Nunchaku, Family and commitment

Last week was week 9 of lockdown for me, and being on the "at risk" list is more worrying than ever, with it seeming like people are being asked to go back to work before there is any proper kind of control on Covid-19. That said, karate training is my rock in uncertain times and never fails to deliver in terms of variety with stability, kata, fundamentals and the quadrant drill always feature somewhere in the mix.  

Sunday working (1005)

The variety this week was in the form of one lesson featuring the use of fundamentals in a dynamic rather than static setting, working on various stance transitions away from the kata, and some variations in pad work.  My kata work is improving, so I now get to perform our second kata as my highest known in lessons, and we had another lesson in kobudo, this time in Nunchaku fundamentals.  ☺☺☺ This is when commitment pays off ☺☺☺.

1105 after the lesson ends, one more kata outside

I especially enjoy being allowed to perform Naihanchi Nidan, but will still keep the emphasis on practising Naihanchi Shodan. There are many common elements I still need to work on, such as transitioning, the double uke and backfists.

The Nunchaku lesson consisted of the start of the kata taught in by dojo, the "Hamahiga" kata broken down into simple actions, then put together into a longer sequence practised on both sides.

1405 Kata calling

The final action of the week involved something I had actually planned as a FB live feed between me and my sister, with a few others invited online to attend.  I originally had the idea of me doing kata for 30 minutes, whilst my sister did her Tai Chi forms. with maybe her grand childen doing their exercise routines.  On the day though. it developed into something else, as my son wanted to join in.  So we did a live chat instead, where my son and i took turns to demonstrate kata or kobudo basics, whilst the other chatted with our family in France.  They in turn shared videos of what they were up to.  All in all, a brilliant end to the day and the week ☺☺☺

1305 Outdoor session including the Quadrant drill

1105

Warm up
Mokosu
Formal opening
Kata
Quadrant drill

Lesson reminder from 1405

1405

Warm up
Mokosu
Formal opening
KataShuto Uke
Cat Stance steps
Yoi, turn right into Cat Stance, RH Shuto Uke, Left foot forward into Zenkutsu dachi, LH Gidan Tsuki. Retutn to yoi, turn left into Cat Stance, LH Shuto Uke, Right foot forward into Zenkutsu dachi, RH Gidan Tsuki.
Naihanchi Steps
R side then L side fighting stance, Jodan Uke, backhand punch.
R side then L side fighting stance, Chudan Uke, backhand punch.
R side then L side fighting stance, Gidan Uke, backhand punch.
R side then L side fighting stance Jodan Uke, Chudan Uke, Gidan Uke, back hand punch
R side then L side fighting stance, front foot sweep kick, kneeling Gidan Tsuki
R side then L side fighting stance, jab, cross, front foot sweep kick, kneeling Gidan Tsuki
Kata, practice to Naihanchi Sandan, performance to Nidan

Time lapse of Padwork recap of 1605

The final action of the week involved something I had actually planned as a FB live feed between me and my sister, with a few others invited online to attend.  I originally had the idea of me doing kata for 30 minutes, whilst my sister did her Tai Chi forms. with maybe her grand childen doing their exercise routines.  On the day though. it developed into something else, as my son wanted to join in.  So we did a live chat instead, where my son and i took turns to demonstrate kata or kobudo basics, whilst the other chatted with our family in France.  They in turn shared videos of what they were up to.  All in all, a brilliant end to the day and the week ☺☺☺

1605

Warm up
Mokosu
Formal opening
KataFundamentals (Punches, Receiving techniques kicks)
Pad work: Crash, left knee, right knee, RH slap, elbow, pull in to R hip, hook, hammerfirst hook

Kata with family including Nunchaku

Nunchaku

Nunchaku by left side
Step out into yoi, tension Nunchaku at eye level
Step forward RF into Shiko dachi, hammer down RH (LH Nunchaku held horizontal, RH Nunchaku held vertical.
Touch both Nunchaku to R forearm, then Front hand and Nunchaku comes through the middle to vertical over the R shoulder.  Back hand and Nuchaku go round the outside to vertical behind the R shoulder.
Back hand releases and comes back to guard, front hand flips Nunchaku forward, and from the wrist performs several figure of eights.
Nunchaku flipped to guarding hand and trapped step out to Yoi.

