Back to basics

A few days ago, I wrote about signs of adulthood over at Geek Buffet. One sign a friend contributed to the overall list was, “I miss homework because I know it helps me learn.” At karate last week, I experienced a similar feeling. I miss basics, because they allow to work on one particular thing, over and over, without having to worry about what comes next.

This thought was inspired by the fact that the sensei assigned me to spend the entire evening, after warm up, on the very beginningest of beginning level kata, and I was grateful, rather than embarrassed. I worked hard on those Taikyoku Shodan through Sandan, and I was more worn out at the end of the night than I had been on other nights when I’d been working on learning Unsu as a new kata. I once heard a high level black belt say that one of the hardest and most exhausting things you could do was work on the Taikyokus, and he was right. I found myself really able to finally concentrate on my stances, which have gotten woefully short and sloppy in the past 8-10 years of irregular to nonexistent training, and on retraining myself to open my body for blocks, rather than keeping it square as for punches, which is how I originally learned it and what my muscle memory always reverts to when I’m not paying attention. And I fully understand that these things will make my prestigious black belt kata far, far better.

By the end of the night, I felt like I had accomplished more actual personal improvement than I had in months. Sadly, I also discovered that my legs are horribly out of shape, because getting a good, deep zenkutsudachi requires a lot more thigh strength than you think. All those people last year who said, “Oh, you’re taking tai chi? You’ll get such strong legs!” had no idea what they were talking about. The tai chi class was fun, certainly, and I’m glad I did it, but it didn’t push me physically at all. Progress is painful. I’m remembering that fun sore-muscles-because-I-was-doing-something feeling.

Now I just need allergy and asthma season to be over so I can start having enough lung capacity to bring any sustained power to my techniques. A hope for the future. Given sensei’s recent fascination with fast paced drills, I hope the future comes soon.