Sensei came back from Cali with the good news that Saturday Sensei has passed his nanadan, which is impressive though not completely surprising.

The heat today was unbearable, and I swear that I was having heart palpitations or something, as the difficulty of my opponents accelerated--mu-kyu kohai, shodan sempai, nidanette, middle-aged sandan, elderly sandan, Sensei himself. Sensei himself seemed to get a run for his money from me: I was able to land some nice semete-kote, and even a kote-men, though I think it's my kote-men which needs the most work.

The contents of today's lesson focused mostly on hitting men with the left-hand--starting with katate menuchi without movement, then morote menuchi with followthrough, debana-men, debana-kote, kirikaeshi, and then kakarigeiko (though Sensei misspoke once and then yelled at us for doing kirikaeshi). Deadly.