Tuesday 17th May Taiji Kung-fu We went straight to practicing where we finihsed last week - practicing Peng Jin in pairs. I was with intructor L, my usual partner. I still couldn't do it well, and she was a big help,giving me a lot of advice. The teacher also tried with us one by one and gave corrections. I guess I just need to practice and practice until I figure it out. Later the teacher gave us a tip how to practice this a bit or at least how to push at home, with a young tree. He wasnted to show us and check on us, so we tried with a partner - one partner playing the "tree" and practicing how to stand in a relatively shorter stance and how to position the body to become hard to move even when relaxed. This was fun, I think I was quite a good tree My partner is, however, much lighter than me, so it may not have been too hard to hold my position. Taiji sword One whole Lao Jia Yi Lu. I feltl much better than in the morning. Kicks were easier, balance was better. But in the jumping kick I landed badly on my hurting knee. So I regretter jumping instantly. Other than that, the form felt good I also keep focusing on the principles we practiced on the last seminar. I think my form has changed due to this. It's not perfect, yet, for sure, but the feeling is different. I haven't practiced since last week at all, but I suppose I remembered the movement we learne, though roughly and unrefined. We practiced the form till where we knew and added one more move, which didn't seem too complicated. Taiji - Lao Jia YiLu The teachers switched the groups today, we had the head teacher. Since he usually doesn't work with this group, he asked what move we were unsure of or would like to go through. We asked about two from the end of the form and the teacher explained them again to the detail, letting us always try each part. The teacher actually focused on me a lot in this class, giving me plenty of corrections, demonstrating stuff on me etc. It was awesome, I learned a lot. It'll allow me to improve these moves. He wanted to show an application of one of the moves, which went from someone grabbing his wrists and pushing. He asked me to do that, which was probably a first for me. I pushed as he asked, first from a stance, later than just by leaning on him a bit with my weight. The application was nice and the teacher was explaining it to everyone, smiling broadly: "So, when she pushes, I have to do this, otherwise she'd push me. See? That's because she's strong! And heavy!" ... -_- Oh. Yeah, for sure this is every women's dream to be declared "heavy". Especially by a man seemingly twice her size. I'm glad the teacher was so happy about it, though. In the end I lasted all three classses today, and I am glad I did. I actually felt better afre class. I paid attention to not push my knees to any angles that might worsen them, which probably worked. It was a great session today. Although it was very hot and humid, so sweat was pouring off of me even before I started training. And when I did start, it was awful.
Wednesday 18th May Taiji - assisting Warm-up with silk reeling, then I practiced the 25 moves with the more advanced group, before the teacher switched with me. I was asked to practice with the beginner group their 4 moves. Try to help them flow better through the moves - use the silk reeling motion. I wasn't sure if I'd stay with them for the 30 mins till the end of class, but I assumed I might, so I tried to explain, remind about things to focus on, etc. I always did the four moves with them once after explaining something, then let the group try on their own so that I can see and give advice. The 30 mins were over before we knew it. We were outside and when the teacher arrived to end the class, he went in and laughed out loud. PRompting us to laugh, too. No idea what his laughter meant and the students then tried to ask me, but I had no idea either. I chatted with four women later in the changing room. One of them came up with the idea to go to the usual seminar, to try for one day. I recommended it as a great idea and gave some info. By the end we said our goodbyes, it seemed the whole group of four was planning to find a date to suit all of them. That was really great
Thursday 19th May Karate We started with a few rounds of Gekisai dai Ichi kata, then Junbi Undo, then three of the basic kihon combinations we did in hte weekend in pairs. I partnered up with Sett. We were faster than the rest, so sensei let us go ahead and practice by ourselves. After, he made a group of the two of us, another friend black belt and a teenage green belt to practice kata and bunkai by ourselves. And bunkai in the group. We did Gekisai dai Ichi, Ni, Saifa, Seiyunchin, Shisochin, but didn't have enough time for Sanseru. When the class ended sensei watched our kata - Gekisa dai Ichi, Ni, Saifa, Seyunchin, Shisochin, Sanseru, Sanchin dai Ichi, Sanchin dai Ni, and Tensho. He gave a few corrections here and there, but I think none to me this time. Which I, for once, felt quite good about. Oh, now that I think about it, there were a few general things that applied to me... We then discussed some details of Tensho. With all this the training took 2,5 hours, I burned over 1200 kcal.
