Having a nightmare about a punching bag chasing me does not bode well for me and my burgeoning karate future.
After a tough session with the bags last week, I spotted most of my fellow club mates had scabs on their knuckles.
However, what I did not expect was that while our knuckles still hurt, sensei Wendy Wannenberg would order us to do more bag work.
It didn’t even take a solid left punch for my knuckles to started turning all shades of the rainbow as the scab tore away.
At this point, I kept on reminding myself that this is what karate is about and If I want to be tough, I had to endure a little bit of pain.
This all comes after I started with the big boys and girls this week.
From the warm up excercises we do before every session, I did not need to go to the beginners corner and instead with the rest on the mat where I was sweating buckets, my mind playing all sorts of scenarios where I would fail horribly.
But I decided that if I would fail, I would do so while smiling and enjoying myself.
The speed in which the sessions were being conducted was a tad bit too fast but I worked hard to concentrate and will my limbs to keep up with what was being instructed.
We started with punching which im started to get better at doing especially with the hip rotation.
My punches don’t swing, the go straight for the target.
However, I think that is where my progress ends because my brain started heating up as the session became more advanced.
Moving in a sliding manner is what Michael Jackson did, I however, am not that advanced so the best I could do was stomp like an elephant at almost every step. It became even more complicated once we had to practice with a partner.
“Tonight we started with basics, working on stationary punching with hip rotation. We then progressed to foot movements other than stepping so using slip steps for attacking and defensive then using that in application against a partner going forwards with a punch and the person going backwards reacting by escaping. Then using the bag for full contact work for good power,” said Wannenberg.
It was then the dreaded punching bags that came next and along my partner, we proceeded to reopen our scabs.
I don’t know whether its good or bad luck but my partner is always female and they always have a stronger punch.
Usually I would be impressed but not so when I’m the one holding the punching bag.
“Broken skin on muscles is good, to toughen up bones, skin, that’s why as much as we do semi-contact karate, important to incorporate full contact work on the bag so its just not fairytales when you need to use it in application. With bagwork, you will have scabs on your knuckles, the important thing is to have the scabs on the right knuckles,” said Wannenberg.
It was then time to practice the back stance, but after seeing that our thigh and stomach muscles were soft, sensei Wendy instructed us to do jack knives which required one to lay on their backs, legs suspended in the air without touching the ground and then do sit ups.
After my fifth attempts, my body started complaining and I could barely lift my head.
Then we had to go over to one corner of the dojo where we all line up and started to practice our back stance.
Our left shoulder, hips and foot would be against the wall while our right leg would be stretched out a bit to get a feel of the stance.
Then we would move slowly away from the wall and the back leg would be carrying most of my weight.
“The back stance, known as ku kutsudachi to establish the correct position of the weight over the backleg which should be 70% to the backleg and 30% to the front leg for stronger thigh muscles,” said Wendy.
Just as we were about to continue the lesson, sensei Wendy saw the time and had to reluctantly adjourn the class.
However, before we left, we wished one of the senpais, who will be traveling to Greece a safe trip.
Senpai Nick Vergitsis, a second dan will be having a Greek wedding.
As in the dojo tradition, we surrounded Nick and clapped a few times before the seniors, who had the right, punched Nick.
This was done in good spirits.
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