Interlude/Segue

I sat down on Wednesday to write about Tuesday's class and couldn't bring anything up that was overly interesting or fun to jot down. I think what has happened is that I'm really getting interested in keeping detailed notes of what I learned and I'm finding out that I don't have the ability to capture what has occurred in writing.

I really started this blog with the intent to work out my petty peeves from class. I'd found an avenue in which to explore the issues that were nagging at me and really making going to class a chore. What I found was that I take a lot of what happens as personal and if I didn't learn to get over it really quickly my desire to learn was always going to be overshadowed by the inability to deal with my classmates. Having the small community of folks on the web has been integral for me dealing with this and growing beyond it. This is not say it'll never be an issue in the future, but I' d like to think it'll be easier to get my head around and then work out constructively.

What I'm really trying to say in long-winding fashion is a deep heart felt thanks to anyone who's ever read this and commented.

We had a full class of 6 folks for the first time in a year last night. Everyone was in good spirits and the complexity of the moves are continuing to increase each night. Last night we continued our focus on cat stance. Simple and frustrating at the same time. We'd fall back under attack into a stance doing a double knife hand strike. After the chop we grab the arm, slide our rear leg forward between the Uki's legs, elbow strike to chin, continue rotation of torso and do a quick elvis leg twitch and Uki goes flying. So fun we couldn't stop!

New guy! I'll call him Priest. Cook's wife is going to start Lamaze so we'll miss him on Thursdays. I wonder what will happen when the baby comes. I imagine he'll disappear.

Flying Chokes

I believe I'm becoming a connoisseur of chokes. I think it was the 10th or 12th time last night where the incessant adolescent giggling started kicking in following the adrenaline kick that attends the end of the tunnel which we call consciousness.

I hate missing class now. Teacher has been motivated lately to show us some more advanced moves and Me and Cook are eating it up with a spoon. So being gone for a week to visit the parents was tough in two ways - I missed class and I fell behind on a couple of new moves.

Teacher is actually building on skills from class to class in a regular fashion!

The three moves we did last night:
Uki makes the punch. At the same time shoot to the outside of punch. Rotate so your back to back. During rotation curl hand behind to face and drive chin up and then down. Uki goes boom.

Uki makes the punch (right hand). Tori makes right hand outside capture at wrist. Tori drives left hand up under Uki's arm and goes to back of neck on Uki. With a rotation of position, pull Uki's arm up and head down. Then Pick up closest leg and wrap around Uki's head and simply step down. Uki goes down or rolls out.

Uki makes the punch. Tori passes to outside and wraps his arm around neck and punching arm in downward posture (unusual catch). Forearm to neck on grab to start choke. Tori sits down to start tominagi (sp?) and Uki flips onto back. Tori scissors legs and lays on Uki's shoulder and head completing choke.

Today my neck feels like it has a 2nd degree burn all away around, but it was an awesome way to get it. I've got to get video of this stuff because I can't describe it save my life!

Off Thursday because I'm flying over to the mainland for work. Next week!

Fighting Children

And by this title I don't mean two minors fight while I bet with other adults on the outcome. No, I mean this in the literal sense.

The adult class which is always struggling to maintain it's membership beyond a few people looked pretty sad last night. Check and Beard didn't show so it was just me and Cook. However, we had a graduate from the kids class. This gal is the younger sister of Arms of Steel. AOS has left for college, but the legacy remains.

So as Teacher explained some of the differences in the two classes Cook and I continued to warm up on our own. I couldn't help but notice the juxtaposition - both Cook and I are over 6 feet in height and Little AOS is about 4'5" and about 90 pounds.

So we did some blocking drills. I was partnered with her and while we did this I noticed the size of her fists! I know I don't have the biggest hands, but hers appeared to be close in size to mine. I enjoyed this until we went into block, block, punch drill. She doesn't mind making contact and she put those mini-hams right into my floating ribs. Ouch! Damn upper cut from tiny people.

She took off at half-time, so Teacher worked with us on a move I don't remember ever doing before. Attacking into an attack in nothing new, but he fused about three moves into one. We would lock out the same side attacking arm, coming over the top and grabbing behind the elbow. At the same time we'd have to reach across with the other hand move the head of Uki around and get the palm under the jaw line. By this time Uki is off balance and with the rear leg we'd slide into a slightly deeper zenkutsu and Uki goes over easy. From there we can go into an arm lock or elbow lock.

In conclusion small children with big fists are dangerous to lower ribs and I had some backsliding on the apology problem. I said, "I'm sorry" about twelve times.

I'm on vacation for the next week. Visiting Parents in the East.