Feeling Old

For those of you who do read this blog, my repetitive theme of being old and often out of shape is once again going to be exploited to, hopefully, humorous effect.

Let's just say that I've allowed myself to get somewhat out of shape.  

I've been studying for a certification exam since September and took the test in November.  To my never-ending chagrin I did not pass.  To add insult to injury my work out schedule has been modest and my propensity to overeat and drink beer accelerated in inverse proportion.  

The problem with the holidays is that everyone is cooking and baking delicious things.  And due to our rural location the absence of families means that we tend to gather even more than usual; which means more eating and drinking.  In our case it means that every weekend night is filled with super-high caloric intake which means that half the week I can barely sleep due to a racing heart and sweat pouring out of every pore for hours at a time.  

My wife and I returned from the big city after my failed attempt heavier and my heart full of woe.  The problem being that I can retake the test two more times in the next 365 days, but it means a considerable financial investment to travel and pay for the test.  However, if I don't resume the study I'm going to forget everything fairly quick.  With that weighing on me I'll be starting up in January with another three months in mind to see how things set.  

Unfortunately, this means that I'll be missing out on beatings again.  

So I looked at myself in the mirror and said that I'm going on a diet and going to work for two weeks straight and see how that goes.   

My first night back to beatings last should be filled with excitement, but I was gasping so hard Teacher had to walk up to me take it easy.  I want you to know I was in the kids class as well.  Clearly I let myself go way more than I had anticipated.  

So it was a handful of Ibuprofen and a cold shower to reduce swelling before bed.  Hopefully, Thursday will go a bit better.

Challenge Complete

100 Days

The actually count turned out to be 102 because I missed two days in the last week due to travel.  I couldn't quite figure out where to squeeze in push-ups until after the fact.  I should have been knocking them out in airport waiting areas.  I would have looked like an ass, but it would have been nice to have all my days of the challenge contiguous.  

Running selfie in PA. Not featured - spraying vomit at mile 2.

This is what I know at this point:

• My best run was 80 in a row
• I'm kind of sad that I didn't make 100 hundred, but not sure it's possible without careful training
• Trying to do 100 in a row everyday is not careful training
• Regular change is in sequence helped me the most.  E.G. 20, 60, 20 then 50, 50 the next day.
• The lack of rest break for recovery probably held me back the most.  I clearly needed more than 24 hours.  

I've read on Striking Thoughts that Push-ups, Squats, and sit-ups are the go to workout when you can't get to the gym and I'm going to totally agree. Being at the absolute nadir of caring about fitness, the push-ups acted as a life-buoy to keep me going.  I was so motivated following vacation that I ran in one of our late year 5Ks.  Let me be clear that I did not train for this in any shape or form, but I was able to finish in less than a half hour which is totally respectable for me.  This was completed with two moments of walking. If I didn't walk I would have had a very good time.  The race was also done in the worst weather I've ever experienced.  So all in all I did really well.

So I went back to the gym after a week or so off.  I guess I hadn't recovered form the race.  I had to drag myself through a mile on the treadmill and a few light weight-baring exercises.  Recovery in my late 40s is something to be respected I gather.  

Friday I'm going to be 47.  This will mark my 10th year in this martial journey. I am at daily work on Kata and I'm somewhat frozen at the 15th Kata, but if you asked me a decade ago if I'd ever have a Black belt I would have told you you were nuts.  

Stronger

The issues in normal life have finally come to some sort of closure that that means getting back into the harness.  In my case I finally started going back to the gym last week regularly (missed last night in favor of socializing),  but it means I've got to get back to some beatings so I don't forget everything!  

During all the time I've been up and down with life adventures I've been consistent with my regular home exercises.  Part of this was to participate in a personal challenge of 100 push ups in 100 days.  You'll see in previous entries that I've hit various plateaus, but to my own surprise I've been able to keep somewhat consistent with the amount of reps compared to the count of days.  As of today I'm at 74 days and I can do 75 push-ups with no warm up.  I'm hoping I can keep this up, but the progression curve is definitely flattened out.  It's still exciting to see the progress I have made even if I don't get to 100 in the next 25 days.

My morning routine consists of:

- 3 or 4 katas

- 100 push ups

- 30 reps hanging bars ab work 

- stretches for back and legs

- punching the brick 120x

Funny, when writing that down it seemed like a lot more in my head.  In all honesty I've become used to this level of work.  Unless I go to the gym, go to beatings and really watch my diet I notice an immediate downturn in fitness usually followed by weight gain.  Jeeze.

Modest Update

Not much to report in the land of the frost.  I haven't been able to make to it class for several weeks due to visitors.  Once we told folks that we'd be moving away in the next year we actually had a few takers make the pilgrimage to our fair spot in the North.  Usually the cost is enough to stop anyone's interest, but as soon as you dangle the "free room might be going away" in front of them everyone gets excited.  

Having visitors in our home presents a wrinkle in my life.  My morning routine is to do my Katas/Hyungs, Push-ups, and general exercise.  Our first visitor got a treat one morning as she made her way to the shower.  I was in the middle of doing a complicated kata (Kong Sang Goon) when spotted me through bleary eyes.  This caused me to freeze.  Of course I was in a rather exotic pose with one leg up, one arm up, twisting precariously with my belly slack, hanging over my underwear.  Needless to say, her expression said it all; confusion, disgust, and hopefully a little bit of appreciation, but I doubt that.

Every aspect of life is punctuated, so after that little shock and awe I kept my morning practice down to my push-ups in the bedroom.  The good news is that I achieved 65 this morning!  I think I'm at day 54 so there is a slight possibility that I'll get to that 100 before the 100 days is out.  

I've noticed that even though the progress is mild I really don't drop back as much as I thought I would.  So on a crappy day I'm still getting 50.  

Observations so far:
- I was leery about my count so I had my wife do that.  Sometimes off by four!
- I have to count out loud so I don't mess up.  
- Every time I break 50 I rejoice because the 2nd set isn't as long.  
- I don't have to do my back stabilization exercises.  The plank position of the push up is perfect and I hold it way longer due to the push ups.  
- As my body gets used to the labor I'm not working as hard as I have been i the past.  Not getting that pump is a bit of a bummer.

Hopefully I'll be getting back to class next week.

Push And Shove

I don't have my calendar in front of me, but I think I'm up to 31 days of 100 push ups (or Earthdowns).  

