuflow to music to finish.

Saturday – lagoon walk, light Intuflow, light sparring with Ben

Sunday – grading session at Manukau honbu for five of my students – didn’t send as many as I had hoped to, some just weren’t quite ready. Next time. Kids 1 hour, adults 1 1/2 hours. All graded yay! Tonight had a play with the weights -bicep curls mainly. Will just go gently with this, early days.

Gkr senior class –  partner drills. Started quite well I thought with following/evading movement while doing that tournament-style jumping action. But instead of moving from this into absorbing/pushing stuff we did single handed block and counter strike drill and on to springing-up head level round kicks. These are one of Sensei’s own specialty sparring techniques and he is very deadly at them. I found it hard to be effective at all against anyone much taller than myself – shoulder kicks not very deadly. Never mind it was all very good cardio…sigh.

Then kata – Hangetsu and Sepai. Still some technical details I’m trying to polish. I’m convinced flowing versions are possible but for a little while longer I’ll have to stay with the robots… life Jim, but not as we know it…

Its been an odd few days with the holiday weekend etc Walking and intuflow, kata.

Ashihara are closed on public holidays so instead of the usual high intensity Monday night I did a Gkr tournment training class on Sunday night.  Haven’t done this style of sparring for a very long time and I’m well out of practice. Just reinforced my dislike of the whole scenario. I  got (mildly) told off for following up a scoring technique with half a dozen more. And I’m well happy to take a body shot or two so that I can get in close, but of course in point sparring its the first shot that counts. The only thing I do like about it is the sense of requirement to act, the urgency, which can be missing from the normal dojo sparring we do. Its what you can do under pressure thats important and its something I’d like to take further.

Tonight was teaching night. Kids class did a huge lot of strikes to focus pads plus kata and stances.

Seniors did kata, strength stuff, partner kicking drills, sparring and finished with some conditioning.

There a grading coming up at the end of next week so I’ve been concentrating specifically on basics and kata in an effort to get as many students moved forward as possible. I’m planning to send the biggest group ever from my dojo, all ages and grades.

This means that all the neat movement and striking and bunkai work I’ve been doing has had to be put to one side for a little while. These basics/kata classes are so easy to teach, no planning needed, can do them with my eyes shut, totally to format. Very much karate by numbers, the opposite of intuitive.  Not good.

But how good is this - eldest son has brought his weights and bench home – no room in his flat - so I can add some of this stuff into the mix. I have absolutely no idea what do do, never lifted a weight in my life, but looking forward to setting it up and experimenting. Easter beak will be perfect.

High intensity class tonight – half hour warmup of assorted pushups, situps, leg raises, kicks etc and running up and down the hill outside the dojo 10 times. Stretches then sabaki partner drills and takedowns for an hour.

Its not easy -theres that whole Kyokushin-like switch step footwork I’m just not used to. My Uechi theory tells me about sheering, positioning, use of mass. Just have to get my body used to how it feels. But it gets a little more familiar every time. I do like the functionality of this stuff. And I like the challenge of getting my head around it. Huge learning curve.

Tuesday night Teaching – good class. The quote for the night was `Train like a tiger’  – I said that if we all have an animal in us, make it a tiger not a sheep or rabbit etc. One wee soul put her hand up and asked very worriedly how the tiger got inside her and was it going to get out….

Senior class - focus pad strikes, kakie uke applications, group circle drills defence and counterattack, strength work, finished with sparring. I had twelve in the group, gradually the numbers are increasing, very pleasing. Their quote was from Rory Miller about not delegating responsibility for your own safety.

Wednesday night -Gkr senior training – Saifa bunkai first and applications, not at all bad. Followed by sparring – I’m cetainly confusing people, lol. My style is so mixed up and weird now. Getting better at receiving and closing,  very different from the stand back and jump around points stuff most of the others do. Just need to get the close up stuff really flowing and working. So a good medium intensity night.