February 9, 2007

Pinan NiShoSanYonGodan

What? You don’t recognize the name of the kata I did tonight? Well, you wouldn’t be alone, because no one could recognize the kata that I did at karate class tonight.

Our instructor decided that we would all do an individual kata starting with the high rank. That was me. Joy.

I stood up and he said that he was going to pick a random kata. It could be current or review. Let me put it this way:

Open-hand kata’s that a 3rd kyu should know: 9

Weapons kata’s that a 3rd kyu should know: 5

Waza’s that a 3rd kyu should know: 8

Having your instructor choose one of the kata’s that has fallen victim to brown belt amnesia?

Priceless.

As I stood there willing my instructor to choose anything BUT Pinan Shodan, he chose just that kata. Apparently, black belts now have mad mind reading skills in addition to their karate know-how.

Several months ago at testing, another instructor asked me to review Pinan Shodan with a few green belts before they would test. I had no clue how it started. Once they showed me how it started, I thought I would be o.k. Usually, once you’re in the routine of a kata, it just comes to you. But it didn’t.

I felt like a complete idiot in front of these young green belts and their parents. I remembered how, as a white belt, I used to look at the brown belts and think, "Why can’t they remember their kata’s? That won’t happen to me." Yeah right.

So, my instructor got me started by showing me the opening moves and then I would go about five moves before freezing in disgust, and muttering "crap" underneath my breath so that my instructor would know he had to give me a hint. At one point, he told me "knife hands" and I looked at him with no clue and said, "That means nothing to me." It wasn’t until he said "naha turn" that I figured out where I was supposed to be. Once I got beyond that point, I was o.k., but talk about feeling stupid in front of a class full of mostly white belts.

Big I was the next highest rank and our instructor asked her to do the first kata, Nai Hanchi Shodan. She put together a creative little routine filled with some tentative blocks and some spirited snap kicks, but like her mother, she had no clue. Our instructor stood up and helped her and upon sitting back down we both agreed that we need to do some more work at home.

But before we get to that I have one more excuse for my pitiful performance. Pinan Shodan was right around the time that I was pregnant or just returning to karate after giving birth to Lil C, so I’m blaming childbirth amnesia. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

You watch. Some day there will be a kata called Pinan NiShoSanYonGodan. I’m just ahead of my time. . .