I have been spending a lot of time at school, and not so much at martial arts. Today is the first Saturday I have spent here on campus and not at martial arts class. It's not necessarily a bad thing. I found out that Freckles and Eraserhead are testing for junior black belt in November so Head Sensei's time is focused on them right now. I thought it was strange that they showed up to a Saturday class. So basically me showing up just gives him another adult to watch the kids, and I don't need that right now. I can use this quiet time to work on my own stuff.
This past Saturday, I went to aiki, and it was the same old crap- teaching ikkajo stuff to people who can barely roll yet. I wish we could get back to the old stuff. I talked with a guy at the black belt meeting a while back about how his aiki class is run. They have a lot of upper belts, not so many sword peoples, so they are struggling with wakizashi work. he says they spend about half the class on basic techniques (which we rarely see, go figure) and the other half on ikkajo stuff. And they spend 5 minutes or so working their wakizashis. I wish we could do that!
In karate I ran into a new kid, who I will call Skittles. He's definintely autistic. He has no concept of space (or walls) and has some balance issues. I got him focused for about 20 minutes, but after that, he became unglued. I kept one hand on his shoulder at all times just to get a feel for what he was going to do next, like throw himself into a wall. Skittles is actually a bright kid and like most six or seven year olds, likes ninja turtles and a has a short attention span. I'd rather work with him than the fuzzy head twins or Punky or any of the other kids that give me crap. At least I get the feeling someone is trying to listen. You can't tell Skittles, "Do a horse stance" instead I say, "Sit in a chair" and boom- there is he is , in a perfect horse stance...for about four seconds.
Nothing's really changed in sword. People are still bumbling through the same katas because a) they don't practice or b) they don't listen. The little senseis' mom drives me crazy. It's like she doesn't have to listen because her kids are shodans. Right. And the kids haven't been to class lately either. Professional Mom and son are taking a break because for some reason, her kid is having trouble handling 4 AP classes...hmm...It'll be a long while before anybody is up for shodan again. Doc and Sneezy are falling apart physically, but they are next in line. It's really a battle to survive in our class, as attendance swells and wanes like a sick yo-yo diet.
Head Sensei, Sword Sensei, and I talk a bit after class about the state of things. I politely voiced my concern (and frustration) at the way certain techniques have been ignored in favor of learning the new stuff. Me, I actually need that stuff for my next rank, and I have nobody close to me to work them. I asked if it'd be alright next time if I could take short sensei (this is what I will call him until I remember his original nickname) and we could just work all this crap out for a whole class by ourselves. Head Sensei insisted on us taking Goth Kid, who just got his first rank. What the hell. He's got one whole set of ranks he's probably never even seen yet before he's up to our level. He needs to work his own stuff first- I don't care if he's the only good uke we got.
Head Sensei also mentioned that he wanted to "get me to nikyu"- which is a not-so-subtle hint that I have to get off my ass and make my katas look presentable after these blackbelt tests. It's nice to know he still thinks of me every once in a while, with the traffic jam at the brownie ranks. Wheezy kid and Owl are next (and what is wrong with Owl's mother? Taking a kid 100 miles for a karate class when there's 100 around your new hometown is just blatant "I just want the black belt")- but they are awful young. Wheezy still cries when he gets hit, and Owl is just awful. After that is Lazy Girl- she'll test when Hell freezes over. I'm next in line. Damn. They also mentioned how my ni-dan in iai is coming up "soon"- whenever that is, and I still had some time yet, but it comes up "sooner than you think." Eep.
In two or three weeks, no clue what day it is here), Head Honchi Sensei is doing the tests, plus having iai and aiki clinics. It should be good, provided the kids don't misbehave again (Owl, this means you). Last time, they were so cranky, and I don't blame them. It took 6 hours. Hopefully after that weekend I'll have a better idea of where I should be.
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