I did indeed go back to the new karate school last night, and I actually got to participate in the class this time. It helps to have not gotten lost on the way there, so I was actually early this time instead of late. Stupid directions. It’s actually really easy to get there; there was no reason for me to have driven all over Cary last time. Moving on…
It’s always weird being the new person coming in to an established school when you’re not really a beginner, because you supposedly know all the same basic stuff, but you don’t know how they do things there. And so it started for last night’s class. When I got there, there were only two other people there for the adult class (the others came in a little late), and of course, they were both lower rank than me, so I was supposed to lead, which was weird, because of course they know what’s expected as the warm up sequence far better than me. Fortunately, it was easy enough to respond quickly to what the sensei was telling us to do. So that wasn’t bad at all.
But then we got to the part where we’re doing kata as a group, and I became clearly the odd one out. It’s not that they do different kata there than I learned, or that I didn’t remember. It’s that the cadence is different. Every school has a certain standard rhythm for their kata, particularly the ones that are in a series of similar ones, (in this case, the Heians.) Given that I practiced those same kata over and over and over again for something like 10 years, my muscle memory of the cadence I learned is pretty strong. I’d clap it out for you, but that doesn’t translate very well via text.
This new school, needless to say, does not use the same rhythm, nor really even the same counts for the moves. Some schools interpret this more complex move as one count, others as two, etc. As a result, I kept finding myself a step ahead, or behind, or not having my hands not quite where everyone else’s were, or in a front stance instead of a back stance because this school interprets this move slightly differently. Oh, and the sensei is Egyptian, so his Japanese is much differently accented than my brain is expecting, and I haven’t quite figured out his kata counting method, because he doesn’t seem to progress to numbers above 5 in any given sequence. So I kind of stuck out as the one who didn’t fit that night. Fun, fun.
However, I did have a good time. It felt so good to be practicing Shotokan again! Despite the little differences between this school and my old one, it’s still clearly the “right” style. Those little things are really the same thing you get adjusting to any new teacher, and I’ve dealt with that before. In fact, one of the times I was caught hesitating in a kata was because I had, even in my old school, learned 3 different endings for it, and I wasn’t sure which one they did here. I will adjust to this, no problem.
Oh, and the talented trio were there again, but they’re very absorbed in training individually for a tournament next week, so I didn’t end up in a situation where I had to compare myself to them. I don’t think it will be so bad. I did realize my endurance is all shot right now, though. How sad. Oh, for the days of my black belt test, when I threw 1800 kicks in 45 minutes and felt fine. Something to work on, I guess. And next time, I will remember to take water.
No more reports on karate until next month, since I won’t officially start really going to classes until then. Some interesting blog-worthy things coming up in the next week anyway, though, so don’t worry.
