Seyunchin

I'm just going to write this all out as it comes out, I won't bother editing it or anything. Today at class we worked on seyunchin bunkai, it was me, sensei, and two other students, one of which I've only worked with once before, a black belt that's pretty strong. We just worked through the kata and application for each movement. Awesome stuff. We stood in a triangle where we'd each take turns attacking each other and we'd practice which ever application we were working on, while Sensei watched and offered tips. The first bunkai we worked on was in the beginning of the kata-where you go into shiko dachi and do the mountain block; you step in and block the punch or whatever it is with both arms and pull it down and to the side, but keep one arm there to the attacker can't turn either way to attack you and simultaneously you strike, he also showed also a couple variations of that, man it would be handy to video record this stuff. The next bunkai in the kata is where you step back into neko ashi-the oh shit stance- and someone is pushing you, you step back bringing their hands down and then you step in and strike to their neck with the blade of your forearm while your hand is wrapped around your fist so that your body is linked. The next part of the kata where you step back and strike with your elbow and your hand over your elbow, we did the bunkai as an arm break, which we practiced on a piece of PVC- which Sensei and one of the senpei broke with their elbow strike, he said it's more of an elbow strike coming up while the other hand is pulling the opposite way. The part of the kata we worked on after, I think is often called the reinforced block, I think we step into the strike blocking it and striking to the head at the same time. He also talked a lot about uraken and age tsuki, I think that's right, and the targets for them and why. Another thing Sensei talked about was not separating the technique into segments, like one, two, which I tend to do I think, but instead it should just be boom, "him down now," no gap! Another bunkai we worked on was they part of the kata where you turn and do a gedan and chudan uke, which is blocking the strike-bringing it down and with the other hand stepping in and doing a rising punch to the chin. Another one in the kata was where you step back into neko and do a furi uchi to the side of the attacker's head, he was explaining also about which part of the hand you attack with, the first knuckle, you put everything into it, which he then demonstrated with a pad on each of our shoulders-using the knuckles and then using just the one knuckle. There's some other things we worked on but that's good for now.

On the way to class I stopped at a grocery store to get a new notebook for karate but they didn't have the kind I wanted so tomorrow I'll buy one, I'm probably going to buy some climbing rope tomorrow also from a fishing and marine supply store, some two inch think manilla rope, I plan on hanging it from my pull up bar and then also finding places to hang it to climb up it, but I figure at first I'll mostly be doing rope pull ups with it until I figure out a good way to hang it somewhere and remove it every time, it should be a killer grip workout.


I'm starting to find that I practice my kata differently than I used to, instead of just running through kata over an over, now I'm more interested in thinking about what is in the kata, and seeing how it works, and not be worrying about if this arm or whatever is exactly in the "right" spot or something.

I went on a good fast run last Friday and Saturday, but I was wicked sore, most of my left left, especially my calf and tendon near my calf, so was my knee and hip a little too; so I haven't ran in a couple days, but I'll be running with a friend tomorrow when karate class is actually, and then I'm leaving Wed. the Peninsula for like ten days so I'll be back around the second of July.