In the South I believe they call it, "code."

I was so cold when I got to beatings that my wedding ring kept sliding off my finger before I even changed out. That's not a bad thing though. A couple of years back I was sparring with a TKD black belt and blocked one of those super kicks poorly and jammed my ring finger. By the end of the evening my finger resembled a small eggplant in color and size. I ended up going to the ER and getting the ring cut off by a laughing nurse who didn't really care about the agony I was going through.

To this day I take my ring off before class. Not very real in respect to a real world confrontation, but the odds of me blocking a super speed TKD kick to the noggin in the real world are pretty slim in my estimation.

After a brief warm up I got partnered with Arms of Steel, but we thankfully didn't do blocks and strikes or my cold shrunk arms probably would have snapped at first contact. We started doing wrist locks and locks into throws. We don't use the Japanese terms here so I'd have to guess at what they are called. Anyway we did a mid practice switch and I got partnered with Beard.

While commiserating with my PT he expressly told me to watch out for Beard since we can end up scuffling. And here I was. Ironically every throw and take down I did was extremely beautiful. Beard remarked how I was keeping my carriage upright and correct (normally I'm off balance a lot). I told him I was being extra careful about my back and we agreed that it might actually be a good thing for once. I took a few falls and they turned out fine. It was a good evening and then we had to go out into the cold and dark. My teeth are chattering as I write this.