February 2016 – Progress with Kata

Surprise!  I’m publishing outside my normal pattern for awhile.  Stay tuned throughout the week – I’m on a roll!  February 2016’s biggest lesson was about my own learning process.  I’m going to break this down into sub-themes.  Today, let’s trace my progress with Bassai Dai kata by looking at my journal entries…

2/2/16 – Home Dojo

I performed Bassai Dai kata in front of the class.  I’m not nervous in front of my classmates, but it’s still good practice to perform kata when/where there’s no place to “hide,” LOL. I learned the first half of my performance is “all there.”  Second half – I need to be way more confident and really show I know exactly how I’m destroying my enemies.

Tournament in 12 days!  Gotta really buckle down on that!!!  I can do this!!!

2/10/16 – College Dojo

“The dwarf breathes so loudly we could have shot him in the dark.”
– Haldir (The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers by J. R. R. Tolkien)

Every once in awhile College Sensei likes to show the newbie white belts (vast majority of the class every quarter) what Karate looks like at different belt levels.  This also gives us colored belts a chance to practice under simulated tournament conditions.  Today, Sensei had the three of us who are competing on Sunday perform our katas solo in front of the whole class.  As a bonus, we got feedback after.

College Sensei warned me to not get into the bad habit of using loud breathing as a crutch or a substitute for generating power with my body while performing kata.  He’d like me to tone it down, as it’s frowned on by tournament judges.

I had no idea I was doing this.  Nobody’s pointed it out to me before, and it never occurred to me to listen to myself 😉

2/14/16 – Tournament

Third Place Ladies 35 and Older (I was the “and Older,” LOL) Intermediate/Advanced Kata.

Now that I’ve memorized the Pinan series of kata and Bassai Dai, I had a lot of fun watching folks from other styles of karate perform their katas 🙂

 

2/18/16 – Home Dojo

Given that I’m going to be the highest-ranked student at College Dojo (our brown belt helper moved away), I approached my Sensei before class tonight with a question I traditionally ask when I think I might be ready to test for my next belt, “What do I need to work on with an eye towards testing for my next belt?”  Usually I ask this question closer to the date!

I could tell by the smile on Sensei’s face that he was tickled pink.

Every single time, the answer has been, “You’re good to go.”  But this time was different.

“Relax your shoulders.  Get your speed up.”

Argh.  Things that have been plaguing me for-ev-er…

How many black belts over the course of about a year have said to me, “Relax your shoulders?” I reckon close to twenty.  It’s so bad that at Gasshuku (camp) last summer one black belt sneaked up behind me and grabbed me by the shoulders – he started massaging instantly to prevent me putting an elbow in his gut.  But the point was well taken.  I wish I’d had a massage from every black belt who’s told me to relax my shoulders, LOL!  I’ve been to seminars on body mechanics.  I’ve been to classes under three black belts where the focus was on body mechanics.  I’ve been very slowly improving.  But not as fast as I’d like.

But Sensei wasn’t going to stop at just telling me what he wanted before class.  Early on in class, he lightly tapped the tops of both my shoulders simultaneously and said, “Relax.”  He continued, “There, see?  Your shoulders went down.  Tight shoulders are scrunched up.”

OH!  Light bulb!!!

Throughout class Sensei threw me bones both personally and with tips to the class at large.  Everything I’ve ever heard before.  We moved up and down the floor with sparring basics.  Then we did flow drills involving each of us moving between two rows of people holding the big foam shields and we took turns punching or kicking each shield.  We finished up with a basic kata, then we broke up into kata groups.

Sensei told me to work by myself because the others my rank don’t know Bassai Dai even though they’ve been training much longer than I have.  He took charge of them himself.

I’ve had fleeting moments where I’ve felt fluid and what I can only describe as “free.”  But never throughout an entire kata.  I think that’s why Sensei didn’t have me teach the others – he wanted me to apply what I’d been working on all class to the kata.

Sensei’s wife was with us in class again, and she does a wonderful job with the new white belt kiddos 🙂  So neither my Sempai nor I had to worry about teaching.  She will be coming in once a week from here on out, and she will be part of our advanced training.

I’m immensely grateful to both Senseis for making tonight’s lesson happen for me!

2/28/16 – Home Dojo:  Advanced Class

Big brother has a cold, so he couldn’t make it today.  I had two black belts all to myself for 90 minutes of butt kicking fun.  Oh. my. gosh.  What an honor and a privilege!

So…  Picking the biggest of the many takeaways… Gosh it was hard to choose, but I’d have to say it’s something everyone’s been telling me to do and I haven’t done it.

Make and watch a video of yourself.

And everyone’s right.  It’s an eye opener.  That worked both for seeing the things I need to work on and the things I’m actually doing pretty well.

So  – Bassai Dai kata needs work.  But there are some things I’m doing pretty well 🙂

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And I’m continuing to learn.  My techniques are faster due to my looser shoulders, but now I’m working on making distinct stops in between each technique so that the kata as a whole doesn’t look rushed.  To do that, I’m learning to use my breathing to drive the cadence.  Of course I’m also working on form, showing bunkai, etc. etc. etc.  I’ve another tournament coming up soon, then I’m hoping to be allowed to try for a pretty new belt at the end of the month!

More than improving my kata, I also learned some deeper lessons.  I was able to take a barely-learned advanced kata (Bassai Dai) to tournament and did OK with it.  I noted that I had enough experience with a few kata to have fun watching people from other styles perform them.  I started getting in touch with the internal goings-on with my body during kata – namely with breathing and unnecessary tension.  And I learned to listen to the experience of others and do it even if I’m skeptical (ex: make a video).  There’s more to this Karate stuff than meets the eye!