My observations are:
- that due to the lack of proper rest intervals the plateau came quick.
- I'm one month in and can't quite crack 55 reps at one time.
- Weekends are the best because I can do them later in the day, creating an artificial rest (of more than 24) hours.  
- warm-ups do nothing to improve the overall session.
- I've got little muscles that crawl from my pecs through my armpits that hurt so bad sometimes I have to check to see if I have a open wound (I don't).
- The vigor that is created from doing this makes me feel massive and pumped up.  
- It still doesn't help my running.  

Class is a bit sad.  

I got to class last night in fear that I wouldn't have some kind of exercise before our next guests came in and found only Cherub and Teacher.  I guess it's been this way for months now.  Cherub let us know that the few of the folks that did come have all started going to an Marine combatives guy that teaches on the side to keep in form.  Cherub had a huge bruise on his forehead from a recent session.  Seems a bit rough?!

Most of the others that formed our healthy core have dribbled away.  Beard will always come on his own time, but Trucker doesn't have the schedule, Storm is focused on family and the few others have moved or moved on to other things.  

The only upswing should come in a few weeks when the kids class starts up again.  That might bring in parents and friends.  

Last night we practiced this and that which included the use of a bokken.  This is so rare that I can barely count the times on one hand in the last ten years that it's been pulled out.  We did two different hand bind on the "chopper" and two different deflections.   I realize the samurai of old were supposed to be able to grab the sword, but it would obviously have to come from a lifetime of training.  Last night was occasionally punctuated with the crack of the bokken connecting with my elbow.  Ow.   

The Deal

Cherub texted me awhile back and mentioned a contest of sorts he found on the internet.  It’s 100 pushups in 100 days.  Since I was feeling a little bad about my recent weight gain and hadn’t been making the progress I thought I was going to make I figured this might be the trick.

The pledge is just a personal honesty deal, but me a Cherub keep notes as to our progress.  So we figured you could do 100 a day with no problem just as long as we broke them up. 

I’m at 20 days now and noticed that 50 is my break even point.  Some days I can’t even get to 30, but it totally feels like exhaustion so I know not enough rest has occurred.  I had dreamed that one day I’d get to 100, but I’m not so sure at this point. 

I’ll keep up some commentary about this in later blog entries.

---

The first guests of the season have left and we have a two week gap before the next ones show up.  Weight loss with guests in the house has turned out to be a joke.  Exercise is so sporadic as to be not effective and the diet is pretty shabby overall.  Just too much of everything.

With them out of the house and my wife gone on a short trip I might be able to shed a few pounds.  But I’m not feeling to confident about it.

----

Back to class tonight and it was just the four of us.  I came a bit late and that turned out nice because I was huffing and puffing.  I just feel so bloated and creaky.  Hopefully that’ll go away in awhile.

The New Travel Rules

Now that I'm settling back into life into the far North I have meditated on two factors.  The first is that if I move to America I'll have to watch what I eat very carefully.  Two weeks in the Pacific Northwest had me put on 10 pounds! The second is that the pleasure of travel seems to have disappeared altogether and has been replaced with barely suppressed rage.  

I came back at 205 lbs.  My average weight is around 195 if I'm lucky and keep exercising.  I basically ate 10K calorie meals everyday with zero exercise.  I knew I was in trouble when my pants were extremely tight and my belt had to be let out to the next notch.  Not good.

So it was back to regular (or less) calories and exercise again.  After four days I'm happy to report I'm down to 202.5 lbs.  It also meant going back to beatings last night with an actual pot belly and little or no flexibility.  I huffed and puffed the whole time, but it was a lot of fun.  Four of us plus Teacher makes for a good two hours.  No breaks!

---

Traveling by air has always meant a pleasurable time relaxing and enjoying the relatively luxurious experience of being pampered and napping for long stretches.  That's kind of gone by the wayside as the years have passed.  I'm now waiting in long lines, suffering indignities at the hands of uncaring strangers and my once previous relaxation has turned into enduring endless uncomfortable hours squeezed into a seat designed for someone way smaller than me.  

What really tops that off is the change in baggage regulations and how people have responded to it.  First the charge per bag - not that it's bothering me too much, but I can see a lot of people doing a lot to avoid it at all costs.  So they drag their bags on board the plane with the blithe hope that it'll fit into the overhead baggage compartment.  

What this does is create an environment in which every person in the isle gets elbow, shoulder and knees clipped as our fellow passengers stumble through the plane.  The next bit drives me nearly insane.  People go through this to avoid a fee and then find out that they cannot lift their bag over their head!  When I see the little test basket by the counter (which no one apparently uses to see if the bag is going to fit) I think they should have a fitness proof as well.  

"I'm sorry Ma'am  but since you can't lift the bag over your head twice, you'll have to pay the fee".  That'd go over really well.

I'm not sure what crack head designed the seat spacing, but he or she will have a special place in hell.  I take long flights and a lot of flights to get off the island.  I'd like to see the designers come along with me as I scream incoherently at them for hours.  And then ask if they'd like some cranberry juice with that.  Assholes.

Rose City Digest

I was in the Rose City the last week driving slowly through neighborhoods, trying very unscientifically to figure out where it would be nice to live.  

I'd been given the rule of three circles (really just a Venn diagram) in which you take a map and identify three things that are crucial to where you live, make three circles and the intersection is where you should choose your neighborhood.  This is an excellent idea, but I ran into a difficultly - I have the option of working in two places and I'm unsure where I'm going to end up.  The other issue is that I'm not sure of those critical "other things" I'd need to select to fix my circles, but  I'd been keeping a new school in mind as one of them  

So I used the unscientific method and off I went driving and looking.  Before I left I had stumbled upon a few dojo search engines (dojolocater.com for instance) and was troubled to find that there were no Tang Soo Do schools. I presumed this was an over site or that no one bothered to put up a site for their schools, but as I toured I have to say via drive by, they only seem to have Tae Kwon Do and Jujitsu.

If/When the wife and I move down there next year I'll have to figure out something, but I'm guessing word of mouth will probably turn up something or it's on to another art for sure.  

Choices

I haven't written in awhile because I haven't had much to say.  I've missed a few classes here and there due to work or schedule conflicts so my imagination hasn't been stretched much, but the truth of the matter is that I'm having a bit of a conundrum.  