Step forward LF into Shiko dachi, hammer down LH (RH Nunchaku held horizontal, KH Nunchaku held vertical.
Touch both Nunchaku to L forearm, then Front hand and Nunchaku comes through the middle to vertical over the L shoulder.  Back hand and Nuchaku go round the outside to vertical behind the L  shoulder.
Back hand releases and comes back to guard, front hand flips Nunchaku forward, and from the wrist performs several figure of eights.
Nunchaku flipped to guarding hand and trapped step out to Yoi.


kata with family

Kata, Drills and Triangles, with a little bit of Tai Chi style

Saturday in the dojo was an interesting session, I learned maybe four things about both myself and my karate and they weigh out 50 - 50.  On the positives, I think my health is improving again, and my control in pairs is improving ☺☺.  On the negatives, I need to be pushing myself again and my kicking after exertion becomes very ragged 😞😞.  However, the big idea plus that made the lesson for me was the idea of triangles, I suppose it had been there all along, but the penny dropped when we varied a regular drill later in the session ☺☺☺.

We started with a regular warm up, but since I had been warming up for 10 minutes or so whilst watching my son, maybe I didn't need to attack it quite as much and it told shortly after when we did a form of circuit training:
Jump stepping in and out of rope ladder steps, receiving pad strikes using jodan uke, running round the outsides of a cone circuit, receiving pad strikes with tudan uke, forward rolling break falls, followed by mai geris to the pads  to close the circuit.

 I ran out of stream at end of first circuit, and my kicks were ragged as a result. I sat out most of the rest, but was encouraged to rejoin, so did last half of circuit with better kicks though still not brilliant,  so this is where I picked up the two negatives mentioned earlier: my ragged kicking after exertion and not re-joining without encouragement 😞😞.

Then it was time for Mokosu and formal start to the lesson, which opened with paired work with different partners.  This included:

Light sparring in various forms, including kicks and punches, kicks only and punches only.
Paired continuous contact drills, including taking the inside, gripping and breaking grip, gripping and breaking then striking
Paired Kicking drill, receiving right mawashi geri, left mawashi geri, right mawashi geri catchi, right mawashi geri step back, return mawashi geri

This is where I found that I was definitely improving my control in paired work ☺☺.  Was definitely so much better in the sparring and the kicking drill, well at least I thought so.

Then we were on to Kata - including Naihanchi Shodan tai chi style to open, I did performances of  Naihanchi Shodan and Naihanchi Nidan (which I was corrected for performing too slowly, oops too much Tensho and not enough of this kata 😞).  I went through forms of Naihanchi Sandan and Pinan Shodan, after which the higher grades did performances of their kata required for grading.

Then it was back to an old favourite to close out the session:  The Quadrant drill (single person practice shown here)

What we did in this session was the Quadrant drill with variations, using an expressly triangle form to receive and counter, explicitly to the part of the drill with hammer fist followed by two hooks.  It was there all along I suppose, but   the transition from receiving to striking with the forearm or elbow seems so simple when explained this way ☺☺. Another variation was that after head butt, the agressor finishes with a shoulder barge which the other partner had to avoid.

All in all, another excellent session of the dojo, with the big plus being that I realise my my stamina seems to be improving ☺☺☺☺

Depression and the dojo

Due to the exigencies of work, for the first time in almost two years I missed training last week.  Work and home life has for various reasons led to me being on Citalopram and soon so undergo depression counselling 😩😩  So possibly the worst of times to miss a training session, given the break it represents from outside events.

The Citalopram has played havoc with my sleep, appetite and stomach, so I gave it up just before this weekend's training,  However, the two weeks I was on it took their toll 😩😩.  My stamina was as low as it has been for a long while😩😩.

There is a grading planned for next month, so a lot of the lesson was based on the fundamentals.  I managed most of the warm ups, including sprinting but my heart rate went through the roof.   I tried to work through it, but once we got to the kicks I had to miss out on a fair few, including the increasing sequence of Mawashi geri kicks that forms a part of our drills now (1 then 2, 3 up to 10 on pads).  I rejoined for the most of the rest of the session, but did 3/5 of each of the remaining techniques (kihon kata pad work), so that I got to practice them all.

