Happy New Year!!!
Tonight was our first class back after the new year. Sensei Yocham was out of town (actually, he was up in Dallas training with Shihan Chapman for a week), so Sempai Williams ran class. We ran through exercises and then split up and worked on rank requirements.
Sensei was back from his training week. After announcements and miscellaneous stuff at the beginning of class, he bowed Stan and myself off the mat and took us to the back to do our pretest. There's a board test coming up on January 19th, and I was told a few months back that I'll be testing for my Shodan that day.
January 19th is the day of the annual TOGKF banquet, and is traditionally a day for a board test. This should be a large test, with (I believe) three people testing for Shodan. I've been training hard getting ready. I'll be partnering with Sempai Annetta on the test. She'll also be testing for Shodan, as well as, I believe, Mr. Kendall from Stephenville. Should be a good one.
The pretest went pretty well, although we were there until after 10:00 finishing everything up. There were a few things I was told to fix, and several of those were nervousness related. Ah, well, practice, practice, practice.
I attended to Wednesday class this evening so I could work out with Sempai Annetta after class. I wound up running the class so that Sensei could complete Sempai Annetta and Mr. Light's pretest.
Sensei and Sempai Williams took several people to the back of the class to pretest, so I wound up running the exercises. After exercise, we paired up for rank requirements. I worked most of the time with Mr. Bonicoro, which was interesting, because he's currently nursing a busted shoulder. We wound up working a bunch of Kiso Kumite and Bunkai Kumite, but slowly, more for form than for power.
After exercises, we geared up for sparring. I did several rounds with different people (Mr. Stephenson, Sempai Williams, and Kendra) before I got with Mr. Peeples. About 30 seconds into it, I threw a roundhouse kick and he blocked it with an open hand, fingers extended. It dislocated his finger very well. I had never seen anything like it before, it looked like his finger was about 1/4" shorter than it should have been, and the lowest joint was off at a minor angle. Definately not good. We stopped and called Sensei over to look at it. He then did some work with Mr. Peeples and pulled the finger back into place. He was scheduled to go to the Dr. the next day, but it looked much more normal after Sensei worked with it.
After the sparring, we lined up and then Sensei had the upper belts working on Bunkai Kumite Godan and Rokudan until the end of class.
I attended the Wednesday class again. My wife is a big history buff, and Thursday night there is a presentation about Ulysses S. Grant at a local Civil War roundtable group. Ergo, I go to class Wednesday instead.
After exercises, I spent the rest of the evening working with Sempai Annetta on rank requirements. It's the last time we'll work out together before the test, but I think things are going pretty smoothly by now. I guess we'll know on Saturday.
OK, so today was my Shodan test. I was very good and went to bed early the night before so I would get a good night sleep, and I had a beer before bed to help me relax. Worked out great, although I dreamt all night long that I was screwing up the test right and left. Hopefully that means that I won't be screwing up on the actual test.
The test went wery well. Really, I think it was the best test I've had. Although there were definately areas the needed to be fixed, Sempai Annetta and I worked very well together. The test was not a pleasant experience by any means, but it was certainly a satisfying one.
The test started around 9:30 on Saturday morning. We lined up and ran through empty-hand kata, weapons kata, kiso kumite, bunkai kumite, and kobudo kumite. Everything went smoothly. My wife was there and got a bit pissed off when we did Sanchin kata, since we were all, especially Annetta and I, getting hit. That's just part of the test, and I believe is really much more a test of focus than a test of being able to take a punch. How well do you do under pressure. Of course, that's part of the whole testing experience, but Sanchin is a special animal in there.
After all of the pre-arranged techniques, we sparred. Annetta and I had to do seven rounds each. The first six were one-on-one, and I almost threw up around the middle of round five, but I held on. Sensei Gonzales was a big help after that round. He helped me to relax and breath, and also told me that your mind will fool your body, or vice-versa. I don't know about that, I was exhausted and just wanted to throw up, whether it was my mind or my body telling me to do it.