My wife retires next June and I'm anxious to leave our jewel of the North to go to civilization; preferably the pacific Northwest.  I'd have to get a job with the corporation that runs my current job, so the wife and I are headed down to that neck of the woods to take a look at the area a bit more and see if it's right for us.  

While I have been coming to terms with this I realized that I'll be able to shop around for gyms, restaurants and finally martial arts.  On top of that I'll have to figure out how to say goodbye and try to maximize my final year of learning from Teacher.  And when do I talk about it?  It's still pretty far away...
---
The adult class has almost completely dried up while the kids class has expanded to fill the the dojo consistently.  I went early last night because Teacher had some demos for the class and asked me to participate.  Thankfully, I didn't have to go straight into high falls.  Cherub got selected for that particular honor.  Of course I got twisted into knots for the knife and gun attacks.  

Earlier in the day Teacher called me up to ask about doing the demos.  I started laughing and he asked what was so funny.  I asked him in response, "are these the ones where I end up wiping the floor with my face?"  I should be called the amazing Karnac.  Let's just say I was prescient.

The "class", and I'll use that term loosely at this point, consisted of me and Cherub.  I realize that things were founded on a club model over a decade ago, but a good day in class is around five or six.  I still can't get over the changing nature or having people quit when they obviously love it.  

My conversation with Cherub gave me a little happy feeling.  I was complimenting him on his progress and ability.  He's much shorter than me, but he's coming into his mid/late teen's physicality.  I've been struggling to adjust to my lost of ability at 46 and watching him do kip ups like he's built of springs makes the worm of envy twist in my guts.  Regardless, I'm loose with my praise of his abilities.  At 25 he'll be a machine of unbelieveablness assuming he can get a teacher that can push him into that realm.  

After we were talking for a while he said that thought I was the smoothest of everyone in class (of two?) when I relax.  If I'm not; i.e. stopping to think to do what next, I'm horrible and stuttering in everything I do.  Good to know.  

Getting My Teach On

I've long been frustrated by my some of my classmates inconsistent behavior, in particular Beard.  When he comes from Judo directly to our class I would qualify his attitude as "frisky".  I mean that he comes across as intentionally cruel, but over the years I've realized he's just pumped.  This is validated by his regular days where he is caring, conscientious, and an excellent partner in the learning process.  Honestly there are these moments when he teaches me something very specific and granular and the simpatico that results feels tangible.

That being said, when I'm looking for excuses not to go to class he usually appears in my mind.  I have to psych myself up to deal with him which makes me tense and reduces the pleasure of learning and exercising.  

For whatever reason, that concern or fear left me last night a few hours before class.  I realized my attitude towards him and my desire to skip class on occasion was incredibly small in the greater scheme of things and, boom, it just evaporated.  I assume it'll be back when I have the desire to get away from class, but if I can keep the 3 mile high attitude maybe it'll be better over all.  

---
As I mentioned in my last post I finally feeling like I have my black belt after almost two years of wearing it.  Talk about growing into it.  When I'm participating as a student that's when I feel like I've least earned it.  I'm by no means the person that anyone would look at and go, "wow, he's definitely black belt quality".  However, when I'm teaching something I'm feeling way more comfortable with the content and my abilities.  

To wit:
Trucker and Storm were practicing spinning back kicks and I noticed he was having some problems (kicking before spotting...).  We got into a discussion about kicking directly from the floor versus chambering the leg.  

Trucker says to me, "Won't I lose speed if I stop kicking from the floor?"

To which I replied, "you can have speed, but you won't have accuracy.  You can shoot a gun all day as fast as you can, but if you're not on target it doesn't mean crap."

I thought that was so badass!

Testing The Storm

There's a special type of anxiety I get from watching a test.  It's frisson of adrenaline that's born of fear, excitement and something I can't put a finger on, but I'm pretty sure it's that knowledge that you are going to come of it being something different.  

For whatever reason Storm's test meant a lot to me.  I ended up being on the judging committee and not really doing much other than catching his spinning back kicks and then taking lumps as the last fighter in his sparring.  

Still, I got to be there and participate and that somehow made me feel a little bit more like a blackbelt.  I realized that it has been two years since my test and I'm often shy about the fact. This kind of thing allows me to measure my success and comfort with my achievement.

During the testing we found out that Storm has two TKD black belts!  Outstanding.  He's also on schedule to test for his 2nd degree at one of those schools, but that's dependent on his ability to fly over to the big city and get some quality time in.  

The test reminded me of my Black belt test in that the format was pretty similar and Teacher G actually had to stop for moment to help Storm get his breath back.  I felt that deeply when I saw him do that for Storm.  I was embarrassed when it happened to me and Storm is in absolutely fantastic shape.  So it was somewhat validating.  He is now a Brown belt in our school.

As a result I went to Teacher's work and picked up my diploma and got a frame to hang it up. It's time to believe in myself.

Storm Test

Last week Teacher told Storm if he showed up for three classes in a row that he'd test him for Brown Belt.  

Storm is in his mid to late 20's and had achieved his Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do in his mid to late teens.  He is mind-bendingly fast and tends to use his legs more than his hands.  He is refreshingly ego-less and appears to be here just to keep in shape.  However, his job hours make it very difficult to come to class regularly so he'll disappear from our group for a couple months at a time.  This makes it difficult for Teacher to progress him comfortably.  He absorbed our basic technique rapidly and had integrated most if not all of it with his TKD skills.  

He dropped some info that I'm finding a disturbing trend; he admitted that he's been going to the Judo class more frequently than our class.  This is something that two or three others have elected to do and mentioned in passing.  It's not without embarrassment I'm sure because I've been at our class over 9 years now and must be seen as a fixture.  I'm guessing that Teacher's style might not fit everyone, but I wish I didn't have to find out in whispers that they are going to Judo class.  

In Storm's case Judo represents another area he'd like to address to be a fully rounded martial artist.   I can accept it from him because of his general maturity, but the others seemed to have become bored with our class and just moved on.  I wonder if I hadn't become friends with Teacher if I would have wandered away. 

In order to prep Storm we ran over some of the things on his test (Thursday!) and that meant sparring.  I had to go back several months in the blog to see when we actually had sparring.  Sufficed to say, it's been over six months since we did anything fairly official.  By official I mean that it was actually part of the class and not just some warm up before class or some rigidly controlled exercise to help us focus on a single aspect of a technique.  

