Jacquie Tran

Lost tonight, 7-4. Thought I played about as well as I could have given the circumstances (we had no subs due to an early injury, so the whole team was pretty fatigued by half time); had lots of shots on goal, and put in a few good stops there, but just too hard to stop them all going in with the sheer number of good shots coming at me. So I had a lot more work tonight than I usually do, but it felt good to sweat it out a little after pulling up tight from Monday’s karate class.

Strong focus on kata tonight, with renraku 4 and a little kumite thrown in there as well. Felt quite fatigued through the warm up; I’ve noticed that sometimes, when I focus too much on maximum effort with my strikes, I forget to breathe! Once we had a short break, my energy was restored and I felt pretty strong throughout the whole session. Only three sessions before grading!

In today’s class, we focused on renraku 3 and 4, and also did some kata. Feeling more comfortable sitting low with a longer back stance, but tonight I spent quite some time grappling with my footwork and alignment in Pinan Sandan. In particular, I struggle with the middle sequence where alignment is so crucial and can so easily drift away from the optimal straight line. I wasn’t able to consistently hit my spots. Sometimes I was losing balance forward and over my toes, sometimes I had trouble propelling into kiba dachi with my weak glutes, sometimes I overcompensated and ended up with one foot 5 cm out of alignment with the other in kiba dachi.

After about 20 minutes of this, I was getting very frustrated because despite all my efforts, I didn’t feel like I was any closer to smoothing out my transitions between sequences in the Pinan Sandan kata. The words of Scott Sonnon occurred to me, that initially, one’s experience of martial arts is about learning how to stop someone else’s attacks. But as you learn more about the underpinnings of martial arts, and begin to attain mastery, you realise that martial arts is not about learning how to stop someone else in a fight - it’s about learning how to stop the fight within yourself.

Although I finished up today’s class with a tinge of frustration from a lack of reward for my efforts in Pinan Sandan, I am focused on how I can take forward what I’ve learnt today; how do I stop the fight within myself? How do I stop self-limiting and free myself to enjoy the trial and error process, to embrace compounding failures in my pursuit of incremental progress towards success?

Really felt like I needed to be the gym tonight, more than I wanted to be…my reco knee has been feeling a little tweaky the last week, and I know it’s because my movement efficiency is getting out of whack. I think the most uncomfortable thing in today’s set was nothing to do with the strength work…it was the quads and ITB rolling! SO MANY TRIGGER POINTS.

WARM UP
X-Trainer 5 min @ L7
Traps release
Kneeling hip flexor stretch

MAIN SETS
Lat pulldown (3 x 8 @ 37.5 kg)
Goblet squats (3 x 15 @ 1 x 20 kg DB)
SADB row (1 x 10 @ 1 x 15 kg DB)
KB Sambo swings (3 x 15 @ 1 x 16 kg KB)
DB incline bench press (3 x 10 @ 2 x 10 kg DB)

COOL DOWN
Glutes release
Hip flexor release
Quads and ITB rolling
Kneeling hip flexor stretch
Traps release
Pecs stretch
Calf stretches

I have been neglecting my mobility work over the last couple of months. Have felt a lot of tightness in the same old places - shoulders, neck, hips - and while I haven’t felt restricted in my movements at karate, I know it’s only a matter of time before I get myself into trouble by being slack with my movement maintenance work.

MAIN SETS
Traps release
Thoracic extension stretch with foam roller
Glutes release
Glutes stretch
Hamstring stretch with side bend
Prasara yoga: forest flow
Kneeling hip flexor stretch

Base moves and kumite was the focus of tonight’s session. There’s a new black belt who has joined the class; though we are lucky to have a really positive group and a good mix of skill levels, it’s nice to have a different energy in the mix. Though I was sorely outclassed, it was fun to do some controlled sparring with her. Also got the opportunity to spar with two of the brown belts. Again outdone for speed and skill (as I should be given my rank), but pleased to have had the opportunity nonetheless. Hoping I don’t have to fight them in my grading though!

We won! 3-2. It was a close call, but we managed to eke out the win. Was very sore from my power training on Tuesday night, but once I got warmed up I didn’t notice my soreness too much. Still feeling pretty tight now though!

Good sesh tonight! In these last few weeks before grading, my plan is to top up for hip and upper body strength, and maintain hip mobility, with the aim of maximising my power outputs at grading.

WARM UP
X-Trainer 5 min @ L7
Traps release

MAIN SETS
Lat pulldown (3 x 10 @ 35 kg)
Incline DB bench press (1 x 10 @ 2 x 7 kg DBs, 1 x 10 @ 2 x 8 kg DBs, 1 x 5 @ 2 x 10 kg DBs)
SA high row in deep lunge (3 x 10 @ 11.25 kg)
Goblet squat (1 x 10 @ 20 kg)
KB swings (3 x 15 @ 16 kg)

COOL DOWN
Power chamber exercises
Modified candlesticks
Traps release
Pecs stretch

Worked on renraku 1-3 and kata tonight. Starting to feel less awkward in a longer stance, which is always a good sign of progress. Sensei is close to selecting a date for grading; it’ll be sometime near the end of June, which gives me an extra 1-2 weeks on what I thought I would have to prepare :)

A strong focus on technique tonight, spending the bulk of training on renraku 1 and 2, and also performing solo kata in front of the class. Aside from kata-specific movements that need some work, the overall message from Sensei was to work on maintaining longer stances and sitting lower to the ground when in stance. Easy to say, hard to do! I found my legs fatiguing very quickly with a small positional adjustment! Lots of work ahead in the next 5 or so weeks to really get myself right for what will be my hardest grading yet.

Another draw tonight, 4-All. Not winning sucks! Draws are the worst idea in sport. I would prefer to lose than to draw haha… Hopefully we’re back with a win next week before our bye :)

Worked on renraku 1 and 2, both in the ippon kumite context and with application in free sparring. I really enjoy the rhythm and intensity of the renraku, and I feel like my skill set is slowly expanding to give me more options when sparring. Looking forward to working on my multiplanar movements over the next year and onwards, to really take my sparring to another level.

Drew tonight, 3-all. Really should’ve got the win but we let this one slip, giving up 3 goals in the second half. Feels like the team has been in a bit of a slump for the past few weeks, so hopefully we can get back to winning next week because that’s much more fun :)

We have about 6 weeks until grading, so the focus of our classes has definitely shifted to being much more technical. We worked on solo kata tonight. Sensei Dave and Sensei Dawson gave me a few things to work on:
- Getting lower in my stance and keeping it low throughout my kata.
- Refining my rotationary movements to maximise power, e.g., in my uchi uke.
- Value speed with control, rather than just pushing for speed through my kata.

Am having some issues with my footwork and alignment in Pinan Sandan. It was bothering me a lot tonight, and I wasn’t quite able to get on top of it before the end of class. Sensei wants me to focus on lengthening my stance by a few centimetres, keeping my front knee pressed forwards, staying low throughout the kata (especially the transitions!).

During our warm up, I copped a little knock to the lateral ligaments of my ankle when I performed a front kick and it was blocked by a classmate. I think his wrist jammed into the soft spot just anterior of my ankle, and now the left ankle is pretty sore! Should be alright with a bit of movement and extra care over the next few days :)