Friday 20th May TAIJI SEMINAR So again, I went for a seminar. We arrived quite early, but went out to practice only afte 5 pm ( it was fairly hot a we were lazy). Before dinner I went through my spear form I think 3 times, then several times the part of the sword form I knew. After dinner official training started. We did silk reeling, them the first 14 moves and worked more on the 6th to 14th. It was really hot and summer-like weather, so it was no surprise that a a store arrived. We only moved inside, but continued the practice with the teacher giving us each corrections. Then he went on to talking a little and we said out goodnight not too long before 10 pm.
Saturday 21st May TAIJI SEMINAR Today I was the first one to practice outside -at 7:30. I did 3 Lao Jia YiLus before breakfast and some stretching. I was, however, stiff, had trouble keeping my back straight and it didn’t go too well. After breakfast we did one more form and practiced Peng Jin and the proper silk reeling within a few chosen moves. It was hard. An isntructor, who doen’t have much time to practice thsese days arrived for a few hours, so we did all that could help him. It was nice to see him again. An hour before lunch was the time for weapons. I said I didn’t have a preference between a sword and a spear, so I was told to grab my spear and we went to practice with the instructor. Instructor L joined us, too and we practiced especially the moves toward the end that the unusual visitor was quickly learning. Over 1200 kcal burned.
Saturday 21st May TAIJI SEMINAR After lunch, we started with 1,5 forms. We reviewed the move we worked on in the morning and move onto the next one - Parting the Wild Horse's Mane. Wow, we got even more details for this one, but more than that - a much more difficult mechanics of how to do it. No one was able to. We practiced this for quite a long time, the teacher gave us so many tips, but it was seriously hard. The only time I was able to more or less do it well, and I felt it was better, was when the teacher held my hips and physically moved me in the direction and the way he wanted and adjusted my hands the same way. It felt much better, but I honestly had no idea how he did that XD I kind of started to grasp what he was saying, but I couldn't move my body that way, paying attention to everything at once, which ended up destroying my structore I tried so hard to hold onto. Also my right thigh really hurt from the morning and knees also started as I tried to twist my legs and hips by force a bit. So we kind of gave ourselves a break. Our legs hurt and we couldn't do it before and now was even harder. The teacher saw that and came to give a talk and also told us some stories from his trips to China. After about 45 mins our legs were a bit better, so we went to practice agian, but we endedup picking the swords (our group) to practice.
Sunday 22nd May TAIJI SEMINAR Since my leg and both knees hurt yesterday, I thought it would be better to take it easy and didn't feel like doing more than one form in the morning. I still woke at 6, though, and although I got up more than an hour later and took my time getting ready, I still started my practice at about the same time as yesterday. Luckily, my knees were better, but the muscle hurt quite a bit, so I did two forms, but in higher stances, and slowly. Then stretched before breakfast. After breakfast we did about half the form and the teacher wanted us to try to work with the shoulder joints properly in the form. We ended up practicing this on the two moves we worked on yesterday and voilá, suddenly it felt so much better! Was it in this, in the end? So when the teacher was watching my attempts at the Parting the Wild HOrses Mane as I went from one move to the next, his: "No... no... no..." slowly turned into: "Yes... yes.... yes... This is it."! Yaaaay! I was so happy. It wasn't perfect, but I got the gist of it and it indeed felt so much more "flowy"! Now I need to not forget all the things to do within that move and practice it till it beomes natural. Later instructor L asked if we could try Tui shou as we haven't tried in a few weeks, so I agreed right away. We did the double handed version. I didn't get it too well, yet, and tried asking her about how to do this and that, and she did her best to help me, but.... THe teacher also came and gave each of us advises, but.... Ah, this is difficult! After some time, I felt really tired from all of it. Not physically, but more like mentally. I knew I wouldn't be able to improve it at this point, so we moved onto something else. But we did practice for quite a while. We then practiced the sword form. Earlier today the teacher came with an improvement of one move which he showed us. It made the move much better. I was able to copy the turn right away and figured it out soon and it felt really nice, too. A friend, however, didn't get it at all, so I did all I possibly could to try to explain and help him. He was able to do it roughly and the teacher later helped, so when the friend figured it out, he was going around flicking the sword all the time and if he didn't have the sword, he'd just simulatet he motion with his hand We practiced this and the shole form for a bit before lunch. After lunch we basically only each showed a part of the form we've been working for for the teacher's general corrections and tips what to work on. We went in groups of two. I was asked to go first together wiht the sword friend and the teacher wanted us to do the sword form. He had one general correction for me (though I was fairly sure I wasn't doing this common mistake, but maybe I really was?) and the tips for me were again basically to work hard, to straighted my back, to try to learn the form even in higher stances and to perhaps prepare a training plan. Since he thinks I understand what he's saying, but always need to work on those corrections, he'd like for the Parting of the Wild Horses Mane to be forgotten, but said I should take the time to properly work on just that for a week or two, not getting stirred by other stuff, and then maybe focus on another move and go through the whole form like this. Surprisingly, during the morning training, which was more relaxed than yesterday, my hurting muscle, although it's the main one I'm using for Taiji, actually got much better and the knees also eased up and got much better. Awesome!
