Now that was weird.

Arrived at the dojo in a strange dreamy mood that felt a bit suspicious. It may have been the backswing from yesterday's racing thoughts but I'm not sure. Anyway, it was an all-grades workout, not strenuous anyway at all (good thing because I'm a little out of shape, and my right knee is still giving me slight trouble). What made it even more unreal was that sensei (we just call him by his first name) picked a highly obscure beginner's form for today, so I felt a bit like a newbie. If you want to see a technically demanding traditional Shotokan kata, here's world champion Luca Valdesi with Gankaku ('Crane on a Rock'):

 http://youtube.com/watch?v=t_XQ--WU8ZM

However, if you got bored after the first few seconds into that classic form already, here's a superb & spectacular musical freestyle kata featuring Chloe Bruce:

 http://youtube.com/watch?v=ofI1G5MaYsI

It's my turn to lead the group on Thursday, and I'll definitely do some easy sparring practice just to let my scruffy Inner Baby Tiger out of the cage a bit. Forms are fine but I need a little more to get the adrenaline going, cough cough, wheeze wheeze.

After showers, it was the cafeteria of the sport center we train in, just a few guys & girls plus a couple of kids. Karate shop talk, friendly bullshitting; I still felt strangely calm. Oh well... this post isn't going anywhere. Hope you enjoyed the vids.