Denver Colorado Karate Classes Blog

October 31, 2007

Missed three karate classes due to some sort of upper respiratory ailment and traveling out of town, I am back in class. Tonight’s class had seven people and low attendance was probably due to Halloween. We started off doing modified countdowns doing 25-20-15-10-5 repetitions of jumping jacks, pushups, crunches and squats. I was a little more winded than usual. Then we did some escrima sticks training by doing some basic blocking and countering and ending up with doing an escrima stick choke/takedown.

After the class, I did my private training doing all of my DM’s left handed and some of the higher numbered kempos.

Note: Starting October 19, 2007 begins the journey of being diagnosed with pulmonary emboli in March 2008

Friday, October 19, 2007 - ran my typical lunch hour course and didn’t feel 100% in endurance. No big deal

Monday, October 22 - ran the same course and it was hard to complete the run. I figured it was just another bad running day.

Friday, October 26 - ran in the indoor track and after 1/5 of a mile (two laps) I was so gassed out it felt like I haven’t ran in over 20 years and smoked 3 packs a day. I felt like I was going to puke too.

Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Tonights class started off with the requisite warmups that includes pushups. When pushups are announced, I never rest a knee before the pushups are started and not until we move on to another exercise. On Monday, we did 25 regular, 15 diamond, 10 wide and 10 regular. You’re allowed to rest a knee between sets but I don’t. On Wednesday, we did 25 regular but it always takes the Sensei about 30 seconds to decide how many and when to start. Doing 25 regular pushups after being in the pushup position for 30 seconds isn’t easy. Then we did 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 pushups. Basically go down a 1/3, then another 1/3 and then another 1/3. That is one pushup. We did ten of those. While still in the pushup position, I did another 10 pushups.

Then we partnered up to do our DM’s while someone tries to kick and then punch you. I was partnered up with a Blue/green who probably had about at least 80 pounds on me. The difficult ones I did were #15 which worked well and #20. He fell down pretty good.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Tonight’s lesson was on slipping a punch and countering and some sliding footwork while jabbing and throw a hook. For the higher ranked belts, it got a little more technical at the end of the class.

First we paired off into groups of two’s and I was with a purple belt. After a couple of times of taking turns of throwing a couple of jabs and either cross or a hook, it was my turn again while the other person would hold a hand pad. On the second jab, the persons arm recoiled and the pad slammed into their face. I mentioned that maybe this person hold the pad farther away from their face and more near the outside of the shoulder. This person replied back that it’s ok where it is and doesn’t like to give up any space. Whatever.

So now it’s my time to punch again. Throw a couple of jabs and the persons arm recoils back into their face and injuries the right orbital socket area. Wasn’t intentional.

I was then partnered up with two others and we worked on the same exercise but added some ridge hand or back hands and ending up doing a spinning reverse back fist. Maintaining a proper stance on the last move was hard sometimes.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Last Saturday was the Colorado Tournament and in my kumite bout I landed a spinning hook kick to the opponents temple with my left heel. It was a pretty good kick. The sensei judge awarded me the point and said; “That was excellent control, nice kick.”

Tonights adult karate class was focused on doing kicks that don’t come naturally to use. The higher ranks did spinning crescents, reverse spin roundhouse (hard) and some others that made me feel like I was an orange belt.

Monday, October 1, 2007

I took a private lesson today during lunch to review kata 6 and I can do it at any angle. The Sensei had me go and do kata 3, 4 and 5. I was a little rusty but still did 95% of the forms since I haven’t done them since August. Then I did some DM’s going from high to low and kept flubbing 2 or 3 of them. My left knee still feels sore after a workout and that’s why I missed Wednesday’s class to give the knee some recuperation.

Attending tonight’s group class, we did our forms and point sparring. Nailed kata 6. Then onto point sparring and I sparred the same person from last week and I won 3-2. Opened up with a roundhouse to the side of the head. Then I sparred with an experienced black belt. We clashed a lot. He got a few licks on me and I did the same back to him. He won 3-2.