Category Archives: Karate

Well the first class of 2010 was relatively easy. I don’t think any of us did any karate during the holidays and the Christmas break of almost a month didn’t help. Classes usually end during this time as the schools where we have our dojo are usually booked solid with Christmas activities for the students. Anyway, I enjoyed the class. We did kata and more basics, and we did a lot of kicks against the mats that were being held up by some of us. I like using mats because we can use full power without hurting anyone. But I like sparring too even though I’m not very good at it because sparring teaches control and awareness that you just can’t get from kata or from hitting a mat. Sparring gives you a real opponent who almost never reacts in a textbook manner. It’s the closest thing to real street … Continue reading →

A new training regime has recently been introduced by Sensei Juan Molina in which we warm up by running, and other aerobic exercises which I quite like. It involves a bit of running around the gym for a few laps then changing direction and going the other way. The routine has us slow down to a walk and we kick our outstretched hands while walking. Then we run again, then stop and face the middle and do crunches, pushups, basic blocks, punches, and kicks, then we run in the other direction and repeat the process. We move on to kata, and sparring. I like the new dynamic as it adds variety and makes you stay alert and think.

I managed to make it all the way through this karate class, but I almost didn’t for reasons unrelated to my neck. For some reason, probably because I’m old and crippled, my right forearm went into spasm about an hour and a quarter into the class. It felt like the forearm bone wanted to suddenly snap in half about halfway between my elbow and my wrist. Of course, that’s only what it felt like. I know from experience that it is not the bone itself that is about to break, it’s just some muscles in my arm that contracted and forgot to relax. I couldn’t shake it off and I couldn’t work the knots out of the muscles. It was so painful that I couldn’t do anything with it so my katas and other training went from crisp and well defined to limp. I could not do a low block … Continue reading →

Yesterday was my first time back since the summer/fall break. I only managed to do one hour out of the two because my neck/shoulder muscles got tired too quickly and there was a danger that I delay my recovery if I pushed it too much. I am writing this from the perspective of the next day which lets me write about how surprised I am at how sore I am from that class, especially my hamstrings. It illustrates the fact that training is very muscle specific and my running did not help very much with the whole body and leg work that is needed in karate.