1st of the year FP practice black & blues
Last nights practice was good...and not so good.
- First the good:
- For Christmas I got a Dynaflex ball for improving my grip and forearm strength. I've used it pretty much daily since getting it. Last night I noticed that my hands and forearms were not tiring out and I actually maintained a much softer grip on my sword overall. I was able to relax my hands better. Dynaflex ball good!
- My first couple of fights were with Bill, who's SCA name is escaping me right now. I think we are pretty evenly matched fighting skill-wise. I felt good fighting him; I wasn't overwhelmed and felt like I was holding my own very well. Cathal gave me some pointers on my stance: turn my feet a little more perpendicular to my opponent while having my upper body turned back to face my opponent. This position gives me greater shield use/protection for my open/left sword side. I liked using it last night. I know I've been told about this type of stance before (in another time/kingdom), but I didn't trust that it would work for me, thinking that I wouldn't be able to generate enough power to throw a recognize-able shot; but now that I'm using better body mechanics and moving my feet more, this guarded position was working as long as I kept a good body position (more on that in a bit). Bill and I talked about breathing techniques too, since it seems that we both tend to hold our breaths while fighting. I know how to breath when I'm doing a rhythmic cardio exercise, I just haven't figured out how to incorporate those exercises when doing bursts of energy & movements, such as with fighting. I think chewing gum last night while fighting did help though.
I decided that I'm going to break another bad habit, that of shying away from fighting people that intimidate me fighting-wise. So last night I asked Slade to fight, which is good but......
- The bad:
- I don't usually like to fight Slade because it seems he hits me harder than most (IMO), and he always finds the areas of my body that are less armored. I decided to buck-up and fight him anyways (I was going to ask Einnar, another fight-intimidator for me, but he was busy). I found myself getting frustrated while fighting Slade. I'd start off okay, but he kept finding my legs open. BOTH my legs are peppered with bruises today! The more he hit me in the legs, the more frustrated I got for opening them and with him for hitting me so damn hard. I was not enjoying fighting with him at all. I even gacked my knee (again) while trying to step out of one of his shots to that leg. I think what I need to do is talk with him about my concerns and ask him if he could ease up a bit until I progress some more. Otherwise, I don't think I want to fight him for awhile. I don't want to have that kind of resentment hanging around my training.
Another area of work: turning my sword palm down just a little to protect my hand when in an overhead close guard position. Bill popped me there about 4 times while trying to go for a snap to head. The good thing is I was using that little movement for blocking, now I just need to use the basket on my sword versus the fleshy part of my thumb to catch the block. That would be a very good thing indeed!
I've decided that Sir Octamasades is Spiderman. That or else he's using ESP on his opponents to tell them which shot to throw next so he'll already be blocking it before they even throw it. Man! He is a freak of nature. And fun to watch. :-)