I had my first karate work out in over five years tonight. I am so wiped out it’s not even funny. Excellent class, they didn’t segregate me at all. I just worked at the end of the line and kept up as best I could. I’m 40 pounds heavier and 7 years out of practice. It was ugly at times, but I survived. 8 students there tonight, 4 black belts, 2 brown, a green belt and moi.
Started with good warmup, followed by kihon, mostly combinations, with lots of emphasis on hip rotation, tension in the abs, and fluidity to the next movement. We did a tension kata whose name escapes me now. Not tensho, one that started with an “s”. Next was working in pairs on a move from heian yondan (?). Crossed knife hand block, rolled into an arm bar and take down. Next was a variation on that - what to do when the arm bar fails and they try to elbow strike to your face. A nice reversal and take down. Final segment was to work on the kata for your next belt test, in my case heian shodan. They add a knife hand strike as the set before each of the up blocks moving up the floor, and the final knife hand blocks were done in a modified cat stance. Again the name escaped me. Both feet flat on the floor, rear foot turn forward about 45 degrees with 75% of your weight.
All in all a good workout. I worked pairs with the green belt. He had no control, during the arm bar portion he kept slamming me to the floor (hard wood). I was glad when it was my turn. While I was clumsy with the foot work I remember how to crank on an arm bar.
Sensei High said at the end of class I could wear any belt color I liked. I replied that until I could finish a class without gasping for air that I’d stick with the while belt. He again said I could were the color of my choice, and that when I was ready to test that would be fine.
I can’t make it next Tuesday due to a team dinner sponsored by IBM, but next Thursday I’ll be there. They are meeting at a different location because it has mats. They are going to work on breakfalls, rolls, etc. I am already sore.
Took a hot shower, two aleve and two quarts of water. Tomorrow I may need to crawl into work, Both knees are achy, and the pad on both big toes is sore. I wore a neoprene knee brace on my right knee - all it did was get in the way of bending it fully. Next time I’ll try just knee pads on both knees.