Storm did a quick exchange with Cherub, whom gives no quarter, which I find frustrating at times and then I went up with Beard.  Most of the time I find it comforting to spar with him because he's older than me and prefers to move slowly, but he'll punch or kick hard if it serves him in the exchange.  We had a good time, but I caught one in the nose and then  I accidently punched him in the forehead.  

The post adrenaline shakes left me tired, but wouldn't let me sleep comfortably.  I tossed and turned all night.  
---
Our fun technique was high block, cross block followed by a shudo.  Fun and led into a complicated exchange of taking balance and throwing.  Certainly not my forte.

Difference

Cherub asked Teacher, "What's the difference between kicking with the top of your foot versus the ball of the foot?".

Teacher responded, "What's the difference between a slap and a punch?"

Normally I answer the question by saying, using the ball of the foot concentrates the same amount of energy into a smaller space.  His answer was better.  

___

We have a new group of girls in class.  Teenagers from all over the world!  One is near my height and I think from Korea.  Another is short and from South America.  The third is Teacher's adopted daughter (from Thailand) and the fourth is a girl from the kids class who's moving up.  She's got a laser focus and tough as nails.  The kids class bored her and she took off about a year before Teacher talked her into coming back.  

We have never been able to keep a youth that has graduated to the adult class.  Usually the kids are too small or too inexperienced to bridge the gap no matter what we do to ease their way.  We'll see with the littlest gal.  

____

Cherub and I just beat the shit out of each other for the whole two hours.  I noticed one aspect of getting old.  My knees.  I've been babying them and making sure they are healthy  so I can run and workout, but getting up off the floor over and over again just tires me out to no end.  By the halfway point I needed Cherub to help me up every time I took a throw; my knees wouldn't even support my weight with my legs at a 90 degree angle.  Ouch. 

A Little Blood

My wife left on a rather exotic vacation so I ended up missing class both times last week.  Due to our rather busy schedules we have to plan time to hang out so beatings lost out in the mix.  She'll be gone for two weeks so I have to make an extra diligent attempt at regular exercise. 

The weekend went well in that I worked out on Friday and Saturday, but ate more than my share of calories.  I hadn't realized what a governor my wife was in terms of my drinking and eating.  I was determined to eat healthy while she was gone, but my first attempt at eggplant parmasean was marred by the fact that it's covered in cheese.  And I ate three pieces.  And I drank a lot of beer with it. 

Anyway we had seven in class tonight which is a nice number, but Sensei Slim showed up so things were  bound to get interesting.  A lot of shoulder locks and tough throws.  We don't have mats down so taking a fall has to be done just right or you lose skin.  For instance to take a fall low I have to tuck my foot in very quickly or my knee will get smashed.  This is what happens:

 

It looked totally awesome with blood spattering earlier.  Apparently my sock soaked up most of it.  Rubberized sport floors are good for nothing. 

The Most Metal Thing I Have Ever Uttered

I'm standing in a kitchen facing two fellows and surrounded by about 5 to 10 people.  We're at a party and by and large the folks there are younger than me.  The two guys appear to be in their late 20s to mid 30's, but I can't really tell. 

I don't remember what lead to the escalation in tension, but clearly fisticuffs became the answer to whatever was being said.  I'm mostly thinking how I've got one shot to make things count before I get the living shit beat of me while the bluster is increasing.  The lead guy's knee is obvious and if I can get closer I can drop a throat shot that'll let me to take care of number two. 

That's when I realize something else is going on. Why are these guys acting this way?  I haven't been that age in a long time and I was never very aggressive in the first place so their behavior didn't mean too much to me.  However, while gaming the attack I realized something; this was a primal performance.  It's a show to demonstrate how powerful they are to the pretty ladies. 

Once this dawned upon me I made this speech.

"You boys just lost this fight in three different ways. 

"If you beat my ass you lose because you just beat up a 46 year old guy.  There is nothing that girls here are going find remotely sexy about that.

"If you get really stoked and put the boots to me seriously, the pretty girls are going to have to call an EMT and cops.  I have no problem throwing you under the bus legally.  You lose again.

"I've had a few minutes to take a look at you guys and I notice that you are very handsome and fit, but I'm not seeing anything that looks like you guys remotely know how to fight at all."

I started to take off my watch and ring and set them on the counter to my back while I continued.

"Here's how you going to lose in the worse way.  If we get started I'm not going to hold back.  I'm going to cripple you so you'll never walk right again.  You remember I said that so you'll remember how you thought this was important when you're older.

I was stretching while I told them the last part.  Pulling my arm across my chest and stretching my wrists. 

"You know what?  I realize that you two want those pretty ladies.  Why don't you just whip your dicks out right now and they can judge for themselves." 

That broke the tension and I was able to walk away. 
---

This was my dream on Saturday night.  I woke up from it at 3:30am and stayed up for two hours.  Talk about supercharged.  I only hope that if I'm in this kind of thing in real life that I'll have that level of calm in the storm.

Truth be told the reason for the conflict was that the woman I was with was exquisitely beautiful and the daughter of Satan.  Conflict followed her everywhere, but I was deeply in love with her.  That's for another blog I suppose.

Frisson of Fear

Last night was my second class in a row for the first time in about four months.  I've been pretty excited about returning regularly.  The excitement is derived from fear and enthusiasm.  I'm 46 and I notice that I get anxious about potential injury.  I don't mind the little aches and pains, but the larger things are taking longer and longer to heal.  

About 6 months ago Teacher used me in a demo of an unusual throw.  Instead of taking the slap I reached out and jammed my shoulder painfully.  Three months of rehab and sporadic class attendance has me almost at 100%.  

So in the back of my mind I have a lurking concern that I have to be careful or I'll be laid up for some indeterminate time.  This concern was mirrored by one of the Blackbelts at my test.  He no longer comes because his training was to be full on all the time.  At his age it meant that he was getting more and more injured.  So now he avoids class and focuses on other endeavors.  

The other half is my excitement.  Every time I don't go I feel as though my fragile retention of skills are degrading.  Plus I need exercise or the doctor looms in my background.  

---

Teacher called me up on Wednesday and sounded horrible.  He got the local bug and I volunteered to help out as much as possible.  So last night I showed up before the kids to get ready and he showed up anyway.  He was able to lead the class, but left the calling and counting to Cherub.  My job was to quiet the rambunctious and correct feet and hands.  

