Out of Sensei's Hands

I had a terrific class yesterday. One of our members tested for sixth kyu yesterday, and afterwards many people went to the new dojo for pizza (probably, I'll find out on Tuesday), and again, probably stayed afterwards to do some more work on our dojo-in-progress.

There was also a small group who skipped the dojo work, but were more than happy to stay for pizza, before they cut out and spent the day at Six Flags Great America. I was asked, but declined the invitation. It was mostly the young, single people who went to Six Flags. Being neither young, nor single, I chose not to go. My wife and I went to my classroom instead. There are still many things to do before school starts on Thursday.

Class itself was very nice. We had a Tai Sebaki (open hand, if I got that right) class for one hour, followed by a weapons class. The open hand class was, again, terrific. I performed the techniques well, and worked with a number of different people. Oddly, our chief instructor asked our regular instructor to teach so he could, as he said, practice. I worked with him once.

There was a moment at the end, after our sixth kyu test, that bothered me momentarily, but I did my best, and am still doing my best, to "keep goddam stupid ego out of it," as Terry Dobson said. I know I'm good, I just would like to have the chance to show it once in a while.

We had weapons after that. We worked on the 31 Jo Kata. I worked with our regular instructor. We traded uke and nage to show the rest of the class (both of them) what to do. There was a time when I had to strike downward on his jo staff, and when I did, I knocked it out of his hand. He was impressed that I was able to do that. I was surprised that I was able to do that. Then I did it again. And I think again. When he did it to me, I could feel his strike run through my jo staff and up into my arm. My bad wrist felt it worst of all. After a few hits, he stopped to watch the other two, and I was able to take a minute to regroup. About all I could do was shake my wrist and hope for the best. Despite that, I had fun, and proved to myself how much I'm improving. I just hope that when school starts I can continue my high level of attendance.