Cat Tuesday

I was running a little late and had to rush to get to class in time. The gate intercom seemed to be faulty but a friendly Ninja came running along the road to open the gate for us. Once inside the mood was upbeat. With the grading around the corner the Sensei seemed almost beside himself, he must be proud of his students as he smiled more than he normally does.

We did warm-ups. The Sensei took us through a couple of drills we haven’t done for a while. Tea cup, crazy monkey and some blocking drills. I was getting excited by the physicality of the drills and I wanted more. Suddenly there was a disruption in the back of the class. A failed block resulted in a student getting scratched in the face. He stomped off to the bathroom and slammed the door in anger.

I could hardly contain myself. The student responsible for the injury was a transfer student from Shidoshi Lee’s dojo. I wanted to train with him from the start as he seemed rather strong and able and now seemingly partner less I jumped at the opportunity to train with him. He thought I was taking him on because of what happened and protested profusely that it was an accident. I realised that my approach seemed rather threatening and luckily the other student seemed none the worse as he returned form the bathroom. I returned to my pace and we carried on as if nothing happened.

I was charged and thirty push-ups with my feet on the chair didn’t help much. I told my friend he should grab the Jo and the Sensei seemed eager to see his form. We worked with the Jo a bit and the Sensei had some insightful tit-bits to add to each of the techniques. I grabbed the Bo and we did a bit of mock sparing. The length and versatility of the Bo put me squarely above my opponent and his Jo. My control over the weapon was the only thing prevented his head from being caved in. The Sensei came around and asked me a couple of techniques and I got most of them right. I felt that all I need now is just a bit of practice to refine each and every technique.

We disbanded and the transfer student seemed like he couldn’t wait to get out of there. I felt a pang of regret at the unfortunate accident, but hey we are here to train. No hard feelings.

Embrace the shadows