You Knocked Me Down. Now You Must Pay.

[shanmonster]

I waited and waited for the repair guy to show up today (he's supposed to fix my bathroom fan), but then I decided to take off and get some kung fu training in. I'm glad I did. I worked on technique for a little while, then ran through fook fu and sil nim tao a few times. And then I got some sparring in. My first match went really well, I think, although I need to watch my back hand. I have a tendency to drop it lower than I ought to. And I also need to follow through a bit more, working on my extensions. Still, I'm happy with my hand techniques. I had Sean on the run. But then he got me a good one to the solar plexus and I had to take a break. It didn't hurt so much as leave me afraid I'd barf on the floor.

My next match was with Pete, and it was pretty comical. By that point, I was pretty winded, and he was mostly toying with me. Still, I did land a few hits for every few dozen of his. I hope we can get together and practice more often. It was fun, and I could feel the techniques coming to life. Next time, I want to fight Colleen. I didn't get the chance to, today.

Now I have to get ready to go to work. Damn. If only I could be paid to practice kung fu instead. Now wouldn't that rock the casbah?

Comments

[snowy-kathryn.livejournal.com]

Hey Shan! What are we doing in class this weekend? (both of 'em)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Advanced:

accented mayas
layered shimmies (over grapevine, for example)
veils
mayas up and down

Beginner:

Review
Balance with canes
Maya
Vertical figure 8
Head movements

Sound good?

[snowy-kathryn.livejournal.com]

That sounds en-awesome-nating! *bounce* I get to dance again. Yay!

[zero-design.livejournal.com]

See - this is where my martial arts snobbery comes to the fore :)

I see these bits where you actually hit each other in training and recoil in mild reflexive disgust, in the flavour of "haven't they ever heard of touch control? crazykungfusavages"

Man, but the conditioning they did on me was good :p

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

We were doing light sparring, but it's still full contact. We got to wear the big puffy gloves today, though. This makes certain moves impossible, but also cushions the blows quite a bit. Still, a hit to the solar plexus is a hit to the solar plexus.... I must guard that better!

[zero-design.livejournal.com]

Feathertouch, feathertouch, feathertouch got pounded into our heads. If I had to describe the dojo philosophy where contact is concerned, it would be something like this: You don't bare a sword unless you plan to draw blood, you don't point a gun at someone unless you plan to shoot them and you don't hit someone unless you plan to take them down.

I do have to say though, a good smack to the solar plexus in training will do a fine job of reminding you to block ;)

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Our schools have very different philosophies. We practice with full contact. Should I ever get into a real fight situation, my opponent will not be using feather touch. For example, if I'm not used to actually taking some hits, the shock of taking a hit could completely throw me off.

Mind you, when we spar, we are not using killing/maiming techniques by any means.

[zero-design.livejournal.com]

True - I can see the reasoning behind it. I don't agree with their conclusions, mind, but I do understand how they got to them ;)