Last night's karate class was small. It was me and two other people (one of which was Sensei's son). Reminded me of Sunday classes of the past. I kind of like small classes because when classes are small, Sensei get's creative.
We warmed ourselves up and started basics. Because there were so few of us, we faced the mirrors and I got a real good look at my front kick. I noticed that I've been sort of bending my foot in when kicking with my left leg. My left leg is definately less "smart" than my right. We won't even talk about my side snap kicks. It's not pretty.
We then started practicing blocks while moving. We did some combinations that involved blocking with the same arm twice. This is difficult because you have to get your whole body involved in the block. It's easier to do this when switching arms because you have to shift your hip to change arms. A little more tricky to block twice with the same arm.
When we moved onto sparring, we applied these same ideas. Blocking with same arm to defend oncoming punches. I did pretty well, except for the time I punched to face instead of chest.. oops.. at least I didn't connect.
For kata, we went through all of the Heian Kata. I am still forgetting which kata are which. Remember them was easier when I only knew three (and went to class on a regular basis). There are 5 Heian Kata. I'm currently learning Tekki Shodan which was what we moved onto after the Heian Kata.
Then, Sensei threw in a curve ball. Tekki Nidan. I knew there were more than one Tekki Kata, but I haven't ever really seen them. Evidently, they aren't taught until Dan examinations (who knew!? I certainly didn't)
So, I followed along.. sort of. Then we did Tekki Sandan.. whut? Moar!? Fun!
Yah, I couldn't keep up.. but it was interesting to have the opportunity to see new kata. They were all done in "horse stance" which is a stance I struggle with. My hips do not like it.
Tomorrow, I'm going to take a yoga class to see if I can't loosen things up a bit. My hamstrings hate me and are super tight and painful when stretched.. and my hip flexors are weak. WEAK!
I know horse stance!! Yay! I also know bow stance now. I actually like horse stance; it’s easy to stand during rehearsals for more than a couple of minutes without pain if I stand in horse stance. Actually, bow stance is pretty comfortable, too. There’s another one we learned last week in tai chi, but I don’t know what it’s called. All I know is that it’s a “back-weighted” stance. Maybe I’ll learn the name of it this week. The instructor is more into “here’s how you do it” rather than “here’s what it’s called.”
I can tell you what back stance is in Japanese.. but if you’re doing Tai Chi, that’s Chinese.. might be a different word all together!
What it comes down to is technique is more important that the words that go with them.
That’s pretty much our instructor’s philosophy… learn how to do it, maybe she’ll get around to telling us what it’s called. Or not. It’s the DOING that matters.