Too Fast Too Soon?

I should be at class right now, but a confluence of events has me with one foot in bed. Work has slowed down enough that I thought I would start going back to class, but the always eager desire to skip reared it's ugly head when we had problems at work.  So I literally sat at home waiting for my one employee to call me with updates.  By the time he finished it was past start time and I'm fairly tired from a lack of sleep anyway.

I did go on Tuesday however, and had a reasonable time.  By that I mean I'm so sore laughing actually hurts.  I have to hold my sides.  None of that was from throws, just punching.  My back feels like it has a shell on it, but thankfully my lower back isn't going into spasms.   

There was only three of us which isn't bad, but still makes me ache for the larger class dynamics.  It does mean that Teacher will focus on some hard stuff coupled with advanced technique. 

Cherub, Frenchie and Me warmed up on our own, but Teacher had me do the startup which consisted of punches and strikes.  During my quick notes on Shudos, he pointed out a neat trick for improving the whipping motion. Use a soft toy or light ball to work on the shoulder, elbow, then wrist release.


Rest of the time was using elbow strike in close quarter situation. 

1st - using it as a close in strike following a regular block. 

2nd - using it as an attack into the strikes.  Super painful for the attacker and sets up nice strikes and space for manipulation afterwards. 

Discussion at half time. 

My katas have become flaky as of late.  I told him I'm worried that I might be striving to much.  I have no idea where to limit myself and I'm starting to think I might be beyond my skill level.  He watched my Kong Sang Goon and didn't say anything about not doing it, but really had me focus on something else. 

He suggests a sanshin breathing approach to lower katas to get focus.  Although this isn't novel it did get my attention because I don't want to rush through kata only to get nothing out of them.  Unfortunately, just working on the punch and block was what made me so sore.  Reworking or retooling the basics is very hard work! Relaxing the shoulder, having the punch come so far before the energy is released.  Boom.  And then boom goes the ibuprofen.

Walking Before Kicking

I was speaking to Teacher after the kids class; commenting on their various performances during testing.  I pointed out that many of the kids had trouble with side kicks in that they had poor balance.  I speculated that they maybe hadn't developed enough to do those kicks.  Teacher's response was:

"Hell, most of those kids have only been walking a couple of years;  of course it's tough!"  

I hadn't been to class for over a month and maybe more so I was a bit nervous (when am I not?).  I wanted to protect my slowly healing shoulder and I knew my general fitness was pretty low due to being sick for the last month.  

However, the class had a slow relaxed pace since we have a new gal attending (Frenchie!).   This brings our regular class to the awesome number of four while the kids class has stabilized at 20.  By the time this kids reach the age to participate in the adult class we'll all be too old to take hard falls.

We did two advanced techniques that were worth noting.  The first was our standard arm lock but with a twist I wasn't aware of.  By placing the forearm into the interior of the elbow (the pit?) we found out that the ulna (thumbside) acts as a lever against the nerves on the top of the forearm of your opponent.  Pants wettingly painful.  

The second was a spot behind the knee.  In a close tussle you can drive you knee into that spot with a twist of the leg and the other guy goes flying just to get a way.  Teacher dropped me in a second and then pressed down on the spot further.  I thought I was going to shit myself in an attempt to get away. Good lesson learned.