Saturday Karate

Of all the training sessions of the week for me Saturday afternoon kata and kumite class is the most solemn and serious. This is not to say that the other classes are not serious - far from it - it's just that Kata class has a heightened feeling of formality and solemnity.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons why over the last few weeks I feel like I've been failing badly during this class. I make it to kata class tired and sore after a week of training, not to mention day to day work, and have found myself doing lazy, inattentive and ineffective karate which my instructors are quick to recognise. Perhaps the sense of occasion makes my failures more acute.

Reading back I see I might be giving the impression that I'm making excuses by saying I'm tired and sore by the time Saturday comes around. I'm not. It's the same for everyone, I'm sure, and probably even worse. Some instructors work full time, have kids, train hard and have bothersome injuries.

This list of my technical problems which seem to manifest themselves more often during this class appears endless and almost every exercise brings a ringing rebuke from my instructors. I have been despairing of myself and wonder what the point of my doing karate is. It wouldn't be so bad if these faults were in the more advanced side of things but they are not. They are basic techniques: poor or non existent hiki te, not punching straight, indifferent or poorly defined stances... the list goes on and on.

Karate is supposed to be a humbling experience and, in the words of someone famous whose name escapes me for the moment, I have plenty to be humble about.