January 24, 2007

Look Out Jet Li

Classes have been crowded lately at the dojo. We’ve had an influx of white belts of all ages, which is great. What’s even better though, is when you’re the only one who shows up for class every once in a while. I had a full hour with the head instructor tonight and got to work on the little details of my bo kata, Choun and my new bo kata too.

I’ve got Choun down, but my problem is that my side strikes and overhead strikes are not exactly as they should be. Apparently I’m "rowing" when I should be "punching." After tonight, I know what I need to do, but doing it is another thing completely. Once again, the bony arms are coming in to play, and I have a feeling that my arms are going to be bruised and battered tomorrow.

I’m not going to get all stressed out about it though. I was worried because I didn’t think that my tunfa skills were quite right and lately they seem to be clicking. Tonight my instructor watched me do the tunfa kata I’ll need for 1st kyu and he said he didn’t see any problems at all.

So, I’ve got tunfa down, nunchaku has been conquered as far as I’m concerned. And now it’s the bo.

After all that working on kata, my instructor brought out two shinai swords. He told me the basic rules and said we’d go for three cuts. I told him he was totally in for it since I just recently watched Jet Li’s "Fearless." Obviously, I now have mad sword skills.

I’m sure he was just being polite, but I got some decent cuts in there. The problem is that they came after he would have sliced my head and legs off. Oh well. The problem is that when you’re trying to hold the shinai correctly, stand correctly, and not get whacked, it’s hard to concentrate. So, we smacked around at each other for 10 minutes or so and called it a night.

When I got home tonight, Mr. BBM was cleaning up the living room and putting away toys. Lil C got a V-Tech train set for Christmas and he was putting it away without first turning it off.

Train

The set has a track and each block on the track has a letter. In "learning" mode, a kindly voice says "A" when you press the "A" block and so on. As Mr. BBM was folding up the track he happened to inadvertently touch "F" and "Q" at almost the same time. Sound it out, put it together. I’ll give you a minute.

Anyway, Mr. BBM had to press those buttons about 10 more times while in near hysterics, as I laughed on (totally at him).

I think I better hide that toy. He was having entirely too much fun with it, and I’d hate to think of what other fun combinations he can come up with while I’m away. Who would have thought that a V-tech toddler toy could entertain an adult valedictorian? I think I’ll stick with the shinai and Jet Li movies.