Feels like I hadn't been to the dojo in weeks because...I hadn't. Big turnout, lots of beginners, so spent most of the time on the basic basics, and thinking in three dimensions, trying to keep balanced front-to-back, left-and-right, and up-down. After class, ran through the kumitachi with Salty a number of times. We're practically the same height which is good. He's better than I am at a couple of the kata and I'm better at the others, so we train well together. He's smooth and trying not to muscle through his cuts, and his maai (distance and timing) is excellent sometimes, but he also sometimes doesn't commit, or gets too anxious. I guess anxious isn't really the word; one of the problems with knowing the kata is you know what you're partner is going to do, so you move understanding how he will move. But that's different than moving with him or in reaction to him. If I change up the speed or angle or timing a little bit, he gets totally thrown off, which is excellent practice for him so I like to keep him on his toes.
He trains alot and somehow manages to remember all the different variations of the kata, so it's good to go through them all and play around. Still not feeling particularly threatened, but I think if we keep practicing a few more times he'll loosen up and really start swinging for the fences. First time he clips me in the head will be good (for him at least) as that will show him were the timing and connections are. We played a bit with the habiki, but one of them is so beaten up it's about to snap in half, so we stopped and went back to wood.
After we trained, we went with Karachan to get some late-nite food and smacktalk until the wee hours. Sleepy at work today, but it was good to get out and do some training for a while.
No comments:
Post a Comment