Getting beaten by a 76 year old

Last night James had to baby sit so we didn't go to Karate.  I spent a productive time in the garden however, running through bo and sai techniques, escrima drills and the 3 kata I need to do for my grading on Saturday.  At the end my wrists and forearms were aching. 

This morning we went for a 3 miler, up that long, long hill.  No cramp this time.  Then once back:
3 sets of 5 pull ups
2 sets of hanging leg raises (6+6)
Tanren work with the 6lb sledgehammer.  That was hard on the forearms.

Me and Shun then spent 5 minutes on the Thai pads each.

Shower, food and then moped down to the Budokan for Kobudo!

Got there at 9.30 and we trained through till 12.20!  So that's a fair bit of time on sai and bo.  Mostly sai though, the kata of which I now have the basic pattern of.  We did a little bo work at the end, just to get me striking with it correctly. 

We also spent some time looking at power generation, which I'm starting to get, and then a productive half an hour looking at his karate style, which is called Uechi-ryu.  It has a certain Gojo-ryu element, but is more brutal and direct.  His blocks, as he explained, at just blocks, their hooks, and he proceeded to get me to throw a few punches at him. 

It was an experience, his block/hooks ended up closing down my body and placing me at an angle from which he could finish the combat with either a blow to my totally exposed floating ribs or simply by breaking my arms. 

And there was nothing I could do. 

He literally had me exactly where he wanted me: explosed, weak, at his mercy. A hell of a thing and not something I'm used to.  Especially not something I'm used to having happen when it's a 76 year old man doing it to me. 

We also looked at ways of kicking: always with the hips forward and using either the knife edge of the foot of the big toe.  And his big toe is accurate and strong, getting jabbed by it in the ribs hurt!  I showed him my big right side kick, which is a Muai Thai kick, and he idly blocked it and indicated that he could, from that position, strike at my groin.  No sport here, just combat. 

He also has this sort of a grab/palm heel, which works because of his hand conditioning and hurts! Even his thumb is conditioned.  Ridiculous that this little old man with an Andy Cap cap wanders around with the ability to casually destroy. 

I do love Okinawa.

In other news, the tree house is nearly done!  Now has a wall up, floor in and just needs a roof, a sand down and a paint job!  Next step dojo, which should be cool. 

Jujitsu tonight!