the Way of the Turtle

Sloooooooow Katas
Sunday, September 3, 2006

Went over to the karate school on a couple of errands and stayed to work on some katas... sort of. My smashed ribs forced me to modify a few techniques (side kicks are pretty much out of the questions, and even center kicks gave me some twinges in my lower back, which has been taking a beating from my accomodating my injuries) and I had to move very slowly, with no hops or jumps. Still, it was a good exercise in self-discipline - usually, if I start out slow, I'll end up speeding up in fairly short order - and it was good to be moving. Worked through the 3 basic katas, 8 Pal-gwes, 3 Chulgis, and then 6 black belt level korean katas. After that I worked on regaining Aoyagi (the kata Fumio Demura taught us last spring) since we're supposed to review that at the staff meeting in two weeks.

Afterwards, I was feeling the effects both on my ribs and back and in my pulled groin muscles, but it was well worth doing. Later this week I'll try to get through the remaining katas I know and see if I can handle weapons safely...

JMH