Tuesday, March 08, 2005

Geez. I knew it would turn out like this. I'd get a blog and never write in it.

What's happened since my last entry? I've written some papers, had a economics mid-term (much easier than Onimitsu2004's economics mid-term), went to practice. My karate instructor is currently training in Okinawa and will be there for a few weeks. I look forward to hearing some stories and learning what he cares to pass on to the rest of us students.

I've set up a training trip this next summer to go to Kyoshi Doug Perry's Dojo next June for about 5 days. I got to do that last summer with my friend Terry (Onimitsu2004) and it was a blast. We trained literally all day in the dojo (between 9-12 hours a day) and learned a lot (mostly about how much improvement we needed...but isn't that always the case?). Kyoshi Perry was also very generous with his time (and money...he bought our hotel room for the week, not to mention dinner on a few occassions) and also had some of his students train with us outside of class, who were simply impressive. I can't wait till I do it again. Terry may not be able to make it. He has some weak, lame excuse about having to do an internship or something. (Yeah, that pesky "Real World" interfering with training, as usual) Hopefully he can train with Kyoshi Perry some other time.

After that trip is over, I'll be going to small gathering of people from karateforums.com held in Montana, which looks to be a great time. As big a talker as I am on those forums, it'll be interesting to see some of these people in person. Hopefully people don't expect too much from me...I just like to talk like I know a lot...All in all, another great experience to look forward to, I'm sure.

I've been doing some more work on the Naihanchi Shodan kata performed forwards and backwards, as opposed to side-to-side (another one of Kyoshi Perry's interesting contributions). It really gives the practitioner a great way to really visualize Naihanchi in application. The expansion of movement in all directions as well as how it mirrors itself completely is just a great training tool. Since our instructor is in Okinawa, us students have been turned loose to train on our own, and last week we hashed through that kata and focused a lot on the bunkai (application). I really do enjoy working with the other students in that dojo. Their inquisitive nature, experience, and skill level is really conducive to a critical analysis of karate, which is essential in getting better (as opposed to simply training and practicing). A refreshing change from other places I've seen. Fortunately, I've always been lucky enough to have these sorts of people around me after I started taking Okinawan karate.