Monday 23rd May Karate Kids The dojo was full today - 20 kids, 3 Ukrainians. Sett was teching, I was helping if I saw mistakes, but mostly paid attention and tried to explain to the new Ukrainians. One boy seemed quite annoyed to be there, there's the language barrier after all, too, but surprisingly, I found they probably did understand a bit and I tried my best to communicate with gestures, too, and they seemed to be catching on. They are the only newcomers, so there were three relatively complicated block I tried to teach them on the run, but they did well! Karate Adults The grading is approaching. Sensei was teaching quite a few things for the grading last time, today we added some Kihon Ido and the first half of Kihon Ippon Kumite. Also Sanchin kata as we do at the very beginning nearly every Monday. Sett and I stayed 30 more minutes after class to practice kata and its bunkai - Seyunchin, Shisochina dn Sanseru.
Tuesday 24th May Morning Taiji The whole form, then we worked on the kicking sequence, starting from Cloud Hands. It was about 5 moves, and the teacher ended up giving us corrections for each, and we practiced that. Quite a few things to focus on, but it was a good class.
Tuesday 24th May Taiji Kung-fu We started with practicing Peng Jin in pairs. First redirecting a push back to the person to shove them back. I still suck at this. The teacher was going around trying with everyone. I was told to make the motion smaller, shorter. I tried, but the teacher kept shouting "shorter", so I ended up rushing with him across the gym, his prompts making me speed up and stop thinking too hard about the small mechanics and it did feel better! Later we tried redirecting the push and throwing the partner off, which I sucked at, too. I kind of hoped the teacher won't try with me, but he did. But his constant "no" with advises how to actually helped me understand better. For those who grasped it there was another, more difficult variation, which I didn't even bother trying. Lastly the teacher wanted us to try the first move of the form to check if our hips made the right motion. For once, when he was approaching me, I heard "yes!" from a distance. Phew, at least something. Taiji sword Lao Jia Yilu, basic exercises with the sword, then the sword form till where we knew it a few times. Today the teacher explained the more complicated move he taught us in the weekend, so we practiced that for a bit, and then we learned the next move. Lao Jia Yilu One whole form at the beginning. I can totally tell my fitness level has improved as I was trying these past two weeks for the upcoming grading. Polar says I already achieved my goal a week earlier and I do feel pretty well. I am supposedly overtrained constantly for these past couple of weeks, but I feel great. So I enjoyed the form and the low stances. Today, unlike usual we again had the head teacher. He wanted us to try the most basic silk reeling motion to correct if we were turning the hip well. He didn't stop by me as I knew how to, but I got a task to again make the motion smaller. The teacher wanted to pick a move from the form to practice this on. He said he'd pick something relatively easy and picked the two moves we spent the whole weekend at the seminar on - without much success, I should add. So sure, there couldn't possibly be anything easier Apparently I did well as the teacher checked on one movement after another, but I was told to make it smaller and lead the motion more along one axis. I knew what he meant, so I worked on that and the two moves started feeling reely great! Flowing so nicely that I was really happy about it. Then the teacher again wanted to demonstrate the motion on the basic silk reeling and called me to do that while he'd point out the nuances. I did my best to improve it according to all the recent corrections. I was already nicely warmed up and it felt good. I wish I was able to do the silk reeling like this anytime. The teacher then told me: "Now do it wrong, exaggerate the movement so it leaves the axes. You do know how to that. Just do what you normally do." -_- How nice...
