Training Day!

I have just finished a great training session with Pete and Chris. Pete had spoken for a while about working through all the waza in the Shoden Mokuroku, both weapons and empty-hand. So I invited Pete to my dojo for a Saturday morning training session. We bowed on sharply at 9 am and set my phone timer going. Then we proceeded to work through every kata one time each to see how long it would take. We managed to do all the kata in 1 hour, 16 minutes. This included idori, paired weapons sets, the works. It was great to pressure test ourselves to see what we really knew. We managed to remember all the kata even though for a few of them we had to stop and think or work out certain parts, but we got there. Not bad considering there is something like 90 or more kata to learn. It was great to get the heart pumping and my limbs warm. It is a mild winter's day here and it felt good to get to that magical 'training warm' feeling.

Kumitanto!

Not long after finishing the whole Shoden syllabus, Chris arrived. He had just flown into New Zealand early this morning and wanted to work out some of the swelling from a long flight. So he joined us on the mat as we slowed down and looked at some key points on the idori kata. 

Chris emphasised the right attitude in the techniques, an attitude that presses an opponent and takes the initiative immediately. It was just the right amount of fine tuning we needed after blasting through the techniques. 

Overall Pete and I were happy with our progress. Despite the speed at which we worked, the main points of each kata remained intact (despite the odd technique not being our best). It certainly showed us what we need to work on now for future training sessions.

Pete suggested we do the whole Shoden set some time again to see if we have improved overall. I know it will be a blast.