We also did Kata, and as ever that is a favourite part of the sessions for me.  I now regularly practice Naihanchi Shodan and Nidan as known kata, which is something at least I can take away as a positve, plus my unwillingness to give up.  ☺☺☺

Old Hopalong

I had both a lesson in the Dojo and an additional lesson booked for Saturday, so it just had to happen. We had an extended warm up in the dojo; after the normal running, sit ups, squatageris, and stretching, we practiced rolling out from full mount by trapping the head and one leg of the assailant, then we practiced avoid, then stun and avoid on a knife being pulled,  I ran out on the first element, so on the second element I was determined to give it ago.  I got a double palm strike in on the first run through and a single one on the second run through.  Then I felt like a sharp stab in my right calf as I carried on running.  Sure enough, the pain shot as soon as I stopped..... Seems like I've pulled my calf muscle 😞😞😞

I wanted to carry on, but had to sit out various parts of the lesson.  We went from the knife drills to Mokusu and the formal opening, Then on to fundamentals, punches, receiving techniques, and kicks - had to sit out that part, and would have certainly struggled with the 10 mid to high level Mawashi geris, even on a good day.

After that, I was back into the lesson, for two person drills and Kata, I got to practice Naihanchi Nidan with the more advanced group before going back to doing Naihanchi Shodan, which ended with doing another solo performance then a couple more paired drills.  Plenty of variety as usual, and relieved to get to the end of it without doing myself anny further mischief. 😌😌😌

Being a glutton for punishment, I  decided to go ahead with thr additional lesson.  The main purpose of this was to work on Tensho with my Sensei, especially the way in which the breathing ties into the actions and basics such as the Sanchin dachi stance abd step throughs.   However, to make up for what I had missed on the main lesson, we also went over the fundamentals again, this time including kicks.  The kicks were more about form than  repetition, concentrating on mainly my Yoko and Ushiro geri 
techniques, followed by another run through of Naihanchi Shodan.

I must be kind of mad, because I also went to the Monday evening session as I wasn't at work.  Whilst I was a little ginger on my right leg, I managed to participate in most of the lesson.  I missed out on some of the kicks, and got a sharp reminder when a roll out from under went slightly awry, but otherwise was pleasantly surprised. ☺☺☺

Most of the lesson was taken up by working on paired drills, including revisions to the quadrant drill, kicking drills, take downs and escape from take downs (trap and roll).  We finished off with about thirty minutes working on the Hamahiga nunchuku kata.   A really enjoyable lesson, and I think I must have been lucky with the muscle injury. ☺☺☺

Dojo determination - round two..

Things still aren't right, I can walk distances just fine, but explosive exercise is still taking it out of me. Saturday in the dojo was more determination than substance but got to keep going....

I love the way our Sensei vary the content of the lessons, always keeps you on your toes ☺☺  Was a fairly regular warm up today, but hey we need those one in a while.  After the warm up, most of the lesson was drill and pad work, plus conditioning and what lesson would be complete without kata?:  We had in there (but not necessarily in that order):

Naihanchi drill, - crash and control, knee strikes , elbow to head, plush away
Conditioning. kicks (low, mid and high Mawashi-geri) and blocks forearm, inside and ouside Chudan-uke, Gedan uke.  First time I tried high Mawashi geri (always got to push)
Tegumi drill take punch, trap, slap to ribs, slap to face, hammerfist to arm, hammer fist to face
Pad work, including pad drills and inside leg kicks
Desensitising, slapping around the face
Kata - including be taught by a black belt in training
Naihanchi Nidan drill, bear hug from behind, sink, break by lifting arms, control arm, turn, elbow to ribs, turn again, strike.

I had to miss partway through, due to a chest flair up, but pushed myself as far as I could ☺☺  Plus I got to spend a bit more time than usual doing paired work with my Sensei and actually tried for a high Mawashi geri for the first time ☺☺

As an addendum, had to take today off work with a bad flair up and possibly found out why I am still struggling 🙀🙀🙀  Seems my chest is clear, but the infection just moved house and lodged itself in my upper respiratory system. so now on to round two....

.Performance performance ...

Finally, the chest infection has begun to clear, but the 6 weeks or so getting over it has sapped my stamina somewhat.  Saturday's session was about basics again as it usually is at this time of year, but our Sensei are good at keeping it varied ☺☺.

We had our usual Warm up followed by the formal bit then straight into Kata.  We did the first Naihanchis together then split into two for the more advanced to concentrate on the later kata in our syllabus, whilst others (including me) went over Naihanchi Shodan etc.   Then it was time for performance with 4 of us at random picked to go through our paces.  I got the dubious honour to go first.

