Training week...

Back to training after the holidays is always a good feeling! You might say that there is never a 'holiday' from training as it is a constant process. I did indeed pick up a bokkuto over my break and slipped in other elements of my training, but I enjoyed kicking back and pandering to my children's needs!

So back to it!

Monday was Shorinji Kempo training which was a good learning session! I was injured slightly on my thumb which is a pain (in more ways than one)... as I'm constantly reminded by the niggling pain in my hand when implementing the techniques and I think my practice suffers somewhat. I try to push it out of mind in order to get a full training session.

We white belts were spoiled to have a Japanese Dan grade take us through our syllabus which is:

Goho.
-Uchi uke zuki
-Mae ryusui geri
-Ushiro ryusui geri
-Uwa uke geri

Juho.
-Kote nuki
-Yori nuki
-Gyaku gote
-Ude juji

I don't know what it is about languages. I'm really a good linguist: I speak fluent French and have good working (basic) knowledge of Dutch, German and Swedish but when it comes to plugging in a Japanese name to the correct part of my brain which tells me what those moves actually are I seem to undergo a short circuit! I know the techniques quite well but fire the name at me in Japanese and I stumble and stutter! Well I'll just have to comit them to memory. The solution is to reinforce these names over and over again till it's second nature. I don't want to get to a grading and show myself and my teacher up so I WILL learn them. I know people who, for example, say: "I don't do DIY because I'm no good at it". That's rubbish frankly. We're not born with a predisposition for or against something. Some people may have a natural ability for that subject but in the face of a difficult subject that has to be conquered then applying oneself thoroughly and systematically will help! To give in and say: " well I'm no good at it" is just laziness. Work hard at it and it'll come.

Hmmm, let me see. Free Japanese lessons.......