February 20, 2007

Tell me one good thing

I thought that testing for 2nd kyu was going to be at the end of March. All this time, I’ve been concentrating on getting through the birthday hell month (Big I and Mr. BBM) and then I could concentrate on testing. That’s not going to work now. Testing is now the first week in March, which means I have less than two weeks to be fabulous.

The good news is that this is the same material that I did in December, but just didn’t have enough time in yet to get the rank. And I will have a new gi to wear by the time testing is here too, which I’m sure will give me an additional boost in the way of snappiness if that’s even a word. (I’m keeping the lid on what I got until it has arrived.) Thank you, by the way, for all the great suggestions and cautionary tales about what gi’s you have. It was very helpful.

Last night in class, we had our instructor, another black belt, the other brown belt and myself. We each took turns doing an individual kata and then everyone had to say something good and something that could be improved. I can’t remember doing this before at the dojo, but I think it was a very good learning device.

I was thrilled to hear that my techniques are good, that my kicks are high and that I do the kata well. I was also very receptive to the suggestions for improvement: must add the kiai’s (which I always forget to do), and try to stay on a more level plane as in no bobbing up and down through the kata.

My open hand kata is Pinan Yondan, and I’m actually starting to like it, which is amazing considering it’s a Pinan kata and they are not my favorites. I also have to do Odo No Nunchaku and Choun No Kun, which is a bo kata. I used to be so afraid of the nunchaku kata, but I now feel that I have a very good handle on it and that I do it pretty well.

When my instructor was doing an individual kata last night, I told her that the good thing about her kata is that she becomes a completely different person when she does her kata’s. It’s amazing to me that one minute she’s my instructor and as soon as she begins the kata, she becomes this wicked looking karate master. It’s very cool. I think I need to work on developing some multiple karate personalities of my own. Maybe the new gi will help. . .