Weekend report

Friday evening
Andrew had a traditional class from 7 to 8 and a private bo class from 8:30 to 9. I learned something though. As tough as Andrew is when it's time for us to get him into bed, 8:30 to 9 is a very late hour for him to take a class, especially after going through one hour of traditional karate. One week every two, there's a half hour that is open from 6:30 to 7 and this coming Friday is the first one. I've already arranged to get that half hour and from now on, he will only take private classes when that slot is available.

From 7 to 8, I practiced in what little space I could find which fine by me. There are plenty of things I can work on even if I don't swing my bo around, plenty of agility work that'll help me "soften" my wrists for when I need to spin the bo faster. I can also do strikes, mainly because strikes can be done with your stance well established in one spot.

From 8 to 8:30, we went to the basement of our school to relax and that's when I saw it in his eyes. Poor kiddo looked tired. We watched a DVD in the salon they have their, usually to keep kids quiet in between classes but at 8pm on a Friday, we had the room for ourselves, then when I told him it was time for his class, he just came with me and went through the class. With one advanced kids class (brown belts mostly) and one tricking class (where they practice all kinds of jumps) room was sparse so I simply sat down in a corner and watched his private class. I sure came out of it with a lot of little pointers of stuff I need to work on myself. That was also good because while Andrew usually puts his heart into supervised practice, he will very often forget advices or tricks, being the 9yo that he is. Since I was listening to his instructor and I'm usually very good at working on stuff that's been pointed out to me, I serve as a walking reminder whenever we're in our regular bo class and Andrew gets in a funk and stops working right. I try not to do it too often though, wouldn't want to annoy him too much, just a little. ;)

Funny thing happened when we walked down to the salon in the basement. Two fellow adult students were practicing. Remember how I talked about people taking me as an example? Well, happened again. They were working on their most advanced self-defense techniques and had a few questions. They figured I knew the answers, just like that. Lucky for me, I knew the answers. All these occurences will start having me really believe in myself you know... :)


Saturday morning
Traditional class was good, as always. I was paired with a 64yo gentleman, brown belt like me. Funny link between us two, he was also part of the first bo class I ever took, a year ago. I think there had never been one adult taking one of these open bo classes and there we were, two of us. He is in incredible shape, I tell ya. Our instructor, after pairing us, told us we'd work on our brown belt self-defense techniques. Since he just started back karate after a nine month hiatus, he was to work on them from a the perspective of a right handed attacker while I was told to work the left side of things. Huh, really? Seriously, it went pretty well, much better than I expected. I guess I'm getting to be more comfortable as a whole as time goes by.


Saturday afternoon
Bo class went very well. Our instructor had us do this drill where you do you kata three times strong, three times fast and three times like in a competition (strong and fast). You can only rest in between series. I was sweating like a pig after my first series so you can imagine the beating I gave myself. I got to perform my kata for him after doing the whole drill and he only had good words. The new sequence went well and he said my spinning and stances have improved, even though I dropped my bo while performing my throw. These things happen. I'll simply keep working on it as I know it was only a fluke. I had not dopped it in my throw in the previous maybe 10 times.

Got class tonight. Last week my instructor asked me to bring my bo so I could show my kata to my fellow students. Hopefully it will go well...

FM