Mission Complete/Started

My intention was to make my karate blog a running story of my trip while I was there but there just never seemed to be time to update it while I was a way so I'm going to finish off this trip with a final update.

I was successful in grading to Yondan, 4th degree black belt for people who are not familiar with karate world.

That, however, pales by comparison with the opportunity to train and learn from some of the senior Sensei's in Canada.  While the entire weekend was a phenomenal experience the highlights were definitely the kumite clinic with Sensei Germain Bisson and the Fundamentals (my word) Clinic by Sensei Romualdo Ferri.

The kumite clinic was inspiring and Sensei Bisson's energy was infectious.  I hope I can bring some of that energy and inspiration back to our club to make it even better than it is now.

The fundamentals clinic really put a number of things in perspective as Sensei focused on the seichusen and the tanden and I hope that I can incorporate that into my training.  It's going to be a lot of hard work but I think it will be worth it.

While I love my club and I love my sensei, sometimes you need a different point of view to tell you exactly the same information but in a different way in order for the information to finally click in to your brain.

Now my journey begins again.

Train hard and train often.

Day 1: Complete

Day one was quite an adventure.  I got up at a reasonable hour after a decent night's sleep and headed to the dojo.  Through texting I connected with a fellow karateka who I asked to be my tori when I heard he was helping someone else.  We, and a few others went for breakfast and then headed over to the dojo to be on time.

Then the waiting began.

There were quite a few challenging a number of different ranks on this day which made for a lot of waiting.  Time to let your brain get completely messed up about the things you think you don't know or the things you may have forgotten.

I think the biggest challenge when advancing is to try and stay calm and collected.  Find the mushin.

My turn came and I stepped onto the floor.  I was nervous and had a little trouble remembering to breathe but I feel like I eventually settled down and performed reasonably well. 

Day 2 should be easier since it is mostly just a clinic, I think and while I will likely get picked on it will be more interactive and less a presentation which will help me stay more calm.

More tomorrow.

Ready to Leave

Down to the last few minutes before I go.  Wishing I was on the road.  I hate sitting around doing nothing and just waiting.  I hope I have everything prepared!

Journey to Yondan

Getting in to bed the night before heading to Toronto to challenge my Yondan grading.  I'm tired!  The loss of an hour due to ending daylight savings time has been tiring because now the cats want to be fed at 5:30am and not 6:30am.

It has just clicked over to midnight and I have to leave for the airport at 11:00am.  I hope I'm not forgetting anything.  I'll have plenty of time to double check everything in the morning, thanks to the cats.