He left shortly after the adult class started and I finished things out.  
We have three new ladies in class.  Two high school girls and one Jr. High gal.  All of them talented and focused.  Very nice addition.

On the way out Trucker and I caught up since we hadn't seen each other in about a half a year.  He had been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and high blood pressure.  He's not even very heavy, but he sounded very down about the changes he wasn't going to have to make in his life.  

Fair Haired Boy

Deep into the second hour of class I had a pleasant realization - I was the center of attention!  Teacher was explaining a complex move and Beard, as my partner, had all the focus on me.  

Jeeze, I'm pathetic.  Talk about low self-esteem problems.  I realize it, but it's still awesome to be the COA (Center Of Attention) every now and then.  Then I realized that poor Cherub was totally being ostracized; or being ignored.  I wonder how much of my style and questioning is secretly designed to enforce that?  Hmm.  

I think it's given me insight into the kids class (now up to 26!!!).  When one or two constantly seek me out for approval it's very disruptive.  I need to pull them aside and teach them how to be subtle, he he.

Fist Dynamics

In the mornings, when I do all my exercises and forms, I do a regime to toughen my knuckles.  This came about because of incident in class.  

We have breakable boards of varying thickness.  The thinner they are the easier they are to break.  They are great for novices to practice how to hold your hand and wrist correctly.  While I could easily go through the first two types I was completely unable to make a "dent" in the widest board.  What did happen was the skin on one of my knuckles completely pealed off to the bone.  

While staring dumbly at my bleeding knuckle I was able garnish some advice from Slim Sensei.  Get a red brick, wrap it in several layers of magazine pages.  Start with gently rapping the brick with the two major knuckles - kind of like a gentle backhand.  

I did that for several years and just use the brick now.  Somewhere along the way I moved to just punching the brick (very lightly) and worked on placing the two knuckles perfectly so the impact was equally distributed; somewhat easing the experience.  

• An aside - In our school the point of contact is the first two knuckles.  I gather the idea is that they align perfectly with the forearm created a more stable platform to punch.  When I took Wing Chun (over 30 years ago!!) we were taught to use the whole hand; to punch across all knuckles).  I can say with some authority you have to watch it both ways because boxer's fracture is real and super painful.  Teacher has a disturbing lack of little knuckle on one had for just that reason.  Usually the boxer's fracture is in the hand itself, but as usual his injuries are more gnarly.  

Since I haven't been able to go to class much less work out at home the shock of punching the brick after a long break is surprising to say the least.  I noticed that I loosen my fingers slightly on impact to distribute as much of my  fingers surface against the brick.  Due to the build up of callus on knuckles the front of my hand is not smooth so I'm probably making things hurt more no matter what I do.  

disfigurement is awesome!

I'd love to hear if anyone has a take on this or did I just jump down the rabbit hole because I had a moment to think?

On Bended Elbow

Storm texted me earlier today asking if I was going to class.  The struggle to sort out my life as it relates to exercise has come to a head in the sense that I finally have enough time to work out; for a couple of weeks anyway.  Work has slowed to the point where I don't have to work in the evenings so I went back to the gym last night and that meant it was time to get back to beatings tonight.  

Ironically, I lead the class in warm ups and most of it was okay, but a few of the things we do (balancing with eyes closed) were pretty much a train wreck.  I must remember to do that in the mornings!  

We have a new member in class, Doc.  I'm not sure how old he is, but I guess he's been coming to class off and on and still looks a bit stiff.  I'm going to guess he's my age or older which makes him pretty bad ass to be showing up and starting this out.

We started with some basics and then the rest of the evening was devoted to refining one move.  Block from the outside move into an armbar.  There is a lot to this technique and I doubt I could cover all the ins and out,  I did get a few very important parts :
- start moving when the fist moves.
- the point where the punchers fist is in full outward position means that you are supposed to set up for the move.
-  when your body circles to lock the opponent's arm you use the last erg of his punch to put him into the armbar.  

Let's just say I'm out of practice on armbars and the rest of us didn't look so good, but by the end of class my elbows were inflamed, but we all could do the move fairly well. 

Exercise Update

It feels like I've been away from beatings for months, but my last post says the 18th of December.  I realize that I was having great attendance beforehand, but I'm almost a changed man at this point.

As I've mentioned before, I have a huge project at work culminating in February.  I've been working on it for almost two years now and the last 6 months have been taxing.  Mostly working late and on weekends, but it cut into everything that was healthy and helped me maintain some sort of balance.  So eating poorly, drinking during the week, zero exercise, etc.  My main fitness outlet has been katas in the morning followed by some exercises to keep my back healthy and help recovery my shoulder.

I should mention that I finally went to the doctor and he felt that I had some rotator cuff damage, but it would sort itself out with rehab.  It's taken a about three months, but he's correct.

My work out:
- 3 to 6 katas
- 10 trunk twists
- 60 or so sit ups (crunches and such)
- 20 + push ups
- shoulder exercises

Which brings up to the present.  My wife and I went on vacation to Mexico and had a fairly good time, but midway I got a serious bout of food poisoning.  During the rest of the trip and all the way back home I ended up losing around 15 pounds.  I realize that it was mostly water weight, but I looked like Christian Bale in the end of the movie, "the mechanic".  I was surprised when more people didn't make cancer comments when I returned to work.  I guess I felt worse than I looked. 

So the month has passed I'm back to eating regularly, albeit with same tendencies before I got sick.  My weight is low and my energy is fairly non-existent but it was back to the gym tonight. 

I was able to:
- run 1 mile (10 minutes)
- do single sets of 10 on
  - benchpress
  - pull downs
 - bicep curls
 - tricep curls

If I'm feeling motivated and don't have to work tomorrow, I might be able to talk myself into going to beatings. 

The Ghost Man Commeth

Teacher asked me to take the kids class tonight and I thought it might be nice, but the timing was off.  Work has accelerated and I've got visiting specialists in town commanding a lot of my time.  It was actually a great time to get away from work out just to clear my mind.

I honestly wish I was a better writer just so I could relay the Heironymous Bosch-esque nature of the class. Teacher has a very serious clamp on behavior and totally okay with getting kids to do push ups and sit ups as punishments for speaking or acting out of turn.  What I mean to say is that I don't think I'm up to his approach and it showed.

