礼

After the first half of furious punching, the second half continued with Kata.

Sora was standing next to me. She was the only 3rd Kyu.
She was not very clear about her Kata, Jutte and Wanshu. So, I decided not to do my 2nd kyu kata, and did Jutte and Wanshu with her instead.

I did, and she followed.
Giving her comment every now and then when I found necessary. I didn't point out very minor details, for this is the first time she do it, for she is still young. there are certain things, that I believe, one will only be able to appreciate better when one is at of certain age. Or perhaps it is just an excuse of not being able to speak Japanese into that great detail. (*smile*)

When we finished the Kata, we bow forward, and then we bow to each other.
And I must agree, I like the feeling of bowing each other after Kata training.

Today's 一言：Karate starts with with 礼 and ends with 礼.

Punch of another level

Entering the school exam period, most people didn't turn up for training today. When we started the warming up, I didn't need to move to the very end of the dojo, I started somewhere 2/3 across.

Going back to basic, punches and blocks.
More advance technique are built upon these basics.

What are the more advance technique?
Punches and blocks, still.
But these punches and blocks are practiced repeatedly, so that they can be well controlled, either to stop just a micron in front of the target, or to crush the target, shattering it into pieces.

Sounds scary, or perhaps sounds impossible.

I have been taking Sensei's punch everytime when sensei is doing his demonstration. Although the impact were quite loud, and it was quite painful, but the pain just spread and diffuses at the surface from the point of impact. It never really penetrates me, to the back.

Today, I experience the punch of sensei of a different level. When his punch landed on me, the quality of sound is so different. Even Roy could tell, the punch is formidable.
It was not exactly pain that I feel, but a force that goes inwards, passing through the bones, reaching the lung, concentrating at a point.

A feeling that I will not forget, and a punch that I wish to attain.
But with my limited ability, there is a limit of how much I can attain by punching the air, by doing 'karatsuki'. We really need target practice, REAL target to hit, to train the wrist to be strong, to feel the quality of our own punch when it landed on the target, be it a makiwara or a punching bag.

Today's 一言：A punch, can be simple, can be difficult.

Rhythm~

Yamada Sensei led class today and last Monday.
Rhythm was the thing that we focused on.

The idea was still the same, shuffling of leg and kick, kick and shuffle the legs again. But he added in a rhythm. In a way I felt, with the rhythm, my body is able to pick up the movement easier. He didn't really made us drill a lot on it, but just to introduce the idea of practicing with rhythm.

But it mades me wonder... is it that in Shotokan training we generally have more rhythm? Back in the time when I was training Shotokan, timing is one of the thing that was stressed. Even in Kata, the timing are quite a clear cut, and I clearly know where to breath in where to breath out. Even in Kumite practice, we are thought to puch in combination with a certain set of timing.

I am having a tough time in doing Chatanyara Kusanku, in doing Nipaipo. It is difficult for me to put in 'breathing timing' into the kata. Unlike most of my Shotokan kata, the breathing in and breathing out are done at fixed movement. However in these kata, even though I tried to fixed the part to breath in, the part to breath out, I still practices the Kata with erratic breathing.

Rhythm.... is it that I need to get rhythm into shitoryu, or I should practice shitoryu without rhythm?

Today's 一言: Basic very important. Whatever style you change, basic good, you can still do.

Judo

A self training Saturday turn out to be a Judo lesson.

Went to SRC and saw Desmond with his friend there. A bunch of them, each with different background gathers together and learn from each other. Too bad not many of them were there today, but I learn a great lot from Ichige, a guy from Judo.

First, is choking. How to choke a person. There are a lot of ways in doing it, but I just learn three basic way. Everytime when a person get choke, and the moment the person is release, the facial expression seems a bit scary. When I get choke, the feeling of can't breath is scary. More and more I appreciate breathing.

Then is arm bar. It always appear to be complicated to me, until I actually learn it. It is actually pretty straight forward and easy.

Then is levering, how to push the oponent over when the oponent mount on you. Also scissor, turning the oponent over. Learnt also what does it mean by full guard, how to pass through the guard, how to guard... The things that I learn in a short lesson seems so overwhelming, and is super interesting.

Did some rolling with Ichige. Basically, it just mean both person start 'fighting' while kneeling down. Then we do randori, which is done with both person standing up. There are some 'natural' technique that i had with me, without me noticing. When he mounted onto me, I use my knee to squeeze his ribcage, which can actually be very painful.

Must thank Ichige for the lesson. It was certainly an eye opener.

When doing Kendo, I realize that the simple swinging of the sword is actually quite difficult to control. When doing Judo, I realize that the 'fight' although can sometime seen quite passive, a short 2 to 3 minutes grappling drains almost all my energy out from me.

Today's 一言：Learning new stuff is fun. Even if you can't do it, at least you know what they do and try to counter it with whatever style you are doing.

Inside outside

Was a bit tired with school work today, so didn't practice any kendo before my Karate lesson.

But thinking carefully, in Kendo, for all these while, I have only been trying to cut properly. And it is not a lot of different kind of cut, it is just one same cut. Each time I swing the boken back and forth, aiming to train my muscle so that I will be able to cut properly and accurately.

We need to have that mentality in training Karate as well.
The very basic, punch!

Perhaps we really should pay that extra bit of attention, to understand the whole trajectory pathway of punching and pulling, rotating and twisting. And from there slowly build up speed and power, making sure that the accuracy is never compromised.

Today we did target practice. The target for the punch is not just one pad, but two pads. Both pad are held separated by about 5 to 10cm. We are told not to punch too near to the target, and always aim to punch through, knocking both pads.

The idea of punching through.

After punching is kicking. And I realize that I have problem kicking. When I am kicking the air, it is perfectly alright. But when kicking the pad, somehow I can't drive my force in effectively.

******
I am not too sure when does a Kendo-ka start to do target practice, hitting their oponent. The focus extends beyond looking inwards towards oneself, but also look outwards, towards the oponent.
But for my practice, which most of the time was done alone, the focus tends to be very inwards. I focus a lot on myself, but never the way of transmitting the energy and power effectively towards the oponent. I focus on how to pick up the leg, pull in the knee, kicking out high, kicking to the center, but never really learn how to push the force outward and penetrate through the oponent.

Today's 一言：Should go out.

Aching muscle

Yesterday, almost midnight, went to run around the track. I don't normally jog, but since the Kendo people drag me there... well, may be it can be a good exercise, especially after eating so much food recently.
For so long, I didn't jog, I thought I will have problem running. Focused on my breathing, I was quite surprised by my performance. We ran about 10 rounds... that will be 4km? Haha...

Well, I guess my problem now with doing Kata is that I don't really breath... Need to train back my breathing...

When I ran, I ran with my heels not touching the floor. And because of this, my leg muscle are really tired. Topping up with today's training, this is the first time I felt my leg muscle to be this tired. Really feel like just sit down and no more walking until the muscle fully heals.

Today Sensei himself lead the training. Standing with kumite kamae, we did our basic. A lot of pushing by the back leg is required in order to move forward. And this again requires the leg muscle...

(Ok, i am just too tired. this post seems to be quite messy.... will just stop here.)

Today's 一言: Calf muscle aching...