Wednesday 25th May Taiji -assisting Not too many people today. In fact, much less then usual, for some reason. We did meditation and silk reeling. Unlike usual, the teacher took the advanced group to the large gym and I was asked to practice the forst 5 moves with the other group. They had just learned the last move on Monday, so I aked how they remembered and reviewed it. Phew. I've never really explained the moves to anyone, so I had to show and figure out all that actually happens there, since I tend to do it a bit automatically already. We worked on that, practiced it and then did all 5 moves to 4 directions. The teacher came, I thought he'd want to switch, but he only checked and I think it might have been to give me tips what to do with the group. He asked me to work on silk reeling in those five moves. To stop in each and do the circles a few times. So we did, though I was figuring out how to do that smoothly on the run. Than one woman asked me if I could explain the hip movements. She said she heard the teacher explain this on Monday, but it was actually to another beginner group that she practiced with, too, and she's unsure about it, but liked to learn. Phew. I mean, I am not sure about the schedule of when the class should start learning about this and therefore, so far, I did my best to avoid this topic altogether. I did mention all the mechanics that are necessary and lead to it, but I omitted the silk reeling motion in the hips, because it is rather difficult and needs a thorough explanation and the explanations were usually done by the teacher. Since I was asked, though, and since the teacher was explaining this to these classes anyway, I guess there's no harm? I was very happy that I've worked on this the last couple of weekend seminars and in this past month, I think I figured it out, mostly, at least theoretically. And although I heard how to do all that, I was now finally able to put all the advises together and understand, So I used this relatively newly acquired knowledge and skill to try my best to explain. I started from the beginning and put everything together as best as I could and practiced the motion with the group on the spot, tried to correct them. I wanted to try to do the 5 moves then, with them trying to focus on that a bit. When stepping out, I stopped as there were more things I had to say about the stepping, so I explained and we practiced only the step for a while. I wanted to still do a little bit of explaining and the 5 moves to 4 directions as the teacher adviced to do at the end, but... I checked the watch and we were actually supposed to end 3 mins ago. So I appologized that we didn't have time to do all that and ended the class. It was generally a bit of an info dump, which I expected as soon as we dipped into this topic. The people, however, assured that it was fine, and that they actually enjoeyd the class a lot, at least the front row said that they actually enjoyed it more than the regular practice. Which made me happy. I enjoy this type of classes with figuring out how to do somehting better, too, but I was worried about my ability to explain and teach such a class. But hey, it was a good experience and hopefully I did well enough I'd love to help the people understand and improve
Thursdday 26th May Karate Sensei geared today's class toward preparing for grading. Both for the lower kyu grades and for Sett and I. We did some kihon, kihon ido, San Dan Gi Ichi to Go, Ippon kumite, Kakie kumite, Bunkai from kakie, BUnkai solo and all the kata we should know, except for Tensho. I was feeling really well today, so I decided to go all out. I burned over 1000 kcal and felt great. Hopefully the grading will not be a complete tragedy... 9 days left!
Friday - Rest day Saturday 28th May This is the only weekend I am planning to be at home form the start of May till the last weekend of July. Therefore, since our holiday is approacching, we spent half a day shopping for summer clothes etc. It helped me easily achieve 10 000 steps. As for the other half-... Sett wanted to complete this weekend's Garmin challenge of a 40 km bike ride. I tagged along. I originally wanted to do a karate training, but oh well, I haven't been on my bike this year, yet (shame on me) and it is a good way for me to improve cardio tolerance! According to Polar, my cardio tolerance rose to 128 (not sure of 128 of what, but) it is probably the highest it's ever been in th past year - since I got the watch that can measure it. Now I need to work hard for the next week. Bike ride Time: 2:16 (breaks not included) Distance: 41,68 km Average speed: 18,3 km/h Ascent: 60 m Descent: 65 m Max speed: 35,9 km/h Max HR: 167 Average HR: 134 Training benefit: Steady State training + Kcal: 1089 Fat burn: 39% Training load: Very High, recovery: 5d 14h When we returned we went through some locks and throws and techniques done from kakie - only technically, to remember.
