Tuesday night saw the return of the smaller class and lack of advanced karate-ka.   5-6 white belts, a yellow belt, two green belts and 6 black belts.  

After warm ups Sensei Quinn worked us hard on basics.   After a round or two of slow/med punches in place we did approx 60 punches in natural stance, full speed with kiai.  Then we swithched to front kick in place doing slow/med 2 and 3 count kicks.  Next up full speed kicks with kiai for a count of 80.  Then we repeated the process with rising blocks before moving on to lunge punches.  To wrap up we partnered up and did shadow punching and blocking with our partners.

Second class was all about sparing combinations.  We went thru lunge punch, front kick and then various sparing combinations before partnering up again and practicing on each other.  I have a few sore spots on the chest and ribs that are going to be turning a nice kaleidascope of colors.  Gotta love it !!

And a good time was had by all!

Thursday night at the Y saw another very small class.   5 black belts to start, 1 purple belt, 1 green belt, 2 yellow belts, three white belts (one was first night).   Erbe-san led warmups while the rest of us planned the class.  With still some time to spare dante8 and I squeezed in a set of reg perfect push ups (15,10,5).   The whole of first class was kata.   We devided the lower ranks and each black belt took a color to work on their kata.  I had Bacon-san,  our newer red belt, so we had an intense 40 minutes of Heian Nidan.   It was truly enjoyable for two reasons.  First, Bacon-san proved to be an excellant student.  She had never done the kata when we started and was getting all the way thru by then end of class.  Obviously she will need alot of tweaking on the techniques but she has a good foundation to work on.  Second, I just really enjoyed breaking the kata down to teach it and working on it that way.  Heian Nidan has always been a favorite.

Sensei Quinn showed up just in time for second class.  Gi-less he taught class anyway, explaining that the Japenese instructors were sometimes late and would teach in their street clothes.  He even told us one instructor showed up late and taught in his firemans uniform.  Second class was an in depth study of the kata Empi.  Actually, the term in depth is a bit of an understatement.  It took us 45 minutes to get thru the kata once.   We would perform each technique, then Sensei Quinn would make the necessary corrections, sometime explain the bunkai, and then we would practice it several times before moving to the next technique and starting the process all over.  I was amazed, as was dante8, how little it seemed we knew of the kata.  Sensei Quinn assured us that we know the kata, he was just taking us to a deeper understanding of what we already knew.  Hmmm, I'm sure he's right but it didn't feel that way at the time.   Looking forward to some more kata reviews in the future!!

And a good time was had by all!

Tuesday night at the Y.  Another very small class - three white belts, one red belt, 7 black belts (including Sensei Hartman and Quinn) and Sensei BrewerAfter warm ups by dante8 Sensei Hartman had us moving up and down the floor for some basics.  We then partnered up with a low rank partnered up with a black belt and we worked on lunge punch and front kick for the remainder of the class.  Was fun during the front kick portion of class, when we kicked with some contact, to watch several of the white belts handle the contact both on the giving and receiving end.   They all really enjoyed the partner training and the contact since most of them are new enough to only have done "air" techniques.

Second class Sensei Brewer took the lead.  We did some basics and combination back and forth across the room.  Emphasis was on using the hips.   Next, with 7 black belts and one red belt, we partnered up and worked on a few of the combinations we just practiced only now with a partner for target.  Then it evolved into the partner being able to block.  To finish off the night we continued rotating partners for several rounds of slow sparing.  I managed to escape tonight with only several bumps and bruises, not to bad considering I couldn't find the groove tonight.  Oh well, maybe Thursday night.

And a good time was had by all!

Although it was still a very small group, 6 students and 6 black belts, we did have a smattering of color tonight including yellow, green, purple and brown. 

After I led warm ups Sensei Brewer ran the group thru a good strong basics class going half speed working on form down the floor then returning full speed.   We went thru most of the purple belt syllabus this way.  To finish the class we went thru all the Heian Kata.

Second class we warmed up with basics and combinations from sparing stance then we partnered up for one time attack drills. 
The one time attack drills provided an excellant opportunity to work on some of the block/counter techniques that Sensei Quinn showed us a couple weeks ago.  It felt better although I was still letting my elbow come up and out a bit but I really noticed how much faster my blocking is. 