I'm not sure what I thought was going to happen, but I didn't get a feeling for the level of oddness that emerged fairly quickly in the class.  First off, I presumed that class would be small.  Wrong.  Tonight we are having a blizzard and no one is driving. I even questioned this myself as I drove slowly to our down town.  If anything, the class should have been small.  Out of 20 I get about 17.  Unbelievable.  

Although they didn't really catch my attention at first, two of the students really started decompensating as the hour went on. The first, a little girl who could star in commercials she was so cute, began to talk and would never cease.  So I would stop her for a few moments and she would pick right up.  Not terrible, but a bit exasperating.  The boy next to start belching like a fraternity guy at a kegger.  I couldn't believe it.  He followed this by staggering bouts of foul gas that made moving around him a challenge.  After asking to go to the bathroom - thank god! - he came back completely out of sync with class.  He started grabbing his face and pulling his eyes down so only the whites would and begin moaning.  "I'm a ghoooosssttttt," he would groan.  

This was during a whole class of movement with people that had no idea how to hold a line either.  So Cherub, who was nice enough to help out,  and I would try to straighten folks out suppress outbursts and class moving.  No surprise the hour flew by.  We even went over, but I was starting to suspect that the parents were getting a little antsy due to the weather.  

Cherub and I stayed and working on in-fighting, side roll-outs and then tomonagi (belt throw).  After a couple of bad landings on my part I was glad to let that go for the evening.  

I'm out of the country for the next couple of weeks, so unless something strikes my fancy - I'm out!

Blind Man's Bluff

Due to the incredibly busy schedule at work, which often requires me to work late into the evenings, I count myself lucky to attend class on the rare occasion. In the last month I've been able to come back to class with some regularity and have found incredibly fun and full of thoughtful exercise.  

Although I rarely have the time to capture all the great stuff we've been working I wanted to do a couple of posts on the highlights.  Two weeks ago the adult class was down to the three of us (Frenchie, Cherub and Myself) and Teacher.  Always looking at the bright side, Teacher had a class where we would repeat some esoteric move until we are blue in the face.  After the beginning sequence he would pull me aside to practice something "fun".  In this case he grabbed an old belt and blindfolded me.  
 
The goal of this was to reduce dependence on site and focus on tactile clues, but the neatest things was that without too much warm up you could call out where your opponents parts were located.  I could pick up the chin, neck and elbow pretty regularly (with some serious errors here and there) and with more accuracy than I would have said was possible.

He moved on to sparring in the most mildest sense and it was pretty glorious in that with a blindfold on I could still do basic and sometimes advanced moves.  I totally had a flash back to Bloodsport where VanDamme is hunting around for his bad guy and flashes back to his vision impaired training.  Easier than I thought, but I definitely have to be touching a guy to know what's going on.  

 

 

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.

Coughing

I've been fighting a cold for about two weeks now.  In of itself, it's not bad because I can still work (and work late), but not it seems to have settled in my lungs making me cough a wet sounding bark whenever I have slightly elevated breathing.

I've become somewhat concerned that I haven't been able to exercise regularly due to work and a change in the weather.  That means gaining weight is right around the corner.  So I went to class figuring I'd get a little sweat going and maybe jump start my health regimen.  

When I got to class I realized it was going to be a long night because it was only Teacher and myself for the first hour.  Most of that time was spent on talking, but every time we'd start doing something I'd end up coughing and hacking for a few minutes. By the time Dave showed up in the 2nd hour I was done.  

The good part to all this is that I finally went to the doctor for a nagging shoulder pain and it turns out that I have small rotator cuff tear or sprain.  It was good because I've dreading going to class because every little thing seems to make it hurt.  Class is the perfect place to exacerbate the whole thing especially since that's where I got it in the first place. In the end I avoided hurting myself further and went home and slept for 10 hours.

Today I'm at home avoiding a lot of stuff so I worked refining and completing Kong Sang Goon. Here's a really nice rendition:

Once I get mine refined I'll take a video and everyone can giggle at the poor comparison.  

Birthday Bash

Yesterday I turned 46.  As I've entered my 40's I haven't been entirely excited by the calendar and this year seemed a little more daunting than years before, but taking things into perspective I'm doing rather well.  

Previous to my Black belt test over a year and a half ago, I starting running with a classmate, Dave, so I wouldn't be winded during the testing.  In retrospect I probably started way to late and really didn't know what I was doing to get ready, but it started a trend that I've been keeping up.  After getting my knees to cooperate, I stuck with the treadmill during the winter and sloooowly added time to my runs.  In May I was able to run my first 5K race and I just did my second one last weekend.  I was able to shave off a minute which wasn't great, but wasn't bad either.  

This run was done at 43 degrees and in the rain.  So no matter how you dressed you were going to end up sweaty and cold at the same time.  Coupled with working exhausting hours for the last month and disrupted sleep I ended up getting sick Sunday night.  

Boom, it's now my birthday week and I had to skip working late to indulge in NyQuil so I could get ahead of my new cold.  Thankfully parts haven't come into work so I could actually relax for a few days. 

To celebrate his birthday, my old classmate Greyhound, came over from the big city to visit friends, come to class and participate in my big annual party.  Ironically, he's actually sicker than I am, but he wanted to see Teacher and see how class compared to his current school.  

We showed up last night sneezing, blowing snot and generally hacking germs all over the place.  But the best part was that it was a spontaneous home week.  The guy that broke my ankle came to class, The baker and Greyhound all being there gave class a very surreal feeling.  The baker hadn't been on the island for 7 years!  Ankle breaker hadn't been there for over 8!  The both had kids and respectable lives!  I'm sure using a lot of exclamation marks, but it was great.  We couldn't stop talking which is a sure sign we weren't working  hard enough.  

Once we got started the lightheadedness almost had me stopped a few times in the first hour.  After teacher got us through the basics we moved on the technique which thankfully seemed less strenuous.  

Great night of knife hand blocks to grab and then side kick.  Then we learned a new counter (apparently we learned it before, but I'd forgotten like Steven Seagal) to the step behind trip.  Rotate the body at the point of being taken to escape or force your opponent down.  Very cool and fun.  

Slept great knowing that I can still do this at 46.     

Night And Day

I was drifting off to sleep last week and my wife mumbled to me, "you need to go back to class."  Wait, what?

