We spent time chatting about the same old thing… KARATE.
Saturday Morning we were up at 5am & drinking coffee preparing ourselves for “Sensei Mike” who were heard come in earlier… it ended up being Jeannie. Well we warmed ourselves up a bit & got stuck into the makiwara. Sensei Mike rocked up with us pounding away. Sensei Mike got excited to see this & just continued with makiwara: Oi-zuki, shuto-uchi, haito-uchi, nikite-uchi…
In between this Sensei Marius Jordaan took me aside & worked a little bit on mae-geri. Just to warm our legs up a bit differently & also our stomachs.
We moved onto shinshiku dachi & the technical aspects of it. From there we blasted into oi-zuki, making sure massive thrust & distance was being created from the shinshiku dachi all the way into the final 0.001% of the oi-zuki.
We then got partners (I got Bryan-san which is always great) & did variations on kihon ippon kumite.
Jodan Oi-Zuki
Step back into shinshiku-dachi & counter gyaku-zuki & then the same to your partner… over & over, making in a continuous drill.
This drill went on for a while & I tell you what, Bryan closes distance like no one I have ever seen! Kindly he slowed down for me, otherwise I would have just been knocked on every count.
Then more variations:
Jodan Oi-zuki
Step back into shinshiku-dachi & counter gyaku-zuki.
Chudan Oi-zuki
Taisabaki, haito to the short-rib
Chudan Oi-zuki
Taisabaki (spinning right around) & empi-uchi to the back of the opponents head
Chudan Oi-zuki
Jump & uraken-uchi (this is a favourite of Sensei Soon’s)
Jodan Mawashi-geri
Drop DOWN & move to the left & haito to the groin.
Chudan Oi-zuki
Sen-sen-no-sen: attacking the attack with an Oi-zuki, trying to beat your opponent to the punch. Needless to say I did not catch Bryan
Sensei Mike was kind enough to let us change a few times, so I had a normal chance against the other karateka.
After this we moved onto Sensei Isaka kihon SUPER SLOW MOTION… the three main Shotokan stances & also the typical Isaka Oi-zuki & so forth.
We ended the class with 300 sit-ups… making sure every one believed it was “GOOD TO BE ALIVE”.
We were then requested by Bryan & Sensei Mike to join the adult intermediate class, who worked on stretching exercises…
After class Bryan-san & Sherilee had some “doctor Isaka” on their long term injuries.
Bryan then decided to let us join him with his samurai training… which is him getting into a pool after training. Now for those who do not know about Vereeniging… it is a small town in the south of Gauteng province in South Africa, which gets EXTREMELY COLD. Bryan got his whole body into the water, where as Sherilee & I only got to our belly-buttons & trust me it is COLD!
Anyways we hit the road back to Pretoria & drove for 4 hours due to the road-works! We just-just made it in time for the Development training.
Just a thanks to Bryan-san & Anita (mommy to the cutest little girl) thank you for always hosting us & putting up with us! You guys are super stars!
To Sensei Mike Dukas: YOU ARE A LEGEND SENSEI! & allowing us to train with you is an honour every time!