Sunday 29th May Did chores most of the day, and we didn't unfortunately have time for training. In the evening, we went for Shen Yun - a traditional Chinese dance performance, which was awesome. Sett and I were, along few other people interviewed for our opinions on it, too. Hey, I don't have too many opportunities to actually speak English, this was a good practice. Monday 30th May Karate Kids Something had to be in the air today. Something making the kids restless. It was very hard. I payed most of my attention to the Ukrainian subgroup that formed here, helping mostly one boy, who well, basically keeps sabotauging everything. After today, I kind of think it may be that he isn't used to doing sports and finds the body weght exercises hard, so he'd just fall to the floor and well, do whatever, just not what he's supposed to. Which is a shame. He's not even trying at all. I kept helping him, physically geting him into the positions for like push-ups, squats, etc. and helped pull him up when he wanted to escape and(or couldn't hold on a anymore. And also actually pushed him down in stuff like squats as I wanted him to make an actual squat. Most of the time, however, it was me picking him up off the floor. A lot of the kids were unbearable today, so instead of practicing techniques we did a lot of bodyweight training, then kata practice at the end. At that time, I took the four Ukrainians sideways and practiced tsuki. The language barrier was there, but I think I was getting the info across well enough. I was also able to roughly understand what they wanted to say if they repeated it twice for me, so that was good. One of the girls was new today and spoke Czech and helped a little with looking after the boy. It was nice of her. She also looked interested in the training, which made me happy Karate adults Sanchin kata, Junbi Undo, a bit of bodyweight training and practicing Ippon kumite most of the class. Today's class was a bit special. Our friend and fellow karateka organizes a campain for the upoming presidential election and his team is working on a video not directly for the campain, yet, but well, something to put under their website, I guess, where there will be short shots of firefighters, and others (I forgot) and he wanted a few seconds of perhaps martial arts, so today, a couple of people came to shoot a short video. We asked the students in advance to come in their gi today (hardly anyone usually does, we don't demand it), and nearly everyone came, which wa great considering we asked them around noon today. We were supposed to do a short demo, like a predetermined fight/ self defence sort of thing, so the friend and Sett prepared a combination to do and I was to act it out. The rest of the sudents were practicing kata in the background as asked. For us, Sett was the attacker, I got the defending role (I guess it makes more sense from a self-defence point of view for the woman to defend, rather than attack), so I did. And a three technique combo to the pads, too. I was aware of some mistakes I was making at times, due to going fast and hard and the finishing punch not really coming too naturally, but, well... I am just scared to see the video now I always hate seeing myself on video. I always look worse then I imagined. I case it comes out well, though, we might use it for advertising, too. Sensei and Sett will, however, have to be the objective judges of that. 1100 kcal burned today.
Tuesday 31st May Morning Taiji Worked on Pounding the ground and the terun just after it, before Double Jump Kick. The teacher wanted us to work and get down the precice hip movement. It is all coming nicely together for me. Although this one didn't seem too easy. I got some corrections and will have to work on those.
