Weekend recap

Friday night
Nothing very special happened that evening, other than seeing Andrew work real hard on his bo kata in a private half hour class. Our instructor has split our kata in three sections, in addition to the start, which we call the bow, or salute. The plan for the half hour was to have Andrew do all three sections in three different way three times, let me explain. First way is with strong strikes, fairly slowly. Second way is doing it as fast as he can. Third way is as in a competition, so fast AND strong. Instructor started him on his first section's three strong repetition. He added a twist though: he told Andrew that his stances had to be good or else he would not count the rep as one. After 4 reps, and having told Andrew at various times to better his stances and hand placements on his bo, he told him his total count of reps still had not started. I saw a tiny "huh???" go up in Andrew's face but he got back in place and nailed it once, then a second time, then a third one. There were still a few more repetitions to be made, so much so that with a couple minutes to go in the half hour, he was only doing his first strong rep of his second section, but his first section had seen a great improvement. Once the half hour was over, the table was set for our Saturday afternoon class as our instructor told him he should try and go through the whole 3x3x3 thing during the class...

Saturday morning
Before the end of the world happened, it had been a good class. We had an intense warmup that included us running from wall to wall of the room and doing either 15 pushups or 15 situps in between trips. Then the three of us who were at Monday's class, the one where we learned the beginning of Cat 3, wanted to maybe work on it, maybe even keep adding to it. Well I had practiced it a bit by myself and we were able to replicate it, then got a bit added on, then a bit more, only to realize that we now know it all! Sure, "know" is a big word, but at least I know the sequence of moves that need to be made so I can practice it. Next competition is on December 10, so almost two weeks away and I'm tempted to work real hard to be able to present it then...

Saturday afternoon
I did that class with a bo borrowed from my instructor, after starting with a real heavy one borrowed from the school bo rack. The one I borrowed from my instructor had a weird balance to it and it has started warping a bit. On top of it, it was a bit "slippery" because it was not varnished. I dropped it a few times simply because of that. Otherwise, it went well. Our instructor told me to watch for my hands having a tendency to get together in the middle when I do quick strikes. I was getting aware of that, but honestly, I was too concerned about handling that new bo to think about my hands too...

In that class, Andrew and I went through the 3x3x3 sequence. I had done it before and it usually, it's "3 times strong" + "3 times fast" + "3 times strong/fast" without a break in between. I was kind of policing Andrew on that one and at one point toward the end, he asked me "is it hot in here or what?" LOL! I knew he was getting a good workout this time. :) Me, I always sweat like a pig in these class because I almost never stop practicing. Him, he's used to do it a few times, then his mind wanders and there's some lost time, so this time, he did get a good workout...

Got class tonight. Hopefully they will have found a new bo for me...

FM