And a good time was had by all.

This weekend was our first official weekend for camping having missed the previous two weekends due to Susans surgery.   I had some time (about an hour and a half) Saturday afternoon so I doned my running shoes shorts and a t-shirt and went for a run.  I had clocked the mileage from the turn off at  Hopedale road to our camper Friday night.   If I walk down the hill and start my run from the dam it is exactly 2 miles round trip.   Saturday was extremely windy, especially out in the open country side,  and the first mile out which is due west was like running against a bunge cord.  The return trip with the tail wind made up for it tho.   After a brief cool down I did 90 perfect push ups done 15,15,15,15,15,10, 5.    Unfortunately at that point I had to clean up for supper plans so I had to fore go abs.

Like dante8, my work load has exploded over the last week or so.  I arrived at work at 7:25 this morning and walked out the door doing a wonderful, if I may say so myself, impression of a zombie at 7:35 tonight.  Needless to say it was 8:05 by the time I got home so there was no way to make any part of tonights karate class.   The joys of being in management!

After a frustrating day at work I decided to leave on time and on the way home I figured a little workout would do me good.  I started with a set of close in perfect push ups done 15, 10, 5 then did our ab routine for 100 abs.  Next up was regular perfect push ups done 15, 10, 5 followed by another 100 abs.  After catching my breath and doning my running shoes it was out the door for my 2 mile run.  What a perfect night to run to.  The sun was shinning and the temp was just right.   Upon returning I walked the length of our driveway twice as a bit of a cool down then headed inside.  I finished my routine with wide perfect push ups done 15,10, 5 and a final set of 100 abs.  

Saturday Morning Breakfast Club

Roll call:  kuro_obi, Joan-san, Jason-san, Rusch-san and myself

The usual warmup - 40 laps (1-1/2 miles) for which kuro_obi joined me for about half while Joan-san walked laps for most of the time I was running.  We then did purple belt syllabus basics back and forth across the floor, slow working on form across the floor and then 3/4 to full speed coming back.  The rest then worked on kata after that while Jason-san and I worked on some more basic combinations and I made some corrections for him interspersed with push ups and abs.   I got all three sets of perfect push ups in done 15,10,5 and three sets of 100 abs.  

And a good time was had by all!

Another typical Thursday night class as far as size.  1 red belt, 4 yellow belts, 3 white belts and 4 black belts.  Sensei Quinn had me lead warm ups then the rest of class was straight punch, lunge punch and front kick.  We did lunge punches two count then one count - various speeds.  Front kick focus was on staying low with the support leg bent, knee height and snap back.   To work on target we did some front kick drills with partners.

Second class was Sensei Quinn, kuro_obi, fluidfire, and myself.  We worked for nearly 40 minutes on ################### ###########################################CLASSIFIED###################################################################
#######.    Then we partnered up and  #################################CLASSIFIED################################.
To finish off the class we partnered up and Sensei Quinn taught us how to #################################################
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Sorry,  for those of you not there tonight much of this post is classified information.  Guess you'll see it when we use it on you!!

And a good time was had by all!!

Saturday morning breakfast club

Roll call: shotobushi, kuro_obi, Oedewaldt-san, Rusch-san, Kathy-san, Jason-san, Kate-san and Gary-san (WIU club), Ouch-san (photographer) and myself.

We started the morning with the usual 1-1/2 mile run.  I was a few minutes late so I jumped right in and started running running with the rest then finished while they did some stretching.  The workout started with basics back and forth across the floor.  We ran thru the entire syllabus thru 1st Kyu.  We then proceeded into strengthening.  For a twist we partnered up and did perfect push ups.  Oedewaldt-san, Gary-san and I used mine.  We each did 10 sets of 10 push ups while the others would lossen up by doing choku zuki in natural stance.  Then we split apart and did kata and ab crunches.   shotobushi and I worked with Gary-san on Heian Shodan.  We ended up doing 300 crunches and approx 5 kata of various degrees of hardnes - reg, combat style and tai chi.

And a good time was had by all!