Big week.
Tuesday – x-rays show no damage to joint and no disease. yay. So its muscle, ligaments and the joint capsule causing the problem. More physio. Arrrgh. Then teaching -
Kids class – open handed strikes and blocks, kata. Game where the kids sit in the middle with eyes closed. On my instruction have to quickly orient themselves and run to a particular wall.
Senior class – warmup with Intuflow, quadhops, then partner work. The general theme was pre-emptive attack, quotation was one of my favourites – “Its better to give than to receive, so always hit first” – Marcus that still makes me laugh…But did a whole lot of squats too which was actually dumb, by the end of the night I was not such a happy camper..
Wednesday – Gkr dinner, no training, talked heresy most of the night, excellent fun. Still in pain.
Thursday – did a little very light stretching, intuflow, rested up
Friday – midday physio, some improvement. Conned elderly parents into supplying me with heavy strength Voltaren. Flew to Wellington for Gkr Black Belt Camp. Talked karate.
Saturday – six hours in two sessions, very enjoyable. A long, evolving and complex partner combination involving circular blocks attaining the outside position, shuto strikes to the bicep and neck in the inside position (which I did with the group on Tuesday night) and a lot of other things. Major brain work. Not intuitive though. Janet and I partnered up and threw in heaps of elbow variations etc. Then bunkai for Saifa and Bassai Dai. In some pain by the end of the day, couldnt do good shigo dachi or kokutse.
Caught up with old friends and opponents from around the country, talked karate all evening. Gave the visiting Chief Instructor his very own Intuflow dvd, will be very interested to hear what he makes of it…
Sunday – three hours: continous kata to own timing for an hour, then more bunkai for Bassai Dai and Seiunchin, followed by an hour of sparring. Very very good fun. Either the drugs kicked in or I’m getting better because by the end of it I felt great. No one was graded which was an anticlimax but I’m getting used to that now. Much less physically intensive than I expected but still a brilliant weekend, complete immersion.
Monday - Decided Ashihara might be tempting fate – high round kicks still a hard ask. I felt it was time to follow the Intuflow dvd again, make sure I’m doing it right – just half an hour plus light stretching, felt good. Physio again tomorrow.