Class 2007/11/14 (Wed)

The warm-up was energetic today, with shield kicking and rounds of punching. I think I did pretty good, in fact perhaps a shade better than my cohorts Brian and Edgar. It is very unusual for me and so I'm pleased. But I have a terrible secret: I'm going to be sick tomorrow. It was very bad after the last class on Saturday, I spent the Sunday semi-conscious. The onset of headaches begins about 6 hours after the class, nausea usually follows.

Yellow Belt

I received my Yellow Belt today. The test was a disaster, frankly, so this is more of an acknowledgement of my progress than my knowledge of the curriculum. I especially need to know my wrist releases, and Pol Gae 1. But the rest was far from ideal too.

Another thing, I was so swamped with the homework and just work that I started slacking, coming once a week sometimes. I figured that it was going to get better in January.

Class 2007/10/30

What a fun class today: bo. As expected I'm inept, my classmates learn the forms much faster.

I received a postcard from Mr. Young where he advises me to pay more attention to the water element. I appreciate the attention, but it's a veritable puzzle, because it's too implicit for my little mind. Obviously my speed is insufficient (I get reminded about it every time I partner with Edgar), but how can I improve it? Just trainig, I suppose.

Next morning

On Monday I returned to class after a week of illness, and of course I was out of it. Even the knee was giving me trouble. However, after Wednesday class I had no usual 1:30 a.m. headache. It must be the water after all.

Bad class today

I barely survived today. For some reason my body just wasn't in it, maybe because I missed all classes early in the week. The warm-up and conditioning were energetic, but nothing groundbreaking. One way or the other, started sitting between forms in the first half of the curriculum, and I don't think I retained much from the second half (we did replies to grabs).

There will be no Saturday class due to junior belt promotions.

Class 2007/09/11 (Tue)

The workout had a lot of padwork. Our pad patten is a 6-parter:
- Jab, cross, recoil from cross and rear elbow
- Jab, cross, front elbow (this is the normal pattern at Master Reyes' place)
- Jab, cross, rear roundhouse
- Jab, cross, foot switch, roundhouse on the jab side (again, was normal for me)
- Jab, cross, knee
- Jab, cross, foot switch, knee.

Pretty good, but no pushups.

I worked in a pair with Edgar throughout.

Useful words:
めつばし - anything that disrupts enemy's vision, like a fistful of metal shavings and kayene pepper powder
六しくぼ (?) - full name for the bo, meaning "six segments of bamboo".
半ぼ - short bo

Class 2007/09/08 (Sat)

Class was very physical today and I have to admit, I started squatting by the end of the conditioning. But I like it. When conditioning is desired, it is paramount to go beyond one's comfort zone, or else no conditioning is going to occur.

Mr. Young was the lead instructor today.