Tuesday 31st May Taiji Kungfu I arrived maybe 10-15 mins later. My usual parnter wasn't there yet, either, so I was paired with another friend to try the Peng jin (I think it's called). He was trying to give me plenty of advice, too, which was very nice of him, and I did my best to figure it out. However, he tends to discuss the principles a lot, while giving advice, which is great, but I could have used more time actually practicing. Not that I didn't have enough time, I got plenty, but I am struggling with this. I think I actually got a tiny bit better. But only a tiny bit... The teacher then asked how much of Tui shou I knew and 15 mins before the class finished we went to try it. Instructor L, my usual partner arrived by then, so I tried with her. I didn't do well at all. But got another useful tip from the teacher. It still felt horrible, though. Taiji sword Lao Jia Yilu at the beginning. It didn't feel that great today, either. Then basic exercises with the sword. I realised today my right wrist hurts a bit, on the outside in one direction. I was thinking how I'd do with the sword. Sure enough, even the basic circles hurt. I have no idea what I had done to my wrist. Was it a bad hit from the video shoot yesterday? I don't remember hurting or hitting my wrist badly at all, though. Anyway, it was the kind of pain that would probably go away with a bit of stretching and slowly adding pressure - like starting slowly with the sword. Which is exactly what I did and stretched my wrist intead of the first few basic exercises. It got better and when we got around to the form, I don't remember it giving me any more trouble. I hadn't practiced the sword form at all since last week, so I barely remembered the last move. I had the most senior student in front of me, however, the part of the form we know is mostly done after turning around. But when we did, I had this guy's wife in front of me. I am not sure how proficient she is with the sword and how much she trains, but I was happy that I could copy the last move, at least. I forgot what stances there were. And we were going to practice mostly the last several moves, so I was turned her way. No idea what the reason behind it was, but the teacher told the woman to switch places with me.. Awww, so not nice! The only reason that would make sense would be so she had someone who remembered the form to copy from, but... didn't he see I was the one actually copying from her?! Or mabye it was because he did see? Luckily I was reminded by then and remembered the moves beofore so it went relatively well. Taiji - Lao Jia Yilu First half of the class was taught by the head teacher, the second half by the usual teacher for this class. We started with the whole form, the teacher practising wiht us. I wasn't in the bet position to watch him all the time, but I did what I could. ANd tried to work on the latest corrections. We then started working on the hip movements and shoulder rotations, and when the teachers switched groups, the usual teacher continued this with us. He did a lot of demonstrating and explaining, at times using me as a partner for demonstration, but I wasn't sure of what, but I did my best to adapt. We didn't do that much practice ourselves today, so it was more on the relaxing side. Which would be fine, but I hoped to work hard today - I have last few days to work out for my grading.
Wednesday 1st June Taiji - assisting Meditation and silk reeling, I tried focusing on doing the hip rotation well and to rotate my body, I tend to not do it well-timed. After I went through the 25 moves with the more advanced group, then both groups got together for the teacher's explanation of some general movement principles. I then got the less advanced groups to furthre work on that. We did and I pick up where we left off last week with the hip movement. I picked a few similar spots within the first five moves they knew, where to focus on that and we tried to practice. I probably should have explained a bit more to the detail, but there wasn't that much time. This is a hard thing to do, after all. At the end we did 5 moves to 4 directions. I think the class went well, people left with smiles on their faces, which made me happy
Thursday 2nd June Karate Half an hour long warm-up, various exercises. Then individual stretching, so I did a few push-ups, too. Then we worked on kihon and a little kihon ido and Renzoku kumite. The three of us blackbelts were asked to practice bunkai - which we did - for Shisochin and Sanseru.The fourth bunkai of Sanseru is the biggest problem for me. The application isn't very sophisticated or anyhting, but there are several techniques and it is similar to a more basic bunkai, so I always tend to do techniques from that one in between and just can't get it right... Then while the rest practiced Gakisai Dai Ichi bunkai, we did a challenge like last time - do the 5 bunkai of Gekisai solo as fast as possible. The last three people are eliminated with 20 push-ups. Black belts, however, do 8 bunkai of Sanseru instead and aren't eliminated, only get 20 push-ups. A couple of the Sanseru bunkai are rather short, so we help on relatively well (though I did accumulate 40 push-ups slowly). When there was only I think 4 of us left, therefore only the fast people remained and me and Sett, making it harder for us to be able to finihs 8 bunkai, sensei changed it so that we do Gekisa Dai Ichi and Ni bunkai instead - which is actually 9 bunkai, but those we are more familiar with. On the other hand we hadn't practiced them today, so I messed up right at the second, which was similar to one of the Sanseru ones... phew. At the end we spent a little time wokring oon Tenshi with sensei. This was the last training before the gasshuku we'll be grading at. We're leaving tommorrow, but won't make it for the evening training. And I just found out that the seminar isn't 4, but actually 6 hours long on Saturday. Meaning training 9 - 15, and 16-18 grading. Oh my god, not sure how we'll survive that. Well, if we die on Sunday in the next 4 hours of training, I guess I don't care, but I hope we'll still have some energy left for the actual grading :/ And stupid push-ups. Oh my gosh, I am so bad at push-ups! And one of the guest senseis loves training basics, which tends to be rather cardio heavy sometimes...
