Round robin Wednesday

Round robin Wednesday

After a blissful valentines day filled with roses and massages, dinner and movies, we decided to do a catch up class with Shidoshi Lee at the randpark ridge Dojo. I picked up my friend and we arrived at the dojo quite early. One of the freshly graded black-belts was there and we swopped a couple of sentences while I flared with the Bo.

I asked him to show me a couple of moves and as he grabbed the Bo he told us how little the syllabus actually has on the Bo. An old friend pitched up at the Dojo and we caught up a bit. His new baby was making things particularly complicated time wise and he had to change Dojos to accommodate his new born son. Some of the other students were eager to great and make friends with him. It seems like his fitting right in.

Soon we were lined up and doing push-ups and sit-ups, stretches and other warm up exercises. We grabbed some bags as the new Sensei took us through our paces with strikes and kicks of all sorts. The bag work was more focused on movement and range than I was used to. We were striking the bag holder up and down the width of the dojo and it made for an interesting change in a more spacious environment.

Shidoshi Lee arrived just as we pit the bags away. He ordered us to get the bags out again. Soon we were broken up in two groups, each forming a circle with one person in the middle. The person in the middle had to close his/her eyes while the circle members arranged their bags in different configurations. Once ready, the middle person would launch an assault on the circle, striking or kicking each bag. I got the first go and Shidoshi Lee ordered me to give him ten push-ups for not traversing the circle, instead I attacked consecutive bags. Most of the other students dropped their hands during the assault and they too got to do 10 push-ups for their misdemeanours.

We then formed two long lines and had a different exercise with each partner as the one line moved one person up. We did the tea-cup exercise, and then we moved up and did a number of other speed exercises. I knew most of them, but the format was completely different from what I was used to. We broke up and did a bit of multiple attacker exercises. Most of the students were junior so they looked to me to take the initiative. They were shocked as the first attacker ended up in a neck lock as my shield against the other attacker. “How did you do that?” One of them asked. As I started explaining, Shidoshi Lee explained the concept of using the fist attacker as a shield against the second.

We ended off the night in three lines alternating between strikes, kicks and elbow strikes against the bag holder in-Front. Shidoshi Lee made it clear that if anyone drops their hands during grading, they will fail and as a lot of junior students were looking a bit haggard from doing push-ups in class from dropping their hands I am sure his warning didn’t fall on death ears. I enjoyed the change in class format and the general friendly nature of the students in the Randpark ridge Dojo. It’s nice to know we are always welcome.

Embrace the shadows.