Sliding and testing

Right now, I’m working on the Gekisai Dai Ichi and Ni because I need to work out all of the details which I wasn’t taught. First, I work on sliding my feet when I perform any kata or any drills. Once we were sliding sideways and went the opposite direction on each count. Sensei was telling us to keep our feet on the floor and slide. However, I always lift my lead foot when I slide because my foot sticks. So, when I was trying to keep my foot on the floor and slide, I fell over because my foot stuck. This week, I’ve been trying to figure out why my foot always sticks. I think it’s because I put too much weight on my lead foot when I slide. I also found out that it’s easier to slide when I have my knees bent. In my old dojo, I know they slide; however, Sensei didn’t specifically tell me to slide. So, I always lifted my feet instead because it wasn’t emphasized.

I’m getting better at karate slowly but surely. I thought that I would have already tested and get my current kyu or one higher. Just recently I finally figured out why I haven’t tested yet, it’s because I need to work on my Gekisai kata and learn the bunkai. I know that if I stayed with my old dojo, I’d be 5th kyu or higher by now. However, I trust my new Sensei because I’ve seen the difference between his black belts and Chinen’s black belts. Gene Villa’s brown belts are like black belts to me. I know that his black belts perform kata better than Chinen’s new and high black belts. I know that Sensei Chinen promoted his students way too fast. Probably, he promoted me too fast too.