That's what happened yesterday at Shiramizu's year end training session. It took place in a big community centre gym in the neighbouring Satte city. There were actually two sessions though, the first one in the morning for younger kids (ie- 7 and under) and one in the afternoon for anyone older. The younger kids weren't subjected to 1000 punches but they did do 120 squats haha....... And I got to dress up as Santa to hand out treats!!! Below is me (I'm a karate Santa; note the black belt haha) handing treats out to the kids from my............ box........ oh well heh....
The 1000 punches, though, was rewardingly interesting. Obviously it starts off as a daunting task, especially since they're done in counts of 10, with one person doing one 10 count each. With 15 in a row, it's freaky to realise you STILL have to go through half the rows available to get to 900. From 900 onward, the row in the back (for adults and regular high school students), do the last 100. And you kiai on every single punch........ and it's in naihanchi stance which is like straddling an exercise ball with your feet pointed slightly inwards.
The first, like, 300 aren't too bad. You just go at it through sheer determination and try not to focus on the fact that you're barely 1/3 of the way through. From 300 to 500, the autopilot kicks in, it starts to become physically straining work, and my legs started to hurt.
But from 500 onward, something amazing happened- my punches actually become faster! With your muscles fatigued, there's no longer any tension to slow your arm down and since all power is generated from your body/hips and not your arm, it absolutely flies. It's a really weird sensation when you're not trying any harder yet your arm is moving faster and faster. It's also one of those things that is always being taught (speed through relaxation, power through speed) but one can never do until they stumble upon the "feeling" of having done it right.
Then I hit 800 and started to feel like I was floating....... THEN I hit 950 and it was my turn to count to ten, and it came out all hoarse and strained. Yeah, that's what happens when you kiai 950 times and then try to project to the whole gym haha........
But all in all, it wasn't too bad when I finished. It took about 15 minutes to do it all and that averages almost exactly to 1 punch every second. Sweet...........
The training ended off with me finding out some clubs do 1000 kicks- 500 per leg. Hardcore haha........
2 comments:
You were in the zone! Good 4 U.
Thanks for inviting me to your blog. It was lovely meeting you and getting to know you briefly. I'm finally home and catching up, including reading your blog.
Your uncle and I were talking about how thoughtful and insightful many of the postings are... You have quite a bit of psychology in there! I'm actually quite impressed. Maybe the next time it happens, I'll post the name of the psych phenomenon you identified intuitively.
BTW, I have a great pic of your dad & uncle at Asakusa. If you send me your email, I'll send it to you.
In the meantime, I'll keep checking in for the Japanese lessons.
Thanks again. I'm already looking forward to hearing more!
-A
Hey, great to hear from you! Hope you had a fun time in India hehe.....
I'm quited surprised that you'd be impressed with my essentially accidental psychology observations haha.....
To be honest, I went through all my old posts and I have no idea where you spotted so much psychology haha..... But you're the expert on it, so I trust you =)
But I'm glad that people find them insightful. With the blog, I'm really trying to convey the bits and pieces of living here, not just "I did this" and "I did that".
Anyways, my email is Blue_Stu@hotmail.com . If you have some spare time, it'd be great if you could point out some of my accidental phenomena. I'd be really interested in reading it! Thanks =).
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