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Back to the Grind
Jul. 8th, 2004 03:34 amFirst karate class in about two weeks Wednesday evening. The humidity was also bothering me a lot, making 80F/27C feel pretty unbearable. Between the two I felt like I was going to pass out through kata class, but didn't. Some cold water between the all students and kata classes would have been nice, but we didn't get a break, alas.
Found out that sempai Eduardo is leaving on the 21st. He's going back to Brazil, his 6 months are up. It's a real pity, he's a nice guy and a good teacher. Tonight we had a new sempai, no idea what his name is... I'm guessing he's a new recruit from Brazil, I believe he had a Brazil patch on his do-gi. I think they have an exchange going with the South American Kyokushin headquarters which is located in Sao Paolo. That said, not sure where some of our other sempais are from, I think the other 2 we usually get are both Japanese, but I'm unsure if they live here or are also exchanges.
Class was interesting, I got to stand on Eduardo. The new sempai made us do various splits and stretching techniques, and you had a partner that would push you further into that split or stretch, obviously with the caveat that you "osu!" if it hurts you. So when sitting on the floor with the soles of your feet touching, and pulled in, the partner could either press the knees down, or stand on them. Eduardo decided I should stand on him, granted he's flexible enough that it wasn't hurting him. It's kind of odd standing on someone else... but then I had that initially with the hitting people part too, especially that time we had to do stomach muscle exercises, that consisted of the partner standing with their arms behind their head being punched in the gut for a minute or two. At least with sparring you have more of a reason to hit someone, and they have the option of blocking and hitting back. I always seem to end up paired off with a sempai when we do this kind of thing.
After that some bag practise with punch and kick combinations, and sparring. Thanks to Francesco, who doesn't seem to realise that you don't hit that hard when sparring, I have some nice marks on me and a nice sore spot on my shin, hopefully that won't bruise, but if it does it'll be nasty. Kata after all of that, and that was another 90+ minutes worth of exercise.
The partnered-stretching was interesting, and even though it wasn't always the most pleasant sensation, I did enjoy doing it. You can't always get yourself into stretches that deeply, so the added push, literally, was good. It definitely gave Bikram yoga a run for its money, though the series of postures we do in that doesn't work those muscles in that particular way.
I'm sure I'll suffer tomorrow ;)
Found out that sempai Eduardo is leaving on the 21st. He's going back to Brazil, his 6 months are up. It's a real pity, he's a nice guy and a good teacher. Tonight we had a new sempai, no idea what his name is... I'm guessing he's a new recruit from Brazil, I believe he had a Brazil patch on his do-gi. I think they have an exchange going with the South American Kyokushin headquarters which is located in Sao Paolo. That said, not sure where some of our other sempais are from, I think the other 2 we usually get are both Japanese, but I'm unsure if they live here or are also exchanges.
Class was interesting, I got to stand on Eduardo. The new sempai made us do various splits and stretching techniques, and you had a partner that would push you further into that split or stretch, obviously with the caveat that you "osu!" if it hurts you. So when sitting on the floor with the soles of your feet touching, and pulled in, the partner could either press the knees down, or stand on them. Eduardo decided I should stand on him, granted he's flexible enough that it wasn't hurting him. It's kind of odd standing on someone else... but then I had that initially with the hitting people part too, especially that time we had to do stomach muscle exercises, that consisted of the partner standing with their arms behind their head being punched in the gut for a minute or two. At least with sparring you have more of a reason to hit someone, and they have the option of blocking and hitting back. I always seem to end up paired off with a sempai when we do this kind of thing.
After that some bag practise with punch and kick combinations, and sparring. Thanks to Francesco, who doesn't seem to realise that you don't hit that hard when sparring, I have some nice marks on me and a nice sore spot on my shin, hopefully that won't bruise, but if it does it'll be nasty. Kata after all of that, and that was another 90+ minutes worth of exercise.
The partnered-stretching was interesting, and even though it wasn't always the most pleasant sensation, I did enjoy doing it. You can't always get yourself into stretches that deeply, so the added push, literally, was good. It definitely gave Bikram yoga a run for its money, though the series of postures we do in that doesn't work those muscles in that particular way.
I'm sure I'll suffer tomorrow ;)
