pekiti obsession
all martial arts demand a level of obsession - it requires a solid time commitment and you pay to gleefully injure yourself on a regular basis, only people who love martial arts willfully put themselves through that. but i think pekiti people are a wee bit more obsessed than most. it makes sense - we're not just hitting ourselves, we're hitting ourselves with Sticks. and let me tell you, those mofos are not soft. even when you don't whack yourself on the head or elbow or your partner's hitting your poor little pinkie finger on both knuckles (the instructor hit me on purpose to teach me to keep my arms in, meanie), just hitting stickonstick can get really painful, despite my lovely shock absorbing tennis grips that my instructor keeps mocking. damn it feels good when you get it right though, i Love it.
my stick got its first booboo today :( and yes, i did stop in the middle of pekiti tirsia to exclaim sadly, "My stick has a booboo!" only 2 classes and i already cracked it, sigh. but one of the nice guys taped it up for me, and it prompted a plan to get me better sticks. some of the guys make weapons, and we're going to email everyone in the class to see what size rattan they want (because ordering in bulk is cheaper) and get some really good rattan to make sticks with, which makes me happy because i really don't want to have to get heavy sticks just so they last longer than a couple weeks. one of the guys, dif size, has sticks that are so heavy you could use them as a bat, they're like the claymore of escrima. they make swords too, SO tempting, but i'm making myself hold off until i'm certain i'll be able to practice pekiti for a long time. the guys asked me where i was thinking of moving to, and they rattled off the closest pekiti places to there, just off the top of their heads :D i think it's so cool when a martial arts community is tightknit, knowing and helping each other, i think it happens more in the relatively obscure arts. god i hope i can keep doing pekiti, if mildly spraining my hand 2 weeks in a row isn't enough to dampen my enthusiasm i don't think anything's going to :)
my stick got its first booboo today :( and yes, i did stop in the middle of pekiti tirsia to exclaim sadly, "My stick has a booboo!" only 2 classes and i already cracked it, sigh. but one of the nice guys taped it up for me, and it prompted a plan to get me better sticks. some of the guys make weapons, and we're going to email everyone in the class to see what size rattan they want (because ordering in bulk is cheaper) and get some really good rattan to make sticks with, which makes me happy because i really don't want to have to get heavy sticks just so they last longer than a couple weeks. one of the guys, dif size, has sticks that are so heavy you could use them as a bat, they're like the claymore of escrima. they make swords too, SO tempting, but i'm making myself hold off until i'm certain i'll be able to practice pekiti for a long time. the guys asked me where i was thinking of moving to, and they rattled off the closest pekiti places to there, just off the top of their heads :D i think it's so cool when a martial arts community is tightknit, knowing and helping each other, i think it happens more in the relatively obscure arts. god i hope i can keep doing pekiti, if mildly spraining my hand 2 weeks in a row isn't enough to dampen my enthusiasm i don't think anything's going to :)