Thursday February 24th

When I had a "bad" day about three weeks ago, Alan Sensei sent me a message and told me to "dig deep".  Well, today I had to "dig deep"...  When I went to bed last night I had a dose of the shivers, my stomach was upset and I had the whole toilet works thing going on... I felt really tired, cold and my muscles hurt when I woke up this morning... I wasn't sure whether I was sick or just really tired after the three sessions that I completed yesterday morning and evening... I only realised during the day how hard I trained yesterday and I possibly pushed myself a little too far... Maybe this was why I had the shivers etc. when I was in bed.  I felt so bad during the morning that I had as good as decided to not train this evening... I wanted to go to the dojo though... and I thought to myself that I might just observe... Anyway, I ate and drank as much as I could during the day, did some research, went down to the local park for an hour and also rested... Come 4.30pm I was feeling better in myself and I decided to pack my dogi... Afterall, it was Kagawa Sensei and Yamaguchi Sensei who would be teaching tonight.... So I thought that even if I just train for one hour it would be okay...

When I arrived at the dojo, Yamaguchi Sensei was teaching the 5-6pm kids class.  In contrast to yesterday this class was really relaxed and all the kids seemed to be having a lot of fun with Yamaguchi Sensei.  I often wonder about the kids who train at the Hombu Dojo... Some of them constantly have a terrified look about them, others just keep smiling nervously at the Sensei's while others look totally at ease and really seem to enjoy what they are doing.  I think all of the Sensei's possess "parent like" attributes where they can push the kids to their limits and even give them a smack with the "shinai" (wooden stick) but they also appear to have a caring side to them.  I'm still trying to figure this whole thing out and realise what makes the Sensei's so "special"!

Kagawa Sensei took the 6-7pm class.  There were only 7 of us training in this class.  Started off with kihon... shizentai and then moving into zenkutsu-dachi.  Kagawa Sensei and Yamaguchi Sensei went around to all of us as we were doing gyaku-zuki and they pulled our pullback elbow from inside out to make sure we had stability in our technique.  I think commonly people will push their students elbows from outside to inside to make sure that they are pulled in and thus creating this compression.  It was interesting to see how the Sensei's were pulling from the inside... But obviously in order for this to work, one has to have their elbow pulled in behind anyway.  We then did some leg strengthening exercises for mae-geri working on both the back and front of the thighs followed by kicking drills involving all the basic kicks.  One of the most difficult for me was mawashi-geri then using the snap of the hiki-ashi (pullback leg) to perform ushiro-geri.  My first time ever trying this combination and I think I did well... Kagawa Sensei was stressing the importance of using the hiki-ashi and snapping action of the hips to engage the body into a position to perform ushiro-geri.  We completed the class with kumite... First of all one side only attacking, zuki, then geri and then combinations... The defending side had to be flexible in their upper body, and as the attacks were coming in we had to move both sideways and almost into the attack at the same time...  I was doing this with Yamaguchi Sensei... This was great... both of us were really relaxed and I felt comfortable that I could attack him with speed... All the time being aware that he could blast me out of it with one punch or kick!  At the end of the class I was pretty wrecked but I decided to stay on for the next hour... You find yourself building up this close loyalty towards the Sensei's and it is difficult to leave.. Even though most people do leave after completing just the one session!  Kagawa Sensei came up to me as the newcomers were warming up for the 7-8pm class and he was asking me how long I was staying for etc..  Out of all the Sensei's, Kagawa Sensei is the one that I have had least contact with because he seems to be away quite a bit with other teaching committments I guess. 

Yamaguchi Sensei took the 7-8pm class.  There were only 5 of us training.  All female except myself!  Yamaguchi Sensei called me to partner him straight away and we did pad work for about 30 minutes... Practicing kihon - gyakuzuki, maegeri and mawashigeri and then progressing to kumite with favourite waza.  I tried really hard and I was a bit nervous partnering Yamaguchi Sensei for this.  Everytime he would do mawashi-geri jodan I would hold the pad near my head and it was a struggle to absorb the impact of his kick without almost knocking myself out with my own hand as it rattled against the side of my head with the impact!  I was really tired doing these kicks and found myself struggling for the last ten.. but I must admit that Ymaguchi Sensei appeared to find the going a little tough also!  He brought over a towel so I could wipe the sweat from the floor that we were both generating!  Kagawa Sensei intervened at one stage and corrected one of the girls for not snapping her hips into mawashi-geri as she was performing it.  So Yamguchi Sensei got us to practice the initial movement of the technique in front o fthe mirrors and then we practiced mawashi-geri off the back leg on the pads again... Especially focusing on this snapping feeling... It was gratifying to hear Yamaguchi Sensei saying "oss... nice" on a couple of occasions! 

Kagawa Sensei took over the rest of the class after this and we did some light jiyu kumite.. again I was with Yamaguchi Sensei and then we practiced all Heian kata, Tekki Shodan and our Tokui kata (favourite kata).  I was feeling pretty tired doing all of these katas and was just thinking relax, deep stances and fully extend everything.  I did Gojushiho Sho again as my tokui kata.  Kagawa Sensei pointed out a couple of timing things that I need to improve on in the kata.

Was totally wrecked when class finished... Dogi (karate suit) was once again drenched in sweat but I felt great at the same time... especially considering how I felt all day... So I did "dig deep" and I was really satisfied with myself!  I told Yamaguchi Sensei after class about my plans to go to Akirano-Shi tomorrow and train with Yagi Sensei on Saturday.  He seemed happy to hear this and told me to "take care".  As usual I stopped at Jonathan's for my dinner.. I must admit that I was so tired that it was almost a struggle to eat the big chunk of beef and the ice-cream desert that I ordered... Was glad to get back to the apartment and get into the shower!