Warm-up Tuesday

We arrived at the Dojo with a bit of time to spare. I played with the Bo a bit and started working on a Kata. We had a visit from one of the senior students who hasn’t been to class for a while. His work has been keeping him very busy and with a baby on the way, he is un-lightly to get much class time this year. It was good to see him suffer as our resident fitness instructor took warm-ups.

We started off with jumping jacks and went into a couple of leg stretches. We did a lot of push-ups and I loved it. Everyone was spent by the time we were told that the last exercise was Devastators’. This combination of jumping jacks and push-ups is an evil set of pain and exhaustion, but I am starting to enjoy the fitness training and endeavour to incorporate it in my personal training outside class.

We went over to syllabus and I was pleased to see every one working on their kyu levels. I fell in with the 4^th kyu students and the Sensei started with the Bo. I asked him to demonstrate the figure 4 and hammer locks with the Bo. Just as I got comfortable the Other Sensei called me to demonstrate a principle to the 9^th Kyu students. I had to kick him in the short-rib with a roundhouse kick. He grabbed my leg and twisted my ankle painfully. In Ninjutsu we don’t have rules and honour when it comes to a life threatening situations and anything goes.

As I limped back I spotted a couple of 7^th kyu students doing takedowns. I felt comfortable with the Bo and decided to teach them while the others carried on with their 4^th kyu work. I took them through the Figure four and hammer locks. They were a bit stiff and tumbled with the techniques. I tried to spot their problems and gave them pointers as we went along. I focused on not talking too much but rather showing more and encouraged them to try out my suggestions.

I enjoyed teaching and felt exhilarated as the students followed my suggestions and got the techniques right. The Sensei that taught me in the beginning of the night caught my attention and asked me if I am ok with the Bo. I suggested he ask me to perform any technique. I asked me to perform any lock form an attack. He tried to distract me while he attacked. I blocked his strike with the blow but tumble with the wrist lock. He demonstrated how dynamic an attacked will be and what I was doing wrong. I was moving into the attack with the Bo when, because it is a ranged weapon, one should move out of the attack to create space to facilitate the full swing of the Bo. Another light went on in my brain.

It was a good class, I enjoyed the company of my fellow Ninjas. The year is off to a rolling start and ever one was excited about the upcoming grading and even I look forward to adding another stripe to my belt.

Embrace the shadows.