Dojo determination : An old dog trying to learn new tricks

Going into the Dojo on Saturday, I felt better than I have in a while.

Starting with the warm up, I managed the whole of that.  It included doing a backward breakfall and shrimping, followed doing a forward breakfall and cover.  I could never do forward rolls at school, and am not much better now, but this old dog still wants to try to learn new tricks.

To me it looks awful, but judge for yourself: My Sensei says I've made some progress with my forward breakfalls. 

Then came Mokosu and the formal opening.  Next week is grading, so we went into punches, receiving, kicks and other fundamentals.  For the first time in ages I managed to get through almost all of this, though I was struggling for breath a little on the last of the kicks.

Then it was on to Kata; As the next grading is the first at which I will need to perform (Naihanchi Shodan), this was more intensive than usual and included specific group tuition followed by performance.  I was a little disappointed with the performance as it was too rigid, with not enough flow 😐, but I know that is because of nerves and trying too hard.  Hopefully it will be good on the day.

Next came light sparring:  Kicks and punches, kicks, punches, kicks, punches and open hand strikes.  These were all done with different partners, and here I need to make an apology and take stock of my punching. I have instinctively started to hook upwards inside the guard when punching and it resulted in a couple of head shots to my training partner who was shorter than me.  So apologies Shell 😐😐, I need to adjust my techniques accordingly.  On the other hand, I seem to be getting the hang of open hand strikes, so not too bad.

The final part of the lesson Kihon kata on the pads, I need the first four for the next Grading, so I was doing one to five.  My kicks were certainly much better than last week. ☺☺
We also had a quick photo session for the end, for a group photo and kicks.   Plenty of hard work and some fun, a few lessons learnt and for once I felt overall I did myself justice.  Good session, and thank you too to Sensei Graham, as well as our regular Sensei, Ben and Alison 👊👍👍☺☺