The next day

Was kind of cool to go to class yesterday. Despite me dropping my bo during the show performance, many people had very positive comments regarding the kata. Some people were not present but knew I would be presenting my kata and thus wanted to know how it went, while some other were there and talked about it. I even got some very encouraging words from Dgina, co-owner of our school (with her husband, Jonathan, my Monday evening instructor), a fifth dan herself, who told me she really liked my performance. She said she thought I did put a lot of life into my kata and that she enjoyed watching it. She gives class mostly to kids, or to the other instructors at our school (being the highest ranked black belt at our school), so I have never had a class with her, but I hold her in high esteem. She was part of the testers in a couple of belt tests I have taken over the last few years and she is one strict young lady (actually a bit younger than I). She once asked me, back when I tested for my purple belt or something like that, if I had ever thought about competing, since she felt that I did put a lot of life and voice in my kata, especially through my kiais. I guess my kiais did impress her during that performance of Sunday. :)

Anyway, she even thanked me for taking the stage, as she acknowledged that not many adults had volunteered to do so. While it stressed me for a while, I actually enjoyed doing it. I probably wouldn't do it every week because it requires quite a bit of preparation and it involves a bit of stress as I just said, but for this one time, I think I'm coming out of this a better practitioner. I'm even happier that maybe my participating in this thing kind of encouraged Andrew in doing the same and may have helped him grow too...

I should hopefully have the videos of both our performances available to watch here at some point tonight.

FM