Progress

March was an interesting month. In the past, I had reached a rank of 5th Kyu when I was with the Ki Society dojo. Ledyard Sensei said that he recognizes my previous rank so I'm still considered to be a 5th Kyu even though it's been a number of years since I last trained and the testing requirements were completely different. I feel that if my previous rank is going to be recognized, then I should be able to perform the techniques and have the same knowledge as any other person in the dojo would have at the same rank. I asked for permission to take the 6th Kyu test with a couple other people who had started around the same time that I did. I was thankfully allowed to take the test in an unofficial capacity, which basically meant that I wouldn't have to pay the testing fees but could go through the entire testing process. It was a great learning experience and I'm grateful that I was allowed to go through the test. I think that testing is a great yardstick to show you how much you have learned while at the same time still show you where you still need to improve. I'm still enjoy the challenges of this art and always feel good after class. I hope this is something that never changes.

Rounded Squares

It's been about two months since I resumed training and I'm relieved to notice that I'm finally remembering some of the things I had forgotten.  My ukemi continues to improve and I'm rounding off the square corners on my rolls.  I can still get a bit lazy with letting my arm collapse when I get tired and have to do a forward roll, but landing on your head a couple of times has a way of reminding you how important the proper form is.  Mat burn on my bald head would not be a good look.  My body structure is beginning to improve rapidly and is requiring less and less conscious thought.  The end result of all of this is that I'm able to focus more on my connection with my partner and less time worrying about taking the fall or being out of the proper position.  The big thing that I'm still struggling with at this point is being relaxed and not trying to force or muscle through techniques.  It's something that I've always struggled with but I know that, like everything else, this will continue to improve with time and practice.  There's no substitution for time on the mat training.

I have improved enough that I've been invited by Sensei and Alex to begin to attend the open level classes (not just the beginner classes).  I actually plan to attend my first open level class tomorrow evening.  I'm looking forward to meeting some of the other people at the dojo and continuing to improve on the fundamental skills.  Testing for the first kyu rank is coming up next month and I'm hoping that I know all of the required techniques at the appropriate skill level to pass.  Alex said that I didn't need to test in March as I already had a 5th kyu rank from my previous training.  I didn't think this would be the right thing to do as my previous training experience was a long time ago and I feel that I should be able to perform the same techniques to the appropriate level of anyone else with the same kyu grade at the dojo.  We'll have a training prep sometime in the next month and this will be a good gauge of where my skill level is actually at.  I think the hardest thing will be to remember all of the names for the techniques.  I'll know the answer to that soon enough.