A Dark Side Adventure

Uechi in the Park

Warmup, think it was 6 rounds of star jumps/get-ups/bridges/lunges/lizard crawls (I did squats).  Tried to the last round’s count each time.

Whole raft of stuff -  kotikitae, swimming neck crank thing, spear-tikitae, another kind of tegumi?, push hands., experimenting. And of course NLD and striking practise. Dodging and dipping, using body then adding hands, elbows. I’m thinking too much Ben tells me, he’s right. Gosh I’m pleased with the way he’s going with this stuff.

Oh and conditioning. Goood. Ugh. (Thanks again Dazz).

Pieces of the Uechi puzzle that all interlink and refer to each other.

This blogsite is really rocking!

Lightish warmup - six two minute rounds of sergeant jumps, pushups, situps, step up knee highs, sprints and step jumps. I’m substituting the plank for pushups, seems to be okay so far. A few rounds of light, open-hands-only sparring, great fun.  Kicks to the leg and leg-checking.

Then partner drills striking and kicking. A little spinning and jumping. Some ballet lol.

Super-quick kata to finish and mop the dojo.

Systema. General body stretching on the floor, then on our back with arms and legs off the floor at all times. Have to write big numbers in the air 1-10 and back again – right leg, left arm, left leg, right arm, both legs, both arms. Harder than it sounds.

Stepping or moving out of a kick .  Then moving, avoiding and leaving a gift or causing a little disrupt. Pushups etc between all the drills to reset the brain and tire our arms.

A body hug, learning to relax and be heavy. Then using the weightedness to move the attacker, quite subtle. Then avoiding the grab or hug by moving, absorbing – messing with the attacker’s timing, just enough. Then adding in preemptive strike or slap, jamming.

Be not there, but if you are there, be first!

Warmup with pushups, situps, squats and running. I did some pushups, very shallow, wait and see how the shoulders feel tomorrow. Then stretching and basics.

Then partner drills using the “inside” sabaki stepping which was interesting given a conversation we had on Sunday. This is basically the sabaki angle reversed, going forward then out. Not Uechi lol. I kind of sucked at this tonight, just tired from an early morning start. Finished with the four fighting katas in quick progression.

Warmup with the gym boss – five sets of  kettle swings, lifts, star jumps, squats or push ups, backward lunges.  A nasty little weapon that gym-boss lol. Coped easily enough, didnt push it till the last round, I’ll go harder next time. The lunges are always my most hated thing. Enjoyed the kettles.

Big mix today - kotikitae, push hands and entries. Elbow entry. Swimming. Some seriously new stuff here. Striking to pads. My lefthand side  definitely weaker due to stuffed shoulder, coordination a little wonky. Some of this felt really good though. Conditioning (thanks Dazz), including some shin kick work.

NLD. I continue to be impressed by this drill. We’re at the very lightest edge of it, but its still alive, learning every time.

Thanks Marcus and Darren.

Traditional warmup followed by basics in stances marching up and down. Gosh I havent done this for a while. (But at least this version is more flowing). Stretching.

Then the group of 16  is split into four lines of 4. A series of drills where you rotate around, ten reps, so 160 of each. This was a progressive combo with sabaki and high round kicks, and a little repeat of Monday night’s sabaki-takedown stuff. Hard and fast. The damn blackbelts were tough as – nice bruising on my wrists from guarding against head kicks.

Challenging, enjoyable.

Started with one person back to the wall, the other pushing/doing pushups against them. Then the wall person has to move against the wall, pusher has to keep wrist/arm structure and pin them. Conditioning for upper chest here. Then taking a body and pushing with the fist, working it into the contours, always point to the centre. Then from pushing to striking with structure – conditioning for the partner. Then moving around the partner and striking with structure. Opportunistic striking. Plenty of pushups inbetween the progressions to wear out the arms a little so that less damage was done at the end ( substituted situps).

This was a really useful session, striking is one of my obsessions lol. Shoulder a little sore but okay.

Warmup. Alternating 5 mins skipping/3 circuits of stair running and lunges with handweights,  5 reps of this. Gosh. Then 25 pushups, 25 leg lifts, 25 hands to the sky situps, 1 min plank, 5 reps of the lot. Then stretching.

A partner drill which started with three blocks, a leg push, knee strike, elbow strike. Got the hang of this after a while, footwork important. Then it segued to the same drill adding a leg push takedown followed by a move where you sit on the guy, roll over with him, whip your legs over the top and apply an arm bar. Theres probably a name for this lol. I had an awesome partner who just worked with me and taught well. Thanks Aaron!

Then kata to finish, Kata Kumite Ichi.

In the park, Ben came too. Started with push hands, subtleties of angles and structure for me to consider. Then kotikitae, remembering how to do this, felt real good.

Conditioning. Nice.

Then applications and openings from the kotikitae start. Challenging, interesting, really liked this because it is so alive and strategic (strategy not being one of my best talents). Linking back to the first drills.

Then NLD! I started too wired but relaxed better as it went on. Much value in this drill. We repeated the fails, the body learns and remembers a little each time. This was great for Ben as well, he’s had less exposure to this kind of aliveness, but he did really well I thought.

A little Sanchin. I probably do bits of this a few times a week, just playing with aspects,  but its been a while since I actually put the bits together. Now I have more to play with. Does  mud help the stance? Certainly does no harm lol.

Lots of discussion. More and more I feel that I have lots of different pieces of the puzzle now, with the various martial experiences I have, but IUPA puts them all together.

Ben’s done no karate for months as his uni timetable has made it too hard – possibly a good thing. He commented on how much he enjoyed the aliveness and lack of regimentation. Both really enjoyed it.