Saturday 4th June GASSHUKU IN BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA Sensei Bakkies Laubscher (9th dan), sensei Tetsuji Nakamura (8th dan, World Chief Instructor), sensei Raoul Vögel (7th dan) My second gasshuku after the lockdown. A special one in more aspects. We've seen sensei Nakamura on March 6th-7th 2020, a couple days before the lockdown and when the gasshukus have just restarted, we got to see him again It is also special because by the end, sensei Bakkies announced that this was one of his last international gasshukus. He's probably not going to travel anymore, but who knows, maybe he'll still be next year in Okinawa or somewhere still. As the most senior sensei, sensei Bakkies also led the black belt grading that we participated in - the last thing making this seminar special. The seminar started at 9, and lasted till 15:00. There were 6 blocks, each 45-50 mins long, and a 10-15 mins break. First block was Junbi Undo with sensei Bakkies. Then we were always split into groups taught by different sensei. We had one more block with sensei Bakkies - focusing on Shisochin kata. One block with sensei Raoul about practical applications and actually three blocks with sensei Nakamura - Sanseru, Seiyunchina and Tensho katas (and its applications). Sensei Nakamura was picking different partners for demonstrations and I was one of them, too. My first time trying something with sensei Nakamura. I was a bit nervous, honestly. He's sucha nice person, though. I really enjoyed today's seminar., We learned a lot. And I got very inspired again. I can't speak much about sensei Raoul as I didn't see him demonstrate any kata or something like full poer, full speed this weekend, but when seeing sensei Bakkies and sensei Nakamura do that, it is very awe-inspiring. They are amazing. You can tell how strong they areand how they can use tiny body mechanics to their advantage. Or how they are flexible in the not so obvious joints. It is always awesome to see senior senseis like them and to have an opportunity to learn from them. In today's session, I burned over 1600 kcal. NIDAN GRADING: I hadn't paid much attention to details before, so I only learned this semInar will actually be this long on Friday. I kind of hoped there won't be that much training, but rather, more time before the grading. In fact, the grading started at 16:00, so we only had an hour to shower, change location and eat something. Truth be told, from what I discovered from others, not everyone felt like eating. Some would eat just some energy gels or what that was, some didn't feel like eating anything since morning. My god, had I done that, I wouldn't be able to function! But than again, thank goodness I wasn't really stressed. Luckily, the grading itself didn't take long - only slightly over an hour. There was basically what we expected, some things we thought would be there or might be there, weren't, but we also did stuff we didn't expect. The first 20 mins were basic techniques with sensei Bakkies. Which is his specialty. I totally forgot about my usual strategy of not overdoing this kihon and after 15 mins felt like dying. Seriously, I tried to slow down, but how can you slow down when grading? And when shouting kiai every single technique to make it as strong as possible? From the Polar measuring, my HR was basically around 165-178 bpm for the 20-25 mins, with a brief break when it managed to go a tiny bit lower, to 160... The air in the gym was nice, unlike in the morning, but when standing on the spot, I could feel basically steam rising from me. the air within my gi being unbearably hot. Every step then was very welcome as I could feel the breeze just by moving. I did my best not to crouch down, nor sit down, nor lean on the wall even a tiny bit when we did kata by two groups and we were just watching. I tried relaxing by closing my eyes, but immediately realised that was not a good idea at all. When talking to fellow participants later, it seemed our experience and thoughts were pretty much exactly the same. Someone said he was seriously pondering whether he'd first throw up or faint. I mean, really, one more minute of kicking and I didn't know what would happen. When we were asked to do stuff in pairs, I paired up with Sett, obviously, but... I am not sure if it was because we were a woman and a man pair or because the senseis knew we were partners (at least sensei Nakamura knew for sure), but Sett was removed from me and paired with another guy. There was an odd number of people, and it looked like I might be alone at least for the moment, but the organizing sensei, whom I knew personally, came running and offered help. Well, doing stuff with a 5th dan was great on