Wednesday 9 June 2010

Karate Island #5

We did some more sparring, tonight, and I emerged relatively unscathed, apart from cramp in my hams, that is. Leastways, I've come to the conclusion that it's only cramp - I did think that I'd pulled something, because it was so uncomfortable, but it eased off after a long, hot soak.

I felt a bit outclassed, to be honest - I was the only ungraded adult - and although I know a bunch of techniques, now, I'm not seeing the opportunities to attack/counterattack. Mind you, even if I could see them, my fitness is such that I don't have the explosive energy to exploit them, just now!

Onwards and upwards... I'm going to work on stretching my hams. I've never been able to do the splits, either, so I think I might aim for that.

2 comments:

Sairs said...

It is hard when you are learning stuff like this. I went back to taekwondo training on tuesday night expecting to have forgotten everything I learnt up to my belt level over the last 4 or so years, but it was funny, I kinda slotted right back in and just had some trouble with some of the combinations that I used to have trouble with. I did have some issues with sparring myself, just because I was getting the technique order mixed up and so I would block when my partner was blocking and we hit fists and arms a few times. Plus she wasn't swapping sides so I had a sore thigh from doing front kicks constantly just on one side. I did okay really for not having trained in so long and the walk there was nice, it's really close to where I live. I actually found where they were by accident one day a while ago but at that time had no inclination to go back. I used to go to the branch over the other side of the city, so this is a new branch which is good. I like the instructors, though I haven't met the senior instructor yet, he will be back on tuesday. I hope he doesn't like push ups, lol! I hate push ups. By the way, the word verification is 'cunfu' which I think is pretty funny!
Sarah

Radagast said...

I'm pretty relaxed about developing my technical skills, to be honest. I mean, I will become more proficient, as a matter of course, but my primary objective is fitness and I'll concentrate on that, rather than the techniques. At the end of the day, I'm 43, and I'm unlikely to be become a world class martial artist, but that doesn't mean that I won't try to achieve a high standard, given the limitations imposed by my aging body!

I've already identified a style, which seems to involve inviting people on and counterattacking - I've done this out of necessity, I suppose, because I'm not sufficiently proficient to create openings with feints and by out-manoevring my opponents. That's the difference between practising techniques on a punchbag and facing a real opponent: the latter has a nasty habit of blocking and counterattacking!

Matt