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My coworkers must think I'm crazy
Aug. 9th, 2007 09:21 amI'm loving getting back to karate. Absolutely loving it.
I find myself practicing folds and blocks as I walk down the hall at work. I do slow kicks in the kitchen while waiting for my coffee to come out of the coffee machine. I go downstairs to the small gym we have in our office building and practice my form.
Last Monday night,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
pazlazuli was going over classical marching basics with us, giving us painstaking corrections on placement of hands, feet, elbows, shoulders. We started in chumbi position, toes pointed straight forward, arms bent at the elbows, tight fists hovering an inch apart, one inch above our belt knots. We broke it down into the constituent parts:
"Fold!"pazlazuli barked. One hand thrusts out, pointing toward the opponent's solar plexus, hand in tight "knife" position. The other hand goes on top, bent at the elbow, hand in "knife" position up by the ear. Elbows are pressed tightly together.
"Step!" We step forward into a back stance: one foot forward, but weight mostly on the back leg which has a foot pointing to the side, knees bent and pressed out so that the legs are at a 90 degree angle. There is about an inch gap in the line drawn between the two heels, as if you could roll a golf ball between the two.
"Block!" The hand pointing toward the opponent's solar plexus whips back to rest, palm up, at my own solar plexus as the other hand whips from the ear to the sudo block, elbow at belt level at a 45 degree angle, tips of the fingers at the level of the eye.
"Shift-punch!" The front leg, still bent at the knee, shifts over a shoulder length to the side as weight shifts to the front leg. The opposite hand punches forward--hard--to the opponent's solar plexus, the back leg straightens, and the back foot swivels so that now instead of facing the side, the back foot is facing forward. Shoulders are squared to the front.
"Fold!" and the whole thing repeats on the other side.
Folds must be fast and crisp, with as much power as the strikes themselves; that's what helps give power to the blocks.
I absolutely love watching Fiona doing classical marching basics. The group moves in sharp unison, the folds are crisp and clean and dazzlingly fast, the students march forward, inexorably powerful, and you know you'd damn well better get out of their way. There are about a half a dozen ways to do classical marching basics. The one I've just described is the sudo block-punch. There's also the high-block punch, the low block kick punch, etc., etc. The one that's really cool to watch is one I haven't tried yet: inside forearm block-punch-palm heel (I think?).
When the best students do it, it looks simple, but the precision of perfect classical marching basics is exhausting.
I love it.
I find myself practicing folds and blocks as I walk down the hall at work. I do slow kicks in the kitchen while waiting for my coffee to come out of the coffee machine. I go downstairs to the small gym we have in our office building and practice my form.
Last Monday night,
pazlazuli was going over classical marching basics with us, giving us painstaking corrections on placement of hands, feet, elbows, shoulders. We started in chumbi position, toes pointed straight forward, arms bent at the elbows, tight fists hovering an inch apart, one inch above our belt knots. We broke it down into the constituent parts:"Fold!"
pazlazuli barked. One hand thrusts out, pointing toward the opponent's solar plexus, hand in tight "knife" position. The other hand goes on top, bent at the elbow, hand in "knife" position up by the ear. Elbows are pressed tightly together."Step!" We step forward into a back stance: one foot forward, but weight mostly on the back leg which has a foot pointing to the side, knees bent and pressed out so that the legs are at a 90 degree angle. There is about an inch gap in the line drawn between the two heels, as if you could roll a golf ball between the two.
"Block!" The hand pointing toward the opponent's solar plexus whips back to rest, palm up, at my own solar plexus as the other hand whips from the ear to the sudo block, elbow at belt level at a 45 degree angle, tips of the fingers at the level of the eye.
"Shift-punch!" The front leg, still bent at the knee, shifts over a shoulder length to the side as weight shifts to the front leg. The opposite hand punches forward--hard--to the opponent's solar plexus, the back leg straightens, and the back foot swivels so that now instead of facing the side, the back foot is facing forward. Shoulders are squared to the front.
"Fold!" and the whole thing repeats on the other side.
Folds must be fast and crisp, with as much power as the strikes themselves; that's what helps give power to the blocks.
I absolutely love watching Fiona doing classical marching basics. The group moves in sharp unison, the folds are crisp and clean and dazzlingly fast, the students march forward, inexorably powerful, and you know you'd damn well better get out of their way. There are about a half a dozen ways to do classical marching basics. The one I've just described is the sudo block-punch. There's also the high-block punch, the low block kick punch, etc., etc. The one that's really cool to watch is one I haven't tried yet: inside forearm block-punch-palm heel (I think?).
When the best students do it, it looks simple, but the precision of perfect classical marching basics is exhausting.
I love it.
