Every now and again Sensei tests us with one of those hard and unexpected sweat sessions. Tonight was one of those nights. After an hour of warm-ups and hojo undo, Sensei told us that we’d be doing some traditional hard basics - in memory of An’ichi Miyagi Sensei. According to Okinawan funeral customs, after a person dies their spirit remains in a kind of purgatory on earth for 49 days until it passes into the spirit world. Sensei explained that An’ichi Miyagi Sensei’s spirit would remain with us until the 15th and until that time we’d be doing traditional hard training in his honour.
Yoyogi Dojo. Higaonna Sensei (left), Kazuo Terauchi Sensei(second from right)
I remember the first night we did 1,000 punches at full speed, full power. I was pretty impressed with that effort. Needless to say, after an hour of continuous hard kihon I was starting to feel pretty knackered. By the time we got to punching in shiko dachi I'd given up wondering when the class would end and was concentrating instead just on keeping my 5.30 dinner down. Still I did my best to keep it together and reminded myself of a saying I heard once about spirit training in shiko dachi:
“Mind gives up, body goes up. Legs give up, body goes down”
In other words, if you’ve got enough energy to stand, you’ve got enough energy to train. And, until you’ve collapsed in a heap on the floor or passed out from exhaustion, it's only your head that's holding you back. Easier said than done, I know. I’ve never wanted to pass out so badly. But at the end of the day these are the ‘golden sessions’ – the ones you remember. And, they're only as valuable as you make them.
I remember the first night we did 1,000 punches at full speed, full power. I was pretty impressed with that effort. Needless to say, after an hour of continuous hard kihon I was starting to feel pretty knackered. By the time we got to punching in shiko dachi I'd given up wondering when the class would end and was concentrating instead just on keeping my 5.30 dinner down. Still I did my best to keep it together and reminded myself of a saying I heard once about spirit training in shiko dachi:
In other words, if you’ve got enough energy to stand, you’ve got enough energy to train. And, until you’ve collapsed in a heap on the floor or passed out from exhaustion, it's only your head that's holding you back. Easier said than done, I know. I’ve never wanted to pass out so badly. But at the end of the day these are the ‘golden sessions’ – the ones you remember. And, they're only as valuable as you make them.