20 Ways

Not very many people last night. This can potentially be a really great night because it means that the class is like private lessons or it can mean that the night will stretch on for some endless amount of time if Teacher is uninspired. We warmed up on our own and bowed in informally. I was partnered with new kid who moves quickly and ends up causing a lot of pain. To develop our kinesic sense Teacher Slim turned out the lights and we did Rondori for about 15 minutes. Rondori is the slowed downed sparring designed to get the practitioner to focus on technique, balance and such. In the dark you have to focus on contact with your partner so you know when they are hitting or kicking. New Kid tends to move fast with little control and that translates into painful blocks. Everytime I think the bruises in my arms heal I get another. I was under the impression that in time the nerves would withdrawal and the density of the bone would expand to the point that such things wouldn't hurt. My arms go through phases where I think they are getting to the point where they don't have problems with blocking and then it gets worse again. I gather it's not an accumulative process; more towards regular use.

So I partnered with Check and we worked on block that lead a grab that lead to an attack. This is something that we normally do, but teacher Slim was watching and assisting as much as possible.

Teacher Slim. I'm not sure how old he is, but it's got to be somewhere beyond fifty. Permanently jovial, a strange sort of comb-forward with some possible hair color and a Santa Claus belly Teacher Slim would never give you the impression of anyone knowing anything about the martial arts. That would be the worst mistake anyone could make. Teacher Slim learned extremely hard style Karate in the Pacific Northwest from a Japanese teacher that adhered to the hard school approach. You get tough by taking a vigorous pounding. He got his Black belt and started teaching at the age of 18 during the hey day of hippies with ass long hair and construction workers unable to tolerate the same. His stories start with "some guy making comments about my long hair..." Always great with realistic advice about street fights. Teacher Slim went on to get Black belts in some four martial arts. Formidible. He's actually forgotten more than all of us put together will every learn.

The rest of the evening was devoted to practicing the most painful locks standing up that I could tolerate. We from the nerves in the knuckles all the way up to the neck and beyond. I have a peculiar response direct nerve based pain - a jolt of adrenaline and a nipple erection. Who wouldn't love the discomfort! We ended up choking each other out. If I were anymore a pervert I'd be hog heaven with the thoughts of auto-erotic asphyxiation.

By the end of the second hour I figured that we had practiced about 20 ways to cause grievous pain and still remained standing.