The last round was the multiple sparring round. We started out with two opponents, then a third was added, then a fourth, then a fifth. I felt like I did pretty well up until number four was added in, and then I was spending most of my time trying to defend, and very little time hitting back. After what seemed like five minutes (but was probably closer to two), Sensei told them to finish it and take me to the floor, which they did.
Writing about it now, it doesn't seem that bad, but the whole test took about four hours. Most of that was spent on the go, so it was definately exhausting. I finished up with a slightly bloody, swollen lip and a jammed finger, plus just a heap of exhaustion. We recovered while the test board conferred, and about 2:00, they called us up and promoted us.
The test participants were:
After exercises, Sensei started me on Koryu Kata Sepai. Holy cats, I'm working on Nidan requrements! Feels good.
Today is my wife's birthday, so I'm taking the night off and taking her out to dinner.
After exercises, Sensei paired us up, and I worked with Sempai Williams. First, we worked on Kakuha Dai Ichi. I had been shown this kata at a brown and black belt workout over the summer, and had practiced it, but had never had anyone look at it to make sure that the finer movements were correct. I had most of the gross movements, but needed to fix several things. After this, we worked on Koryu Kata Sepai, and I got several more moves in the kata.
After class, the upper ranking students met to talk about goals for 2002.
Sempai Williams ran the exercises this evening while Sensei took me to the back of the class and worked with me on Tsuken Sunacaki Eku kata. I have been working on this off and on for a while, but it needed a lot of work. I have the basic pattern, but was missing most of the finer points.
Sensei ran the class exercises up until we had finished all of the stretching. He then bowed Sempai Williams and myself out and took us to the back of class while Mr. Stephenson ran the kicking exercises.
At the back of the class, he started me on Tsuken Shitaku Sai kata. We got about halfway into it, and the part I got looks similar to Kihon Kata No Sai, which makes sense, since Kihon Kata No Sai was created by simplifying this kata. Sempai Williams worked on the kata as well, although he has all of it.
A friend of mine, Peter Kazmir, came to the class to check it out this evening.
We had a bit of unpleasant news later this evening. After class, Sensei found out that the owner of the building we work out at has put it on the market. Once it's sold, we'll have about 60 days to clear out. Such is life, and we'll find another place.
After exercises, we split up and worked on rank requirements. I worked with Mrs. Stephenson on Kumibo Nidan. We then geared up and sparred for the last half-hour of class.
We had a very small class this evening. We skipped the exercises and worked on a number of interesting fighting techniques. We then spent the rest of class working on the sparring technique routine. This is a two man set which incorporates the first eighteen sparring techniques. It's definatelt interesting, and I need to work on it more often, because it was pretty sloppy.
For the last half hour or so, we worked on rank requirements. I asked Sempai to show me some more of Sepai kata, and it turns out that I only had about three moves to go. He shoed me those and I practiced it until the end of class.
Happy Valentine's Day! I skipped class tonight to spend the evening with my wife.
Mr. Stephenson ran exercises while Sempai Williams and I worked on Tsuken Shitaku Sai kata at the back of class. I got a number of moves, but I still have more to finish it up.
I skipped class this evening. My wife was attending a meeting of a local Civil War society. I went to class on Wednesday instead, and worked out with Sempai Gregory after exercises, mostly on 6th kumite.
Sensei Yocham was not feeling well today, so Sempai Williams ran class. However, Mr. Elliot was having a private lesson to make up for missing the brown and black belt workout at the end of last year, so Sensei had me help him with that during the exercise time. We ran through 6th and 7th kumite, and bo/bo kumite #1 and #2, plus bo/tonfa kumite.
After exercises, Sempai paired us up. I worked with Ben W., teaching him seiunchin kata. He had started it, but I got him almost the rest of the way through. I also worked on Sepai and Tsuken Shitaku sai kata while he was practicing.
We have a tournament this weekend, so after exercises, Sensei had us do a practice competition with everyone doing their tournament kata, and the black belts picking a 'best' one. After that, the black belts competed while the other students picked a favorite. I performed Sepai, although I'm not sure if I'll perform it at the tournament or not.
We also worked on a number of interesting sparring techniques as part of the exercises.
The TOGKF Winter Tournament was today.
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