Last night was kata night. We nailed our current kata and are on track to get our blue belts on the 18th. Super-excited.

Of course, 75 push-ups made me realize I really need to work on my push-up form. I don't get nearly low enough.

Ok, I have to share this funny story about class last night. We were practicing our fluidity of going from one kick to another, in this case side kick, spin, and side kick again. When my turn came I did my first kick, spun and BAM, my braid whacked me right across my eye and cheek. I was stunned. I had to stop, check myself and then just started laughing along with everyone else that noticed what had happened.

It welted but it's fine now. This is why I try to wear my hair in a bun each and every class. I forgot my extra rubber band for a bun and that was the result. Note to self, put plenty of extra rubber bands in gear bag. LOL

I've not checked in this week yet! Monday I did some teaching at our club's newest group, we had 5 new members at once (this never happens) and only 3 regular members (me and my 2 boys) so we split the group between the three of us and taught some basics, with Sensei supervising.
Wednesday was Bo staff. I love Bo but I'm 5ft tall and the Bo is 6ft so it can be hard to handle. I learned a new kata and started a second though so I'm happy with that.
Thursday was a mix of basics, padwork (kicks) and kata. I have my 1st kyu grade tomorrow morning

There has been talk this week about a joint class between our karate and kobudo clubs sometime in December (we train in the same hall and there are a few members who train at both). It would be awesome to do some cross-over of the styles and my younger son is keen to try some weapon stuff with his big brother. Our karate club also has a cross-over lesson at the end of this month with a local judo group. I'm a bit old to be throwing myself around a mat so I'll leave that one to the kids I think!

I spent part of my lunchtime workout stretching and part of it practicing my kicks and double kicks.

They have a big padded thing similar to that video Soy posted a while ago. I rarely see anyone use it. I took my gym shoes off and kicked my heart out. I'll have to do that more often! Once I get my sparring gear I can use it to practice my punch/kick combos too. They don't allow you to use it for punching without gloves.

Boy oh boy, did I get a lot of funny looks from the bodybuilders in that area!

Passed my 1st kyu grading today with a grade 1 (highest possible grade). I'm very pleased with myself. And my youngest son passed his 3rd kyu so now all three of us are brown belts
My eldest son took part in a kobudo demonstration in a Japanese festival at the local University, I'm super proud of him for doing that in a crowded hall, he's never even entered a kata competition before. It's been a busy day for us!

Basics and sparring for us last night. We did the usual mix of basic kicks/punches, a bit of padwork and then some work on competition sparring. I was pleased to see how much confidence my youngest has gained just by putting on a brown belt .
My older son had a bit of a shock when he was matched with a white belt who's the same height but 3-4 years older than him. They were very well matched but the older boy had the edge when it came to maturity, my son got angry when he lost a point that really could have gone either way and couldn't get his composure back so ending up losing to the other boy. After a busy weekend I think it all got too much for him and he ended up in tears on the toilet floor with a couple of the black belt men trying to talk him round. Because he's 6 foot tall and built like a tank it's sometimes easy to forget that he's only 14 years old, but sometimes the little boy in him still comes out. He learned a valuable lesson that he needs to keep a lid on his temper!