For sad family reasons, my wife and son are in Peterborough right now, and I have worked from home today to keep an eye on our Pets and meet with a member of my daughter's support team. As a result, I took the opportunity to do a rare Thursday session in the dojo with Sensei Alison.
A good workout as ever, though only an hour. But its extra exercise so all good. We did kata, stepping drills and bunkai, which was all good. The steeping drills were based on what is needed for the Pinan family of Katas, plus cat stance strikes and step throughs. The bunkai was a mix of Pinan Shodan (first time I've done that) and Naihanchi Shodan, so well worthwhile.
The down to earth element comes in the Kata. My Sensei knows I have been practicing Naihanchi Ni Dan, so asked me to see how far I could get. Nerves hit in, and I probably managed about half, so she asked me to go back to Shodan and my mind went blank 😕
I now know why my Sensei tell me really need to know a Kata well, and why even the old masters would often stick to one Kata as a primary. Trying to have two forms in my head, neither of which I have mastered, led to be faltering when I was asked to perform.
Turned out I had got myself tied up with step sequences and a gentle reminder sorted out Shodan. But it's all good stuff, even at my age, life is a learning curve 😊😊
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