When I run, I run at maximum efficiency and I am rarely out of breath. It takes relatively little effort to maintain a pace once you achieve it and relatively little extra effort to increase or change that pace.
But in karate the effort is tremendous. I am speaking for myself here because I am not efficient at it. A lot of the time I am not breathing properly. I tend to go anaerobic too often. This is similar to running fartleks (a Swedish term for speed play). In fact, part of the criticism I received today from Sensei Kerrie Trotman was that I looked far too tense in my movements. I need to delay that tension until the moment of truth then put all my power at the end. I agreed. I need to relax more; I am wasting too much energy.
As the night wore on I became more tired and this was reflected in a worsening form. My stances were not so deep, and my blocks and punches became ill defined.
We went through the 10 katas we needed to twice. The first kata was done one step at a time according to the count of Sensei Pat Buhrs then we did them again at our own pace. After that we did kihon kumites 1 through 10 with a higher belt as the attacker. Then we sparred against a higher belt.
At the end we all stood in Shizentai while Sensei Joe Barrau gave us a synopsis of our efforts and critiqued our basic forms. At this point I was convinced that none of us had passed the ranking. I had not watched anyone else because I was too focused on my own efforts, but that was my take on it. Personally I felt that I had made too many mistakes. I listened to Barrau Sensei and in my mind I was rehearsing what I would say when told I had not passed. I came up with, “I accept and agree with your decision and I will do better next time.”
After Barrau Sensei’s remarks our respective judges came to us individually for the final critique. I was surprised to find out that I passed. In fact all of us passed. There were only three of us ranking, all from yellow to orange. Trotman Sensei’s main points were that my shuto block, side kick, inside middle block, cat stance, all needed work. As to the katas, my shuto block into the horse stance in Pinan Nidan needed work in that both hands should come into play. I’m trying to remember everything she said to me. She did say she took my illness into account as she noticed I was tiring as the night went on. Ummm…she was happy that I managed to look before I turned during most of the katas. My turns were pretty good. I guess that’s about it. No doubt I will be reminded in the future of all my defects.
This is as it should be and so be it. I appreciate our teachers insistence on proper form, on quality rather than quantity. It has been relatively easy to grade so far because we are just beginners. It will be more difficult in the future because there will be no forgiveness for bad form. We will never get to green belt without having mastered the basics.
I guess in this way it is much like running, where you are constantly setting PR’s when you begin to run. After a while it get increasingly harder to get a PR. (Personal Record, or PB, Personal Best).
Me go sleep now. Have much work to do for the rest of the week. ZZZzzzzzz