Day 32
As it was Thursday, class was in the smaller gym, which in my head means that it should be the easier day. It never is. We started off class with somewhere around 80 hayasuburi, which got the blood flowing really well. It is nice to not be so tired from those as I used to be. We had an interesting combination of instructors today. One was very old, with very broken english. It was hard to understand what he said, but his presence let you know what he meant. The assisting instuctor is about my age, first generation Japanese American. He's a very serious instructor, but also very helpfull and friendly. Odd bit of trivia: he is an engineer at a company that makes hardware for one of my company's products. Small world.
We had a pretty vigorous class and the younger instructor spent a lot of time coming over to myself and another of the "advanced beginners" to help us further refine our technique. I worked on some footwork pointers he had as we went through the class. At one point, he had the "I'm going to come over and talk to you look" as he made his way over to me. He got to me, paused for a few seconds and then said "you know, actually, that was pretty good. Now you just need to do it faster, because you'll be doing it a lot in the advanced class". With such encouragement, I pressed on with renewed vigor! A few minutes later, the chief sensei of the class (he observes the teachers) came over and said I should start staying for about 30 minutes of the advanced class starting next Tuesday. I was very excited, but kept a game face, bowed and said "of course, I look forward to it."
Starting about 30 minutes into class, my left foot started hurting. It was that very familiar blister feeling, so I just sucked it up and kept going. After class, it hurt, but not too bad, as I made my way to the car. 20 minutes later, when I got out of the car to walk upstairs it absolutely killed! I hobbled inside and when Maryanne asked what was wrong with my foot I said, "Oh, just a blister" and held it up for her to see. Maryanne needs to work on her reaction to injury for when our children are older. She exclaimed "OH MY GOODNESS!!!". I was kinda taken aback and looked at the bottom of my foot for the first time. It turns out it wasn't just any blister, but a fairly gnarly blood blister. It was so gross looking that it was actually kinda cool. In fact, I had to take a picture of it. For those of you who don't want to look, its best described as a purple blister, about the size of a silver dollar, in the shape of Africa. For those of you with stronger constitutions, feel free to look here. Two days later, it is a little darker and doesn't hurt anywhere near as much.
One of the great things about Kendo is that it makes your feet look hardcore ;)
We had a pretty vigorous class and the younger instructor spent a lot of time coming over to myself and another of the "advanced beginners" to help us further refine our technique. I worked on some footwork pointers he had as we went through the class. At one point, he had the "I'm going to come over and talk to you look" as he made his way over to me. He got to me, paused for a few seconds and then said "you know, actually, that was pretty good. Now you just need to do it faster, because you'll be doing it a lot in the advanced class". With such encouragement, I pressed on with renewed vigor! A few minutes later, the chief sensei of the class (he observes the teachers) came over and said I should start staying for about 30 minutes of the advanced class starting next Tuesday. I was very excited, but kept a game face, bowed and said "of course, I look forward to it."
Starting about 30 minutes into class, my left foot started hurting. It was that very familiar blister feeling, so I just sucked it up and kept going. After class, it hurt, but not too bad, as I made my way to the car. 20 minutes later, when I got out of the car to walk upstairs it absolutely killed! I hobbled inside and when Maryanne asked what was wrong with my foot I said, "Oh, just a blister" and held it up for her to see. Maryanne needs to work on her reaction to injury for when our children are older. She exclaimed "OH MY GOODNESS!!!". I was kinda taken aback and looked at the bottom of my foot for the first time. It turns out it wasn't just any blister, but a fairly gnarly blood blister. It was so gross looking that it was actually kinda cool. In fact, I had to take a picture of it. For those of you who don't want to look, its best described as a purple blister, about the size of a silver dollar, in the shape of Africa. For those of you with stronger constitutions, feel free to look here. Two days later, it is a little darker and doesn't hurt anywhere near as much.
One of the great things about Kendo is that it makes your feet look hardcore ;)
posted by Bruce at 11:58 AM
2 Comments:
Sweet! It always feels good when a sensei says that a technique looks good. On Friday, one of the younger sensei, who'd been out of town for a few months, told me I have good form, and am very good at coming direct, whereas many beginners come in crooked, or lean clumsily, trying to dodge blows.
And gnarly feet really impress the ladies. ;)
Thanks for the picture of your blister. I think I should make a blog specifially themed for everyday injuries and document them from their conception to final healing.
By the way, did I give yout the bandaid info? I think I did. I hope I did.
Post a Comment
<< Home