Living in the far North has a depreciating quality on my well-being.  On one hand you can have an incredible summer in which the sun never sets and you have such boundless energy that it never seems to end.  On the other you have a soul-sucking winter that never seems to end and the chance to see the light of day comes once every couple of weeks.  When the winter starts my mood becomes quite labile (mercurial maybe?).  I'll watch those Hallmark ads and burst into tears; I'll over-dramatize pretty much everything; I'll walk around the house in sweeping robes, with the back of hand on my forehead bemoaning my outcast fate.  

Okay, I don't do the last one, but I'm sure my wife gets pretty tired of stretches of depressed whining.  She noticed the correlation of beatings and me having having a relatively decent mood.  I'm still not sure I understand it myself, but I can actually tell the difference when I come home.  No matter how much of a shit class it might have been, I usually skip up the steps and sing mindless songs as I get ready for bed.  

So the winter hasn't even started and I haven't been crying too much over puppies and kitties on TV so my wife's comment caught me off guard.  It's true I've been dodging class for a bit, but I must have been outwardly showing the signs.  So with some sense of renewed vigor I went to class last night with a smile on my face.

---
Class was creative and interesting.  Closing in on the other guy and working the legs in a variety of ways; heel shots to the other guy's calves, etc.  I was paired with Teacher the whole time which was fun, but I'm rue to throw him because I'm not as smooth and he's got aches and pains.  Then I get partnered with Cherub who fights every move.  I've told him that it's training for me and that at times he's going to need to let it happen so I know I'm doing something correct.  It's a tough concept for someone that fights everything.  

It was just four of us which depresses me to a degree.  The vitality of the adult class got bled off in the last year.  I would say that the class hits it's equilibrium at 15 members and then fails with more than that because it can't address the disparity in levels of experience and skill.   

I slept well and woke up reasonably easy which makes for a good day.

Speaking of Krav Maga

I went to a birthday party on Saturday.  

I love parties.  I am a social butterfly.  I love social lubricant.  However, I am old and careful, and dare I say, responsible.  I was on call last weekend and I have been called too often in the evening, so I took the high road and became the designated driver.  

This is a predicament for me.  If I'm not drinking I get a little fidgety and end up not really enjoying myself.  Luck found me and I became the bartender for the evening.  So I was able to drink by proxy, as it were.

Through the course of the evening I was able to meet a great deal of people, but I also saw them get blurrier and blurrier as time progressed.  One of the folks at the party was a guy from Israel fresh off six years with the IDF where he practiced Krav Maga the whole time.  

He noticed my costume with the gi top (I was dressed as zombie hunter and posted my resume on my back) and he obviously felt that simpatico that a lot of beer can bring on.  So for the next two hours he had to discuss his philosophy with me.  After the first 20 minutes I realized this was going to be agonizing  - no one was going to rescue me. The problem was the repetition of the stories.  Sometimes he would slip in a bit interesting info, but it was mostly the same thing over and over again.  

Barring the drunk babble, I was able to extract these similarities in practice to TSD:

- Always close in on your opponent.
- Shorter folks have an advantage.
- Strike at the knee, if the guy that can't walk he can't chase.
- Never, ever use your skills; unless you have no choice.
- You always have a choice.
- Every moment is a moment to reduce escalation.
- Every moment is a moment to get away.
- You can eat insult and take a punch, but if you main or kill it's forever on your head.
- If you get into a fight you take responsibility for you and your opponent.  
- Always treat your opponent as if they are an expert. 

It just dawned upon me that these are things we should be repeating in class once in awhile.  I'd say that the incident of conflict for anyone is pretty much nil, but it's nice to cover philosophy of practice once in awhile.
    

Falling Behind

I'm going to straight up admit it.  I've been avoiding class.  I'm not totally sure of my motivations, but I think I might just need a rest break. 

For awhile I've been trying to find reasons not to go and conveniently work has become so tiring and labor intensive that I working late and very stressed out.  So I text teacher about an hour before class and let him know I'm not coming. 

As I'm writing this I know part of the problem is that I'm trying to get ready for another race and my ability to focus on multiple things is totally limited.  I've also been gradually becoming self-conscious about my physique - not that I'm gaining weight; although that is an eternal struggle, but the loss of muscle tone.  Ever since I started running in some earnest I haven't had time to go to the gym.  I've been telling myself that the cardiovascular benefits are more important that throwing around weights, but I've spent so many years trying to be low-end body builder and fearing physical aging that I can't let it go easily. 

So I'll go to the gym and run on the treadmill, which doesn't seem to have the same training benefits as road running, and then I can lift some weights.  But three miles is still 30 minutes and then trying to do a workout is going to add all kinds of time I don't have.  A conundrum for me.  So beatings has been left behind because of all this and the dwindling time I have at home with my wife. 

My wife, in addition to a 40 hour plus job, as taken on two board presidencies so her downtime is extremely limited.  We knew it was going to be tough, but the reality is that she's exhausted most of the time and we don't get a lot of time together.  Mostly we talk about the day and then fantasize about our next vacation in December.  Sad.

So I practice my katas (hyungs) and make sure I'm flexible, but that's about it for this month.  After the race I'm going back to less running, on the treadmill, lifting the weights and then back to beatings more regularly.  Or so I'm telling myself.

So Angry!

I went to class thinking it was going to be Cherub and me again, but shortly into our warm-ups Dave showed up on his bicycle.  

Dave is going through a rather painful divorce and he's only in the preliminaries.  He still hasn't lost his sense of humor, but it often takes on shades of frustration - still hilarious though.  For instance at the end of class he gleefully clapped his hands and said in a high pitched voice, "oh boy, I get  to go home now!"

I gather we are one of his few respites.  

Class was mostly just basics for the first hour, but Teacher grabbed an elbow block out of Pinyon Sam Dan.  It's as if you have your hands on your hips in exasperation, but you twist your body to knock away punches and such.  This is great because in reality hands in pockets make this the perfect tool for a cheap punch from someone.  

For us, we knocked the punch to the inside and swept the arm up and over, then rotated our body and take the puncher down.  Easy and elegant, but Dave and spent a good 30 minutes making a mountain out of a mole hill.  That took a lot of refinement.  About one and ten was close to correct.  I'm starting to think that's my statistic.  

We finished up class with a sticky-hands exercise that supposed to be easy, but the tension in Dave was palpable. Instead of a relaxed, sophisticated feeling of touch Dave just used 100% of muscle to keep my hand out of the way.  After doing this for a few minutes I realized what was happening and described what we were supposed to be doing.  It was still hard for him to relax; he needs an outlet to burn off the tension.  

