As I said in yesterday's post, we worked on some self-defense against a knife attack. Everytime we do work against knife attacks, I see as some bonus as it's not in the curriculum of our style below the black belt level. But it's always interesting.
The particular attack we worked against yesterday was the shifty kind. Imagine an attacker walking toward you, kind of looking like nothing is gonna happen then he puts his left hand on your right shoulder and tries to quickly stab you at the stomach level. As an attacker, we all tried to play the part, not to show our hand before the strike. One thing our instructor was quick to point out is how fast the downward block from our left hand must come out in order to deflect the knife to the left of our body, or else, we're in for some damage.
The practice knife with which we worked yesterday was a wooden knife, not the rubbery one we often use and which would bend at the end. Because of its wooden nature, I could feel it when it touched me and was reminded that I had to block even faster.
This morning when I woke up, I was reminded again when I saw a couple of tiny bruises on my belly. I a real street fight, these would have been bad cuts...
Block faster, remember that next time...
FM
Friday, July 28, 2006
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Nothing like a good rant...
...to bring you back to the world of blogging... :)
With the relaxed karate training summer season I'm having, I didn't have much to talk about the last few weeks but tonight, sorry, I gotta let it out.
First my story. I'm in my first of three weeks of vacations, weehee, and as such, I could go to about four classes of karate in a week. That was actually the plan when I looked at this week a couple months ago. Now Monday came and it was humid as all heck and I felt more like relaxing at home with the kids than going to karate so I decided to skip that class. Then Wednesday came. We had guests, my wife's cousin and her daughters. Now, I like them very much, but I probably could have left in the middle of dinner and gone to a 7pm class but instead, at 4:30 I took the decision that I would cook burgers on the grill and would have fun swimming with them instead.
Now tonight, nothig special was planned, it's still very hot and humid but I felt like going, so I went. See, the class is at 6 and usually, it would be near impossible for me to make it without getting a babysitter since my wife usually has a hard time making it home before 6:15, but she too is on vacation this week. There's this young dude who often attends this class and is usually either a tiny bit late, or he cuts it very close. I can understand his situation, his workday ends late and he has a hard time making it, just like me, usually. Now today, we're maybe 7 or 8 getting ready to start class. Class starts, he comes in through the door and our room is right by. We can hear him say aloud "Man was I feeling well by the pool" or something along the lines of it. We've started stretching by then. He goes downstairs to the dressing room and comes back, we've moved to jumping jacks and our instructors is waiting on him to tie his belt and he seems to be having some problems with it when one of his friend tell him that he's late. "Late for what, there's no time to show up" was his stupid reply. He later made a couple comments about some warmup exercises.
Dude, if you don't feel like coming to class, do us all a favor and stay home.
That's all I'll say.
I know some will say our instructor should have said something, or made him/us all pay for his behavior. It's just not the way they do it and frankly, this kind of thing usually never happens.
Why did I tell you the long story of my Monday and my Wednesday. To show how I behaved when I didn't feel like going... I'm not perfect mind you, but I think that if you respect others, they will respect you in the end...
Now on to our regular programming, it's been very quiet lately. Football is over (Andrew's team won the championship :)). Soccer is on a semi-hiatus (no games this week, practices are not always happening, a bit disappointed with it but I take the days off when they come ;)) and did I say, I'm off work for two more weeks :D
Karate wise, I'm not learning much new, at least no new kata, or self-defense techniques. Lots of work on basics, and repetition, and stances. We've worked on hip throws tonight and some technique against a knife trust. Interesting stuff...
Been sporadically working on Sushi no kon sho, our traditional bo kata, but nto enough to really nail it from beginning to end. I've also not worked with my bo too much lately. Took it outside a couple days ago and my wife gave Andrew's bo to Matty, our 2 and a half year old terror. He twirled it around and she shot a little video of it. I should put it on youtube soon and will let you know in here...
For now, take care, I'll be back... sometimes :)
FM
With the relaxed karate training summer season I'm having, I didn't have much to talk about the last few weeks but tonight, sorry, I gotta let it out.
First my story. I'm in my first of three weeks of vacations, weehee, and as such, I could go to about four classes of karate in a week. That was actually the plan when I looked at this week a couple months ago. Now Monday came and it was humid as all heck and I felt more like relaxing at home with the kids than going to karate so I decided to skip that class. Then Wednesday came. We had guests, my wife's cousin and her daughters. Now, I like them very much, but I probably could have left in the middle of dinner and gone to a 7pm class but instead, at 4:30 I took the decision that I would cook burgers on the grill and would have fun swimming with them instead.
Now tonight, nothig special was planned, it's still very hot and humid but I felt like going, so I went. See, the class is at 6 and usually, it would be near impossible for me to make it without getting a babysitter since my wife usually has a hard time making it home before 6:15, but she too is on vacation this week. There's this young dude who often attends this class and is usually either a tiny bit late, or he cuts it very close. I can understand his situation, his workday ends late and he has a hard time making it, just like me, usually. Now today, we're maybe 7 or 8 getting ready to start class. Class starts, he comes in through the door and our room is right by. We can hear him say aloud "Man was I feeling well by the pool" or something along the lines of it. We've started stretching by then. He goes downstairs to the dressing room and comes back, we've moved to jumping jacks and our instructors is waiting on him to tie his belt and he seems to be having some problems with it when one of his friend tell him that he's late. "Late for what, there's no time to show up" was his stupid reply. He later made a couple comments about some warmup exercises.
Dude, if you don't feel like coming to class, do us all a favor and stay home.
That's all I'll say.
I know some will say our instructor should have said something, or made him/us all pay for his behavior. It's just not the way they do it and frankly, this kind of thing usually never happens.
Why did I tell you the long story of my Monday and my Wednesday. To show how I behaved when I didn't feel like going... I'm not perfect mind you, but I think that if you respect others, they will respect you in the end...
Now on to our regular programming, it's been very quiet lately. Football is over (Andrew's team won the championship :)). Soccer is on a semi-hiatus (no games this week, practices are not always happening, a bit disappointed with it but I take the days off when they come ;)) and did I say, I'm off work for two more weeks :D
Karate wise, I'm not learning much new, at least no new kata, or self-defense techniques. Lots of work on basics, and repetition, and stances. We've worked on hip throws tonight and some technique against a knife trust. Interesting stuff...
Been sporadically working on Sushi no kon sho, our traditional bo kata, but nto enough to really nail it from beginning to end. I've also not worked with my bo too much lately. Took it outside a couple days ago and my wife gave Andrew's bo to Matty, our 2 and a half year old terror. He twirled it around and she shot a little video of it. I should put it on youtube soon and will let you know in here...
For now, take care, I'll be back... sometimes :)
FM
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