Shotokan Posted July 2, 2019 Report Share Posted July 2, 2019 This challenge is all about taking what I gained over the last two challenges and putting it all together. I had 10 weeks of solid training and two weeks of wind down and now it's time to clean up and polish my katas for my competition in 12 days. This is going to be a simple challenge with some small but important goals. 1. Put the final coat of polish on my kata. 25 per week With less then two weeks to go, I am not going to make any big changes to my kata. Power and speed are at their peak and now some small adjustments are needed to clean it up. 2. Mobility training. Keep the body moving and pain free with four mobility workouts per week I think I will get more than four each week but at least four is the goal. 3. Meditate with the focus on relaxation. Keep the muscles and mind relaxed three times a week I still meditate each day but some extra focus is needed on keeping my muscles and my mind in a relaxed state. I have some old meditation tracks that I found that I used to do before Karate classes and it helped keep my head in the right place. Three a week should be easily doable. Extra credit: One good blog post. Since this hasn't been going well, the number target is lower but it has to be one good blog post. I have something in mind already and now it just needs to be typed. 1 Quote Doug In search of the ever elusive side thrust kick.... Student of Karate and Iaido Link to comment
Kishi Posted July 2, 2019 Report Share Posted July 2, 2019 At this point, any blog post is a good one. Just do the work, man, the rest will come. How exciting that you have a competition coming up! Hope it goes well! 1 Quote Work like a farmer, train like an athlete, fight like a soldier. 2 Tim. 2:3-6 BATTLE! Link to comment
Shotokan Posted July 5, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 5, 2019 I am behind on my updates for some reason, I guess they call it work overload or at least that's what I am calling it. Day one: Five katas and my simple mobility drill. Day two: Karate class with nine katas. The class almost all stance work and kicks but there was still enough time for kata. Day three: One kata and rest for my legs. Day four: Four katas and some Pavel Super Joints along with some dynamic warm ups. 2 Quote Doug In search of the ever elusive side thrust kick.... Student of Karate and Iaido Link to comment
Kishi Posted July 8, 2019 Report Share Posted July 8, 2019 Work plus holidays, man. It's a thing. Just hope things are going well! Quote Work like a farmer, train like an athlete, fight like a soldier. 2 Tim. 2:3-6 BATTLE! Link to comment
Kishi Posted July 15, 2019 Report Share Posted July 15, 2019 Hey! If I understand rightly, your competition must have happened by now. I hope it went well! 1 Quote Work like a farmer, train like an athlete, fight like a soldier. 2 Tim. 2:3-6 BATTLE! Link to comment
Shotokan Posted July 19, 2019 Author Report Share Posted July 19, 2019 On 7/15/2019 at 11:27 AM, Kishi said: Hey! If I understand rightly, your competition must have happened by now. I hope it went well! It went well to the point of, I stepped on the tatami against the best in the country at 53 years old. Even though I didn't get any medals, it was good to be back on the floor. Some things that I learned were, not competing in a long time did impact me more than I thought it would. I didn't feel any nerves or stress about competing but I was told that I didn't look as strong as usual. Just a few days before, I did a kata with kata coach and she said it was the best she ever saw me do. I was a little apprehensive about the slickness or stickiness of the tatami and I might have held back without really knowing it. I also didn't have the same stances with me as I did in training. My stances were very short and I didn't have any feedback from my body telling me they were short. I was going to retire from competition again but for the time being, I am going to compete at my local club tournaments for the foreseeable future. I have some things to prove to myself and I am just not ready to close this chapter in my book yet. I know in my mind, I could have placed in the top three if I would have used all the tools I brought with me and there is still more things I can improve on. I'm not sure if I will have a chance to compete at the national level again because this was the first time this tournament we held in my state but if I do well enough at the local level, I might change my mind. This challenge for me was a good one and I am pretty happy that I was able to train all out for 10 weeks but now starts training for the last local tournament of the year which is about 11 weeks out. 2 Quote Doug In search of the ever elusive side thrust kick.... Student of Karate and Iaido Link to comment
Kishi Posted July 30, 2019 Report Share Posted July 30, 2019 Man, being able to go with some of the best in the world must have really been something. Good for you. I mean, I get feeling like you held something back rather than leaving it all out there (boy howdy, do I get that), but at the same time it's good to know that you've got more in you yet. That's cool, man. I hope the training continues apace and that you're feeling strong and ready when the next shiai rolls around! Quote Work like a farmer, train like an athlete, fight like a soldier. 2 Tim. 2:3-6 BATTLE! Link to comment
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