one hand, on the other, though, I had not much steam left and sensei was fresh and pushing my speed at least a little. He's a rather big guy, so when kicking and blocking, I at least didn't have to be overly gentle and pull my kicks. We then did a few more things, did kata and bunkai and when I was thinking what else was to come, the grading was actually ended! Ah, thank goodness! We must have probably looked too dead. On the other hand, we did plenty of training earlier today and were tired and senseis probably didn't plan to stretch the grading for too long. It was a shorter one, but I feel like it was harder than the one we did in Okinawa. After we finished, I took a shower and we had maybe an hour to relax before the dinner. I was looking forward to eating something proper so much! But when it came to it, I felt really full rather quickly, but drank some wine and chatted with friends, it felt really nice for the grading to be over! As a part of the party, the grading results were announced. Both Sett and I PASSED! As well as our friend from a different dojo in our country, who was grading for Shodan. Finally. He's been training longer than we had and I've always admired his karate. So I thought it was about time This is really great. Now, there's no grading awaiting us at least for the next three years And I am also glad that sensei kind of pushed us into it, I would have never really thought about grading now... Grading: Time: 1:30 (I started the training perhaps 20 mins earlier) Max HR: 178 Average HR: 146 (would have been higher if not for starting the training earlier) Training benefit: Tempo training + (probably maximum training, though, if I started the measuring on time) Kcal: 842 Fat burn: 21% 5th HR zone: 10:48 4th HR zone: 38:57 3rd HR zone: 17:34 2nd: Probably only a couple of minutes, but in the measured training even before we started it was 10:07 1st: only before the started: 10:50
Sunday 5th When I went to bed last night, apart from pulled muscles on the back side of my legs from all the kicking as fast and as strong as possible, the spot where I had torn my hamstring years ago was hurting, too. Not much, not constantly, but sending like a needle stab of pain from time to time, regardless of position, tension or anything. It didn't hurt too mcuh, but it was a sharp and sudden pain, making me jolt. I slept on it, soon, though. When waking up I was a bit sore around the shoulders and the legs like last night, and calves. I laughed at Sett for his bruises on elbows from some of the takedowns we did (where the only breakfall you can do is slam the arms into the wooden floor), before he pointed out I had bruises exactly like he did. But for some reason mine didn't hurt at all, so I hadn't noticed. GASSHUKU IN BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA Sensei Bakkies Laubscher (9th dan), sensei Tetsuji Nakamura (8th dan, World Chief Instructor), sensei Raoul Vögel (7th dan) Today's gasshuku started with Junbi Undo led by Nakamura sensei. Then 4 more blocks. Our group had one block with sensei Raoul, practicing kakie and techniques from them - locks, takedowns. Then the remaining three blocks were taught by sensei Bakkies. We did some kihon, his traditional one, which I had some trouble with when it came to combining the footwork. In the next block we tried this in pairs and I again aggravated my old hamsrting injury, trying to hurt totally randomly just like yesterday evening, sending slight jolts through me again. So I was a bit more careful. As I was tired, it was harder to focus on the more complicated stuff. One block was dedicated to Tensho kata, which was also very nice. Sensei Bakkies is an amazing karateka. Although I always pity whoever he picks as a partner for demonstration. I feel like eery seminar he picks one person and while demonstrating he'd beat them thorouhly. One guy seemed like he was on the verge of blacking out after one hit to the pressure point, but sensei Bakkies would hold his head and keep him steady, most likely to actually prevent him from falling and let him get slapped again Omg, I luckily feel like I am safe, I never saw him pick a woman for this. Someone said someone actually even made T-shirts with something like: "I was sensei's Bakkies demonstrating partner, and I survived" or something Love it. At the end of the seminar sensei Bakkies announed he won't be traveling much anymore. It is such a pity. I wasn't in my best today, but I tend to enjoy even his kihon trainings. He has a lot of knowledge to share. I always admire how a man in his seventies can move so fast and be so strong. Sensei Bakkies has always been an inspiration and I feel proud we were able to get our 2nd dan from him.
