Returnees

So last night was pretty exciting. By this I mean that Check and Teacher Slim returned. Check just stopped in for a visit to let us know that she was alive. Teacher Slim however remained the whole evening. Which, in reality, is a mixed bag. His eye is extremely sharp for the things that I need to work on and he's okay with telling me about it. He also demos moves to the fine edge of screaming pain. He has never hurt me, but he sure can make me yelp on occasion.

So I got partnered with Nutbag again last night. Which is fine, but at the end of the night I figured out why he ends up frustrating me so. It was like when I was working out with Beard - they both don't like to do the regular exercises over and over. Which, is unfortunate for me, because I need to do those basics over and over in order to learn them. After awhile Beard got over it and started focusing on technique and he became one of my favorites to work with. Now Teacher appears to be partnering me with Nutbag regularly. Could this be another test for me? I imagine Teacher sitting back and thinking deeply about who needs what and when, but in reality it''s probably pretty impulsive. I suppose in his position I would try to rotate us as much as possible.

First hour was blocks. Then blocks with continuous movement; like getting behind the elbow and making a larger circle to draw the opponent off balance. Lots of kicks, but mostly inside and outside crescent. I had a lot of correction from Teacher Slim. Mostly embarassing stuff about not using my hips. I felt like a new guy again. Unable to use my hips in the timing properly.

I asked Teacher and Teacher Slim about going to the big city dojo and how to handle that. My excitement is waning a bit because I think it's going to be less exciting than I'm hoping. Aikido, which is the style at the school I want to visit, requires the participant to give him/herself to the person executing the move so it can be learned properly. This is my problem with Nutbag. He appears to think that every moment is to be treated as a conflict to be dealt with. Beard still does this to a degree, by not giving much up in terms of attack. However, they might be more realistic than the practice in Aikido where you have two people who have made an agreement to participate in a exercise. We shall see. The timing and movements in Aikido are so beautiful and the locks are the same as we use.