A Dark Side Adventure

Still using Dad’s computer atm, kind of slow and limited,  I can see theres a reason he doesnt want it any more lol, but dont look a gift piece of gear in the mouth etc.

Uechi. No wind and rain for once, the seasons are slowly changing. Kotikitae, I’m working on forwardness and structure. Spent a bit of time analysing what I do in the overarm thing. Then some striking. I’m enjoying this more and more, still big issues with the mechanics but I’m having fun.

Then a striking/ducking drill. Some work on grabbing and options. Expansion and contraction dynamics. More layers. Useful discussion about Dan Tien etc. Interesting. Then conditioning. 

Always lots of discussion, learning, just great

Janet reminded me of something I forgot about from Tuesday’s Systema class – we did a drill where each person has to lie on the ground  with the group pushing down on them. The idea is to move and  manouvre under the load so that you can get up. The drill started at medium intensity and built up to full strength – very hard work, quite stressful, but very very educational. All about testing stuff within a safe (ish) environment.

No posts becos comp dead…using one borrowed from my Dad aged 78 lolol. So:

Sunday Uechi

Kotikitae, tweaking position. the striking to handmitts.  An old friend of mine turned up to check things out, Marcus and I spent most of the rest of the the time talking about/demonstrating Uechi principles and all kinds of stuff.  Meanwhile Ben and Daz worked striking/bobbing stuff – I know Ben really enjoyed it. Thanks Marcus and Daz.

Tuesday Systema

Started with the group of 9 in a circle holding hands, have to go to ground together. First on our backs then change to stomachs still holding hands. Then same but in an wave around the circle. Then linking elbows. The arms around shoulders. Have to roll and absorb and blend together, hard but fun.

Then a progressing from the the exercise last week – one partner lies on the ground  and rolls slowly, the other putting weight with fists, elbows or forearms. Became quite brutal.

Then avoiding the grab. Progressing to moving and adding a gift. Slow pushup and crawling around the circle (I did situps as this was what killed my shoulders all those months ago and I have no plan to repeat).

Back to avoiding the grab,  adding two gifts, moving,  moving.  A very useful drill.

Finished with a “Warrior Drill”. Partners face  each other and move forward, striking hard with structure anywhere on the body as they change places. Repeat in the other direction. Then two strikes on the way through and repeat. So on up to ten strikes, some sets fast, some slow. And back down to 1. Gosh was that conditioning?

Awesome, excellent class.

Major computer meltdown, working crazy hours…but I have managed a little training.

Tuesday Systema – started with an exercise where you take your partners hand and twist and turn and direct them, they have to move and twist and roll to remove the tension. Then they have to move to gain advantage, then add a gift. Lots of rolling.

Then the stress breathing exercise from last week with situps and pushups. Partner pushes parts of the body, have to breathe through.

Then absorbing two-handed pushes to the back, working with the force. Then absorbing and moving  and striking when it works. Two on one.  All in together. Mayhem lol. Nice.

Friday Tai Chi – Stretching and Qi Ging. Then continuing working through the form. Some nice martial applications, I’m trying to get the harmonies. Just an hour but I love it.

Sunday Uechi

Kotikitae warmup. While Marcus and Daz played with knife flows, we worked a drill using the Sanchin step to get to the outside. This could be a dodge, lots of applications. And another drill simply deflecting and striking to the head.  Well not so simply lol. So the warmup drills with added dimension. Much discussion amongst the three of us.

Striking to the pads. Ben has this massively well. I was really pleased with the way this was feeling by the end thanks to patient coaching. The sneeze analogy helped.  Then conditioning to finish.

They told me the first hot Yoga class was the worst so I tried to get to another one later in the day but they were full up – overwhelmed by people trying it out, a shame. Will try again at some stage if I get any spare time this week.

 The local Bikram Yoga was having a free weekend for beginners.  This is hot yoga. Two friends from Ashihara do it, and Alex from Systema, so I decided it was worth checking out.

Intensely heated room – you start sweating the second you walk in the door.  Special breathing to start with, then standing poses.  Then seated/ground poses coming back to rest each time. Each set done twice. Managed to cope with everything, some of it only very basically, but it was frequently a struggle, sometimes painful.

A very challenging session, physically and mentally. At times you feel faint, nauseous, spaced out.

Now I want to try a different style for comparison.

Started with breathing exercises designed to get us thinking about stress and discomfort and its affects.  Start lying on your back and hold your breath as long as you can, not a lot of fun, using burst breathing until you’re back to normal. Then repeat while doing very very slow situps and pushups. Then one person leaning their fists into the other persons abdomen, idea is to breathe through. Then breathing through while one person rolls slowly up and down the other. Interesting.

 An exercise falling on the floor, quite hard, from seated and then from squatting.  About not freaking out about falling.

Then a close-quarters drill where you first simply provide pressure to push an aggressor away. Focus on the push from he body not the arm, getting a good firm position, pushing to their centre. Agressor is at first simply walking slowly into very close range but becomes progressively more active, grabbing etc and the responses get more varied.  Loren decided our movements had got very zombie-like so we stopped and did a simple “lead the person indifferent directions as if they are on wheels” drill to remember the Systema way of moving. Then back to a more full-on version of the first exercise with multiple attackers moving in quite fast. Idea is to be quite detached and just deal with it. I loved this, coped really well.

Loren inserts two or three quick exercises to get our brains relaxed – moving from seated to lying on your stomach without using you arms.

I missed this stuff last week.

More layers. Revisited the scissors movement, Matt did well with this. And a circular, shearing kind of development from the spear. Moving. Striking to pads, backhands, all sorts. Lots of experimentation. Kicks. Conditioning.

Doesn’t sound like a whole lot when I write it up but there was so much going on. Body mechanics, learning, trying to work three-dimensionally. Trying to remember how it feels when it works. I love the science of this, a blast, I come away quietly buzzing. Ben says “cool”.

Missed Systema on Tuesday night, had to work. Managed some Intuflow.

Friday morning Tai Chi. Usual light warmup and Qi Gong. This takes about 30 minutes altogether. Then the last 30 minutes working on the form. We have progressed quite well. Mark revises everything well and works the various components separately before putting it together with the linking moves. He’s a lot more repetitive  and patient teaching this than he is with Ashihara, I think because most of the group are not martial artists and have never done anything similar before. Next week we will come up to the super low, sweeping stance parts of the form, looking forward to that.