Training continues

So I decided to change the title to my blog. I didn't really like the last one since I didn't feel it fit. Anyway, enough said about that.

This weekend I decided to train on the heavybag and it went very well. There's a great feeling hitting something relatively solid. What I need to do is train on it more often, but it's outside and that requires good weather, which in Vermont can be fleeting. I also strung up a rope from the house to my husband's studio so that I could do the duck and weave thing. I've been having a difficult time getting my body to do that during sparring and it was high time to kick it into gear. Then I ran through the higher kata - Shisochin, Sanseru and Flight of the Striking Tiger - in the grass. It was great to practice outside in the sunshine. My son joined me from time to time and had a blast kicking the heavybag.

Today in class we had some newbies and it was fun to go back to the very beginning. It can be very humbling, especially when you're so caught up in the black belt training. I'll also get to go to class tomorrow night, which I never get to do. It's a different group of people, so a change of pace will be good. Sensei said we will be doing full-contact kumite soon, and I ordered sparring gear since I will need it for Shiai. We have never really done much full-contact in our dojo. There was this incident many years ago when a student from another dojo landed a punch to the face of a student in our dojo, resulting in a broken cheekbone. Ever since then Sensei has been very hesitant to do too much of that. It's a good thing and a bad thing. Most of our sparring is slow-flow and moderate speed kumite, but not so hard to where we have needed gear. That's why I have never owned any. It should be a very interesting experience. But, it's so important to relax first. That's why Sensei has us do slow-flow all the time. It's not gentle by any means, but it forces you to relax and not be so hard in your punches. A very challenging drill indeed.