I was feeling good and energetic, all I looked forward to the whole day was to get to the dojo and flex my muscles. I brought a friend with to class and we were all set for a humdinger of an evening as I worked on my sword kata. It’s quite hard to come up with a good looking kata all by yourself...
Soon we were on the ground doing the plank, then sit-ups and then push-ups. The warm-ups sped past like the night had a bigger purpose. I partnered up with a newish student and soon he was cringing from the pain as we did body conditioning. With grated teeth I told him to swallow his pain and toe the line... I attacked the bag with vigour and when everyone went for water, I bit the bullet and did 20 slow push-ups.
With sweat running down my cheeks we split up into our groups and I opened my big mouth to announce that I wanted to do key-ring. The ninja key ring is a steel spike with either one or both sides tapered at the ends which protrude on each side of the hand. It also has two smaller, shorter spikes near the middle that fits around your middle finger to improve the grip on the keyring, making for a real nasty weapon when it comes to striking and manipulating an opponent. Sensei Chris referred to it as “God mode”.
I trained with a partner that has some experience with the key-ring and I was hungry for knowledge and as we went through the motions I came to know the ferocity the key-ring adds to an attack, but it wasn’t until my partner, by accident, struck me in the teeth that I really got respect for this simple little piece of metal. I was fortunate to lose only a small bit of one of my front tooth. I wasn’t bleeding and felt no pain so I worked through my emotions and we carried on training. We ended of the night with the Kata Dante and each went their separate ways.
Needless to say, I am training with a mouth guard from now on...
Embrace the shadows.
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