Footwork, like dancing?

This is a bit late for a report, as real life got in the way a bit.

Here's an insight to what was going through my head on Wednesday night, as I was working on that new bo move we just added to our kata:

*****
okay,
-left knee down, stand up, turn counter clockwise
-left, right, left, strike
-NOOOO!!! you have to end with the right foot forward, not the left
-start over
-left knee down, stand up, turn counter clockwise
-left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, ugly strike
-come on, a good strong strike! start over
-left knee down, stand up, turn counter clockwise
-left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, drop the bo while spinning overhead
-okay, forget about standing up, only do the spinning overhead, that last time you dropped it hurt a bit
-spin overhead slowly but didn't drop it
-spin overhead a bit faster, woah, dropped again
-spin overhead slowly but didn't drop it
-spin overhead a bit faster, yeah, didn't drop it, what comes after that???
-spin overhead slowly, didn't drop it, strike!
-spin overhead a bit faster, oh yeah, no drop, and boom, strike!
-spin overhead normal speed (faster was still a bit slow) and strike
-okay, feel like doing the standing up part again now...
-left knee down, stand up, turn counter clockwise
-left, right, left, while spinning overhead normal speed, strike
-NOOOOOO! right foot down, not the left one, sigh...
*****

And repeat for 50 minutes out of the hour. :)

I tell ya, I had almost as much trouble mastering the right footwork so that my stance doesn't looke foolish, as I had learning to time the strike... The good news is that at the end, I was able to do the routine correctly about once every five. May not sound like much, but from not being able to do the spin overhead thing AT ALL, to being able to do the three turns/four strikes routine correctly at least every once in a while, that's a huge step for me. I will still need some work if I want it to look good for the December 3 show, but I have some hope I will be able to. :)

As I said, I worked on that sequence for most of the hour, with little breaks here and there. My bo almost never left my hands which is a bit of a departure from the last few weeks. Maybe I was beginning to feel too comfortable with my kata, as I never felt like working a full hour on it, usually doing some traditional karate work in between bits of open bo work.

I wanted to reply in the open to something that Supergroup7 said in a recent comment about the "BOOOO!" post. She said:

"I would encourage you to refrain from competing mentally, or physically with your son. ( If that is a possibility. He is not your age, so he will achieve different things. ) Enjoy your karate, and remind yourself that you are doing far better today than you did a year ago."

I that post, even though I commented that he got the move much faster than I did, I wasn't so much a competition comment, more like a proud father comment. Very often, I'm still amazed at what he can do, how far *he* has come along since the first competition he's done. I do enjoy my karate and I do it to always better myself, really not to be better than him, or anyone else for that matter.

Another one of those little daddy pride moments came Wednesday night. Their instructor briefed them on how their show would go on December 3. He told them that they will go on stage at the same time as two other schools, but that they would be split in two groups, beginners and advanced. They will basically go through 10 minutes of the stuff they usually do in one of their class, including some stretching, some warmup stuff, some self-defense stuff and finally some kata. He then added that he has reserved some time for three students to present their own kata. I had not realized until he mentionned it, but that meant Andrew will be presenting his bo kata in front of the whole audience. I went "woah!" in my head as I apprehended the announce. Their instructor said it would be one kid from another school presenting a bo kata, a girl from a the second school presenting an open form, and finally Andrew would present his bo kata. I feared he would pout and get all nervous but no, my boy pumped his fists in the air in a "Oh yeah baby" kind of way. To see him react that way, see that he was not afraid to go on stage just made me insanely proud. How my boy has grown in the last couple of years, simply amazing... Following the class, I wanted to make sure I had interpreted his reaction right and that he understood he would be doing his kata on stage by himself (not to scare him but simply to avoid a last minute "I don't wanna do it" kinda crisis). When I asked him if he was looking forward to show his bo kata to everybody, he replied confidently "oh yeah". I added that mom and dad and grandma and grandpa will all be very proud and impressed to see him do it, to which he added "Thomas too will be impressed". Thomas is his best friend... :)

We have a private bo class tonight. Technically, Andrew has a private half hour of bo class but I always stay to listen in and sometimes practice on my own. I always make sure that he gets 95% of the time with the instructor, but I always come out of these classes with a few little tidbits of knowledge for myself.

FM