Wednesday's practice started kind of weird. As the kids were starting their class, their instructor got to talk with one of the parents about her kids class taking. He got the rest of the kids to kneel down and meditate, as we do at the start of every class, for a couple minutes or so. After a bit more than the couple minutes, seeing how he seemed to be busy talking, I simply asked him if he wanted me to take charge of stretching. Not that I wanted to impose myself, but I'm alwasy up for helping out. He said to go ahead so I went to the group and got them to stretch. Felt kind of weird to be in front of the class like that. The instructor got back not much later and took over control of the class, thanking me for the help.
I went on to practice my bo a bit. Had trouble finding back some rythm for the bo throw but eventually got it back. My mind was elsewhere at the start and when the instructor asked me to come help him show some self defense techniques to a couple of brown belt kids, it almost felt good. Lasted about 10 minutes and when I got back to my bo, I was well into it. Did the kata a couple times pretty well although never as good as I'd want it to be. I'm a perfectionist, heh...
Anyway, I also did Sushi no kon sho a few times and Cat 2 also a couple times. It came out well. Will work on it a bit more on Saturday.
Andrew had a private one-on-one half hour class with his instructor right after his hour of traditional class. I decided to leave them together for the 30 minutes session, kind of not wanting to be in the way. I got back after 25 minutes and saw Andrew do his bo kata. Even though his traditional instructor is not our regular bo instructor, he was able to pump some life in his kata. He knows what judges look for and he gave him tips and hints as to where to look when striking, taking control of his stances. He said the first time he did the kata, Andrew's stare was about all over the place. They worked on that and I was indeed impressed with how Andrew delivered his kata for the one time I saw it.
When he got present his traditional kata one last time, his instructor turned to me and told me they had agreed it would be better for him to present Circle of the Tiger instead of Statue of the Crane. They worked on getting Circle back to presentation form, but I also agree it's a much stronger kata for him, even a possibly winning kata. I was beginning to feel bad about "forcing" Andrew to present the Crane kata. While he has made strides in making it his own, he's still a tiny bit away from nailing it and his instructor told us that as soon as there's some wavering in the crane stance, deductions start to apply. The whole situation reminded me of the Quebec Open last April. We were maybe 8 or 9 men competing in the traditional form category, ages 30-39, advanced underbelts. I finished 3rd with Cat 2, my highest kata, but also one I grew to like. After they'd given out the finishing position, the center judge told us all to gather around him and I thought what he said was very cool. He told us that we almost all looked like fine practitioners that were kind of testing our limits, presenting forms that would be the next one asked for the next belt, or in my case kyu, test. He added that sometimes in competition, it's not always necessary to present the highest kata you know (or sometimes barely know as you just learned it) but one with which you feel comfortable, one that you have really made yours, that you can feel in your guts. Yeah, that made sense then, makes even more sense now. Maybe in December I'll try that route and could present Circle of the Tiger myself...
FM
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3 comments:
It's cool teaching, huh? I like it a lot.
Circle of the tiger, finally, I'll know what that means.
I'm still wondering what I'll present as yesterday, I've learned a new sai Kata! well.. kind of figured it on my own and got it corrected yesterday.
Since seisan is the only presentable kata I have - the chito-ryu kata are not very "polished", the next one is for the brown belt - bassai (japanese names...) - so I'm wondering what to present. I'll go with gut feeling on the spot, I guess. :-D
Since I probably won't talk to you or write until sunday, best of luck. To you and your son.
Mathieu
to be honest, I didn't do much teaching, simply the stretching part, and there were some really young kiddos in that class, but still, yeah, it was cool being in front. Maybe I'll get to do a bit more teaching as I get closer to my black belt, but for now, I almost feel inadequate teaching, even to kids whom I know I could help. Teaching Andrew doesn't count, it's more like fathering with a karate twist ;)
So you will decide on the spot? wow, you are more courageous than I am. I need to decide a good while in advance for me to feel good with the presentation. I gotta say that I do the competition more for the bo kata than the traditional one, so maybe I do need to think about it in advance, since I obviously put more time on my bo kata than on my tradtitional one...
That bassai kata, is that bassai dai? We do learn bassai dai at the black belt level, it's a shotokan kata I believe.
Really looking forward to meeting you on Sunday!
Take care, Steve.
Bassai Dai is a kata that I've found exists in almost every traditional martial art style: The Tae Kwon Do style, the Tang Soo Do style, all of the Okinawan styles, all of the Japanese styles.. It seems that Bassai Dai is a favorite. I know that Sensei Gichin Funakoshi considered it one of his favorite kata for demonstration.
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