To be honest, I didn't do myself justice and I knew it.  Plenty of intent but way too fast 😕Techniques at wrong angles, poor shape, hunched back, Naihanchi Shodan as it shouldn't be done 😕 I asked if I could try again and was allowed to, so this time I slowed it down ala the Cardio version of the kata, just trying to snap the techniques and leg flicks.  Apparently it was a great improvement ☺ So there is hope for me yet ☺☺.

After that we worked on Kihon kata - shodan, nidan, and sandan for my group,, followed by pad work on the same techniques.  Finally in terms of karate, we expanded kihon kata Sandan with leg trapping.  We covered what you can do when your leg is trapped, and then what you can do when you have trapped a leg, low kick / sweep etc.

After that it was a short outing for the bos as we went through the first seven bo kihon Kata.  The best news though came last, our Sensei want to offer 1.5 hour kobudo lessons once a month if enough people are interested, Yes Please ☺☺☺.

Opening day blues

Saturday was the First day back in the dojo for the New Year, but was still struggling with breathing.  My chest infection has cleared, but because of my COPD, am still producing too much mucous. My medication has been changed, but seems  to be taking its time to kick in 😕.

Warm up for the lesson included tag racing, press ups with kicks to the mid section, as well as sit ups with punches to the mid section , as well as the usual stretches.  Then it was time for Mocuso and a welcome back.   Our Sensei went over what was planned for the early part of the year  - Sensei Nohara's visit, open competition, and grading.

Given grading is coming up, it was then onto fundamentals - punches, receiving techniques, and kicks.  I struggled for breath during the latter part of these, but at least managed to get some practice in for most of them.  This was followed by drills, basic ones as far as I can recall, but things were a bit blurry at this stage.

Then we got onto Kata - Naihanchis, Pinanams, Passai - whole class did the katas up to around Pinan Sandan, doing performance of the ones we know and then pad work whilst higher grades did their Kata.  Kata I really enjoy, even when I'm struggling, as in performance I find it helps clear my mind much as Mocuso does.
We did a little work on Stances, specifically Naihanchi dachi, to show how it aids stability, including some basic grappling. This is one bit I left out this time 😕. Normally I quite enjoy kind of thing, but my heart rate felt way up, on top of the breathing.

For the last part of the lesson it was bo kata, followed by the news our Sensei want to start doing full kobudo sessions, Yes Please 😊 Much though I felt I struggled, I still enjoyed the work out, and hopefully can shake off this problem soon 🙂🙂

Silent Thought: Uncomfortably Numb

Yesterday's atrocity took my mind back to 1996.  I had been due to go to Harbour Exchange on Friday, 9th February to check on systems I was responsible for in Harbour Exchange on Canary Wharf.  The day before, I finished what I was working on early, so decided to change my plans and go down to Harbour Exchange there and then.   I got off at South Quay station around 5pm and popped into the newsagents adjacent, before going to Harbour Exchange to do what I needed to do.

Little did I know how fortuitous that decision to turn out to be, as the following day, an IRA bomb was detonated in the car park next to South Quay station, at the same time as I had been there the day before.  The two people I saw in the Newsagents the day before were both killed in the blast, and it was a near miracle that only another 100 people were injured.   I was oh so lucky, but what happened next rammed it home.

It was thought to be a long shot, but I was immediately asked to accompany an Engineer to the building I had some responsibility for, to see whether we could get in to do a damage assessment.  As luck would have it, I used to live around the corner from the site, so when the cab we were in was stopped by police, we made our way on foot and I suggested a pedestrian entry point to the Engineer where we might get in.  There was only local Security on duty at that point, and we were let in as I was recognised.

What followed was to haunt me for a long time and left me numb.  We got the building in question, but the area was eerily quiet, and though  shielded from the masin blast, the severe damage that had occurred was readily apparent.  We completed the survey, and then came out and were immediately confronted by the police wanting to know who wanted to know what we were doing and how we got in.  Apparently it was still a live bomb site, as a second device was considered a strong possibility.  At that point, the whole situation hit home hard, both the luck I had and the enormity of the risk I had put myself in.

I felt numb for a long time afterwards, and each terrorist incident brings it back home.  My response to yesterday was to sink myself into Karate, both in practice at home and into today's dojo session.  Today's "Silent thought" was much needed, as was the workout that followed (basics plus Naihanchi Drills).   Please spare a thought for all the innocent victims of Terrorism, and the bravery of those who confront them 🙏🙏🙏