I finished up with Teacher and it was super fun in that it was relaxing challenging and still a bit of a work out.

Lumpy From The Throws

Teacher called me up and said, "do you remember how many were in the kids class last year on the first day?"

I said, "I think around 30.  I was pretty blown away."  

"It's going to be over 40 this year" he said with some enthusiasm and exasperation.  

There's no way he can fit that many kids into the space and he came to the same conclusion.  It looks like he's going to have to split the kids class which means it'll be 5 to 6, 6 to 7, and 7 - 9.  He'll be burned out within a month or to.  Too bad we can't use the area on more days a week.  It' certainly be a nice treat for all of us to come more than twice a week.  

The odd thing is that our adult class is pretty much down to just a few folks.  Last night it was Cherub and me.  So we had awesome private lessons, but for whatever reason we got into throws and that was kind of a bummer because he's a lot shorter than I am.  We both struggled with the fine points and at one point I tried to pull Cherub across my back.  Instead of an effortless throw it turned into an awkward 140lb pull.  Ugh.  My back is tired today, but not spasming, so I'm very pleased about that.

We also leaned how to do the counter to the throw.  As soon as the thrower grabs your arm, your free hand has to come around the chin and move the throwers head around.  I got it right about once out of ten times.  Not pleasant to have someone fall on you though.  When it goes right, the throw fails and the thrower has to rotate due to the "follow the head wherever it goes rule".  It has been done very accurately and quickly.  Tough to accomplish for us plodding artists.  

In the end I think the count was around 40 to 50 throws without being to rattled.  I slept pretty well.

Roundhouse Renewal

Teacher called me up yesterday afternoon and let me know that he had taken ill and might not be able to do the whole class.  This was ironic because I had just finished telling him that I'd made a poor choice of drinking all night in conjunction with my wife's birthday and was miserably hung over at work. 

So class wouldn't be the best of the best by both of our reckoning.  By the evening, and a big dose of ibuprofen, I was able to rally and get to class early and warm up.  The class only consisted of Cherub, Beard and myself so I didn't feel any pressure to be super awesome.  However focus was off due to the previous evening's activities.  Long story short, I ended up kicking Teacher in the crotch with a poorly controlled roundhouse kick.

Although that didn't make him particularly happy he also didn't get upset either, but it did move him to focus on my roundhouse kicks.  So, for the next 30 minutes we spent a lot of time retooling my roundhouse kick. 

For the last how ever many years I've been doing the roundhouse in such a way that I can place my toe anywhere I want it, but it delivers zero energy.  So the work began on creating the "whip".  As we do with certain strikes (shudo in this case) the effort begins at the shoulder, then elbow and then hand.  I literally crack the whip with my fingers being the point of contact.  The trick is being very relaxed until the moment of impact.

So to translate this to the kick I had to break each part of the kick down and make some rather large (at least in my mind) adjustments.  In the end the kick starts now from the shoulder twist, to a torso twist, leg in position and then finally whipping into the target.  Although that took a half hour to sort out I saw an immediate change in power transfer and the impact on the water dummy was pretty impressive.  

Teacher ended up leaving class early; looking rather horrible and I finished class with kata work.  Both of them are working on Sa Dan (number 7), but I don't feel totally confident telling them what to change.  I mostly focused on stance, and some other refinements. 

Flipping And Falling

Tonight we had our characteristically small class; just five of us.  This is actually optimal because it means that Teacher will work on more and more advanced technique which is a rarity when we have new folks.  Class will be dedicated to bringing them up to standard.

I missed last Thursday which sounded like a tragedy.  Dave took his first steps in falling and throwing.  I would have loved to have seen it, but he made some breakthroughs about how to run his body right for the fall.  This means a lot to me because I don't have a lot of people to throw in class unless Beard shows up.  He's dyed in the wool badass when it comes to throwing.  He's got a black belt in Judo and has had it for 20 years.  He can do the most amazing things falling through the sky. 

So Teacher says that we'll redo everything practiced on Thursday to really help Dave integrate what he learned.  I was stoked.  Another rarity for us.  Throwing has been relegated to the "maybe we'll practice it some day, but that's not really our technique".  

So they pulled out the pads and doubled them up, to which I laughed because the 1" mats really don't do too much to absorb shock and doubling them doesn't do much at all either.

And for the first time I was able to do decent throws after 8 plus years so I felt like a million bucks.  Teacher worked some excellent magic about foot  and hip placement and I was able to balance people on a hip!  To which I hollered "dancing with the stars!"  After which Cherub buried me into the floor with the completion of the throw.  Thankfully, I'm the best faller after Beard in the class.  

I'm currently sitting back and drinking some Rye to celebrate what I consider a momentous occasion. I took more falls in one night then I have ever taken before (I guess around 25) and only the last one was kind of crappy so I banged my knee up a bit, but I'm still jacked.

Buddha Brings The Pain

We periodically get new students and it's worth celebrating in my mind.  Their arrival always reminds me of the time I stepped through the doors and started this particular adventure.  Our class has had fairly low numbers as of late, but we picked up another young guy awhile back.  

The youth class is good up to certain point, but Teacher will pull from that group once the kids are either too big or so sophisticated that they might quit from boredom.  In this case while the kids class is on hiatus for the summer Teacher invited an interested youth to join the adult class.  Buddha has the most placid features I have ever seen.  His expression rarely changes and his eyelids seem to be always at half mast.  He looks exactly like pictures of the buddha at his most serene.  

Since I'm usually silly I can get him to crack a smile once in awhile.  He's very nice, but doesn't talk much.  

So last week Teacher decides to work on pressure points.  This is incredibly interesting and, like other esoteric techniques, takes a lot of practice to get right on various people.  Unfortunately, we don't practice these very often. 

In this class we focused heavily on points around the face, head and neck.  While I practiced with other adults Teacher stayed in the corner with Buddha and concentrated on doing a few techniques really well.

Since Buddha is about 10 or 12 he has a few friends that watch the class the sidelines and occasionally giggle about the inherent silliness of it all. Near the end of class Teacher pulls me over to the door and has me pick up Buddha by the lapels of his gi.  I've got him off the floor and he applies a mastoid realignment that almost had me urinate by accident.  Needless to say he was dropped post haste to the delight of his friends.  I wiped away a manly tear and turned to Teacher who beamed at the new, quick learning student.