Old/Kendo/Doing things with Sonnyboy
OYE OYE OYE!
Or should I just say - OOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!
Aidan I started taking a kendo class , well, yesterday and I quickly realized several things.
- I'm out of shape.
- I'm old.
- I can get hurt a lot more easily than I did before.
I had always thought I was in decent shape and could jump in with both feet into almost anything physical. Well, okay, I was wrong. SUE ME! 
My shoulder blades, my left elbow(was hurting before I went in), and most especially - my left calf. That's simply a block of wood. Walking around with a nice little limp today. If that doesn't make you feel older than dirt, I don't know what does.
The studio is in a firehouse, but it doesn't lack for anything as far as training and expertise. Church Sensei is about 4'10" and MAYBE 95 lbs and there is NO Way I would cross swords with this lady. I've always been someone who believed in energy/power/ki/chi that is possible if cultivated and practiced. I've come across some sensei before who oozed out of their pores - she's definitely on the list.
It was a good class tho - lots of higher and middle ranked people. Church Sensei made us watch two classes before signing up, and it made me feel better - they want to make sure you're serious before you start. So last night was really interesting for me. Of course, I started sweating within about 5 minutes while my son was mostly dry by the end of the whole thing. We did some warm ups and broke down the basic cuts into really simple drills. One, where you drive off the back foot, swing, drive back off the front foot and repeat 20 times is when I felt my calf fist up into a solid mass. F&*K it hurt!!
I didn't want to distract Aidan from his practice, so I managed to soldier through the class. Yeah, I didn't want to totally embarrass myself either, but so what! Learned the proper stance, steps and a few cuts - just enough to give us stuff to practice at home until we go back next week.
I have to say I'm really excited to do this with Aidan, not only because I think it's cool and so does he, but I think we're both pretty excited about doing this together. Looking forward to going home tonight and practicing soccer with Gillian and Kendo with Aidan.