Pull-start Mower

It feels like a good day to type.  I missed Monday evening due to visitors, but back at it today.  Partner drills were on the schedule, so Bill and I got to it.  

We decided to work on Sam Soo Sik (three step sparring).  I can't think of much that I retained from last week, but after one example with me being the attacker I was relatively good to go.

The attacker does three straight punches with a step each time.  As the defender, we step back with a block in different patterns with each attacker punch.  On the third block we do some cool stuff usually followed by a kick or punch combo.

As I mentioned before there has been a greater focus on my basics, so the constant retooling effort slows down my new skills acquisition.  I'm not really complaining, just recognizing the change in class.  I'm glad for the attention, but four techniques took the whole class.  Sometimes that the way it goes.  

The big change today was the downward block we use start an exchange.  I'm supposed to act as if I'm starting a pull start mower.  So, the body is doing all the work and seemingly removing the arm strike/block.  I still have more to learn on this, but it changes my balance a bit.  

Made it through the first four, but I'm not sure of my retention.  We'll see how that goes next time.  

Formulaic

Awwww Yeaahhh! It's Friday and that means forms day.  It's been like three weeks since I've attempted any of the new forms.  I mean I only got introduced to Chil Sung Il Ro for a hot second before I left for vacation.  So, I remember zilch.

We started class with basics which I was kinda of stoked about.  I've been practicing them in the morning as an early warm up.  But I have questions about a few of them due to some odd placements of techniques.  Andy answered those before class, but we'd have to see how it all goes.

We got through about eight of the basics before he called a stop so we could move to forms. Since Bill took the day off, I ended up working with Amigud.  He's been working on the forms since October, so he started me off on Chil sung. We went through it as many times as I could before I had to take off for work.  The pattern is the stand capital "I" type of form.  Of course, it's way more complicated though.  It uses a lot of those Chinese based moves which slow things down periodically.  I'll have to get some video of the progress.  Right now, I can't get through the whole thing by myself.       

White Belt Brain

Regular Thursday work is partner drills.  I thought we'd pick up from yesterday and work on knife take-aways.  I'd forgotten all about Sam Soo Sik.  This is the one step sparring that has been updated into three step sparring.  In this case the attacker now takes three steps with three punches.

I'm not sure how many of these techniques there are, but Bill has five under his belt.  We went up to three for me, but I was happy just to have the first two more or less learned.  That took the whole class.  

Just like Monday when I found that I'd been doing one of the major kicks incorrectly, I had a similar experience today.  What I consider a hook kick is not really a hook kick in SBD.  The kick is called the table clearer for a reason.  That heel is supposed to be coming around in a flat arc and the knee only bends just before you're starting to put your leg down.  This means I have yet another retooling to go through.  

Truly, when you get your black belt (blue in my case) you start all over again.  I notice that ten-year-old jack doesn't have these problems.  The advantage of youth and skill.  

Vague Memories

Good to be back in the saddle.  I got to class too early and probably should have stayed home warming up longer.  It wasn't that I was going to pull anything (since it was partner drilling), but I wasn't quite awake.  I'd woke at 5 and then fell back asleep and directly went to dreaming and then woke up asleep.  Blurrgh.

We had a full class!  Eight whole people!  This is the largest group I've seen in the morning before.  But I was mostly wondering how much I could remember.  I'd done some partner stuff before I left for vacation, but I couldn't recall anything, but vague memories of some of the moves.  

I was partnered with Bill again and we started our sleeve grabs.  Much like our wrist grabs, the moves are predicated on an attacker holding on to us so we can then so cool stuff to torture them.

We have four cross grab and four same side.  So it's not tons to remember, but they are different enough from the wrist grabs that we have to pay attention.  I don't have them remembered but I can do them in an unrefined manner.  

After grabs we went to knife work.  Due to time running out I only got to work on the first one; which is a forward stab.  There are four attacks and four defenses.  Not to exciting and I'm not to sure if I'd use any of it in the real world, but you never know.

Broken By Basics

After getting back from visiting my Dad I was exhausted.  The visit is emotional, the downtimes caused me stress, and the travel was beyond tiring and frustrating.  I got home late by a day and missed beatings for that day.  I ended up missing the next day due to jetlag.

I was back at it on Monday night, but not enthusiastic like usual.  I was excited to be working on new material, but I felt so fractured and tired.  

I got to class just as we were ready to start.  The theme of week is contraction and expansion, a regular theme in all our moves.  However, we were supposed to pay special attention to it today.  This posed a problem as we were working on basics.  That's a challenge as we were learning them for the first time so adding finesse didn't really happen.  

Basics for the 2nd degree level (Ee Dan) are all combos and some challenging ones at that. I immediately began to struggle with the Korean, but Colette took easy on us and let us sort them out and only corrected as needed.

By the fifth set of techniques, I was getting pressed hard.  Blocking in insanely low stances and then popping up in a jumping kick.  It just got harder after that.  The tenth technique is an inside crescent kick followed by a jumping turning crescent kick.  When done well it looks great, but that wasn't me.  Colette was free with her corrections.  She realized that I wasn't doing the kick as per instruction.  I'm supposed to jump from one side and turn in the air.  I hadn't been doing that at all.  I can't believe they let me get away with that at the test.  

I practiced that today and realize I've got a lot of work to do there.  But I feel better knowing what I should be doing.  

The last five are traditional techniques that are super Chinese.  Hugging a barrel, painting, etc.  They are crazy hard to do after all the jumping around.  I got home completely soaked and exhausted.  I think I pulled every muscle there was but woke up in one piece.  Just sore.

Hopefully tomorrow will be less painful.