Well, this class got started yesterday. The first ten minutes made it seem like it was going to be a repeat of Monday, but it seems that traffic on I-95 had made the instructor late. We were fine waiting for him, we passed the time by Matt and Zach teaching us how to count to 10 in Japanese and stretching a bit. The reason he didn't show up yesterday is that he was told to show up at the gym at 1:10 pm instead of 10:30. Hmm, seems like somebody screwed up with communication here.

So, after a little chat with us campers about who he is and asking us about our martial arts experience, our instructor (who I will refer to from this point on as sensei for the reason that I'm writing about a karate class here and that I don't exactly remember his real name....oops.) took us outside to an area near some section entrances to the Pavilion (That's where all the athletic games like basketball and hockey take place FYI.) and put us through some running barefoot to warm us up, making us count to 10 in Japanese while we were doing this. Then after that we learned how to execute a standard punch in karate. While we were practicing our punches, sensei went around the group testing to see if our form was correct by seeing if he could push us back. You see, he said that if our form on our punches were correct, he wouldn't be able to.

Next, we practiced our punches on our own for a minute, then we learned how to execute mae geri, known in English as a front kick. We practiced that with sensei for a while in several ways that involved variations of stances and the length of time we extended the kick before bringing it back in to the chamber (The chamber is when your lower leg is bent and pointing towards the ground when your leg is up above the ground.). Then we practiced our mae geri against a wall so we could start to learn one of the main reasons of karate, self defense.

Our last technique we learned was a throw over our shoulder. We first watched him several times practice with Zach, then some of us got volunteered to be thrown by Zach. After this we got a partner and practiced it with our partner for about 10-15 minutes. When we were back together we demonstrated our throws before the class ended and we headed for lunch.