Gasshuku Day II

Day two of the weekend Gasshuku and now the class is open to all kyu grades. The weather was horrible and it put a lot of people off. It is sad for Sensei George when the class is small yet perfect for us attention whores! In the words of the man himself, "If one person turned up, I'd be here till 2 o'clock regardless". Truly the man's dedication to spreading traditional karate is amazing.

With a range of experience going from none (but some previous Taekwondo) to 2nd Kyu, we jumped straight into things everyone could work on - basics. After the punches came the blocks and after the blocks came moving. Moving is one of those much otherlooked things, like housework or breathing, people seem to take it for granted. Yet when it comes to moving in a very specific way, suddenly a group of grown adults looks like a bunch of shaky toddlers!

We worked on Sanchin Dachi and Neko Ashi Dachi - both stances which require attention to detail to appreciate the subtle advantages of these postures. Certainly when it comes to suri ashi or sliding feet, I felt closer to clog foot than cat leg. With Sensei George's eagled eyed instruction we were able to attend to the finer details and after an hour or so of practice, I felt I'd improved 1 or 2%. Hey, don't knock it! If I improve just 2% a week that's 100% improvement a year. However if I set my expectation as a 100% improvement in 2 weeks, I'm sure I'll have quit Karate by Christmas.

Today was a really good class, even though we only practiced under 30 techniques for 3 hours. Maybe that should read was good because we only practiced a few techniques. As Sensei George says, the concept of Goju Ryu is quality not quantity.

Sadly I'm having to cancel attending Michael Tse's class this coming weekend, which was to be a birthday treat. However an unexpected tax bill has realigned my thoughts to working longer hours...