Feeling in synch

Nope, I'm not talking about the boys band but more about feeling in synch with your kata. There are some days where nothing seems to work. You take a wrong step here, feel like you lacked "juice" in your punch at another place. Yesterday evening was just the opposite. The bo felt good in my hands. I did my kata from start to finish only once, but I worked on many sequences and they indeed felt better with every repetition.

But not only with the bo did I feel in synch, but with my traditional forms as well. While the kids started with their warmup and went through punches and kicks work, I did some bo work. Once they broke out to work on separate things and Andrew was sent to work on his Statue of the Crane kata, I watched him do it once. He knows it and seems able to do it without much hesitation although he lacks intent in it. What I mean is that some of his punches and/or blocks seem a bit lifeless. It was not like that with his previous kata, Circle of the Tiger, but he had been performing it for a long time, so I can only assume he'll get better with time, as he grows with the kata. To kind of help him, I told him about his punches and blocks and to give him an example, I performed the kata for him. It had been a while since I last practiced the Crane but darn it, I fell right at home with it. I really felt good doing it, felt I had a lot of purpose. Hopefully this will help him see what needs to be done to make the kata "believable".

This feeling of being in synch continued for the rest of practice, and was especially good when practicing the kata I will present at the upcoming competition, Cat 2. I have a few little things I need to work on, and I know it is not perfect, but I felt good while doing it...

This was our first Wednesday night where both classes were condensed into the 6pm class. Andrew's instructor gave a special notice to the class though. Even though it makes for a better class to have 12 kids at once in the big gymnasium, they still have to account for the second hour, i.e. pay somebody from the school to be there, pay rent for that hour, etc. He said that that second hour would be available to anybody who would like to receive some private class. I've paid for private bo class for Andrew in the past, but we've never done it in traditional class. In his notice to the kids, which I was the only adult listening to since I was at the back of the gymnasium, he mentionned that that kind of class can be good for anybody wanting to get ready for either a competition (ding ding) or a test. I had already talked with his instructor in the past, about the possibilty of taking some private half hour classes. I felt the timing would be about perfect for a half hour next Wednesday, about four days before the competition. I asked Andrew when I talked to him about his kata and he said he wanted to do it, so next week we'll do 90 minutes with him going private for the last 30 minutes.

I'm sure this will be very good for Andrew. His instructor is very good with kids, and especially with kids doing competitions. Incidentally, he will be going to Spain for the WKA for the World Amateur Championship, with a student of his, a 12yo black belt named Emilie Paquet who they say has a shot at winning as many as 4 world titles. She lives in the same town as us and I train with her dad, a newly graduated brown belt, like me. I saw her a few times and she is simply amazing, a great competitor. She will compete in creative form, creative weapon (bo), traditional weapon (bo), and traditional form (hardstyle). As I said, she is 12 and she will compete in the under-13 category, meaning this year is her best shot before a few years, as 13 year olds are usually having a hard time competing in the 13-17 class... The championships will be happening from November 6, to November 11 so... GO EMILIE!!! :)

FM