Karate lesson #3

Well, success again this week. No falling over.

We've learnt some punches, some kicks and, some blocks.

Im biologically at a disadvantage for the short stomache punch as you need to put your elbow in to your stomache.. only.. well.. as a female, there are 2 "glands" which get in the way..

We do stomache punches, head punches, back hand head level punches, back hand sideways punches, short stomache punches, rising elbow punches and.. round elbow punches...we then do front kicks, side kicks, round kicks and back kicks. (the kicks not too surprisingly I do very well given Im flexible, but without the balance is when Im most likely on the floor)

we do head blocks, inside hook blocks, outside hook blocks, downward blocks and sweeping blocks.

While that sounds like a lot of stuff, its generally announced "do this" and then we do like 10 of them, and maybe 10 faster, or 10 of something else and then swap back.. this is ok

what is harder is we are now being taught to do them and move. So things like bounce back and forth on your feed and then punch.. believe it or not, its amazing how many ways there are to mess that up!

We are also being taught our first kata, katas are like a routine. This first one has around 20 moves in it, and while all are made from one of the above...remembering which is next, which foot/hand to move..what to do with the rest of you..oh and when trying to turn 270 degrees of course, not fall over.. this is actually surprisingly hard.

We've learnt the first moves they go something like

stand, turn 90 degrees left and block with left hand in a lower block,
step forward and punch
turn 180 and block with right hand in a lower block
step forward and punch
turn 90 degrees left and block lower block with left and
step forward punch
step forward punch
step forward punch and shout
270 degree turn and block with I think right hand.. gets a bit mushy here
and I think stepforward and punch..

Well I found this link .. you tell me how good I remembered!