A lot of legwork

And on the sixth day, she kind of felt a little exhausted.
Monday saw me help out with coaching two of the more advanced iaidoka, so it was reasonably productive, but Wednesday saw frustration running fairly high. Sensei took a bit more of an interest, and I focused exclusively on my cuts - kiritsuke, that is, straight down from over the head. I've had trouble with that, and my grip, for as long as I can remember. Ohara-sensei tried to correct me, but I think I only managed to fix it in small part, and though it has become better, it is not good. My cuts are decent, but not as good as they could be. And it is such a delicate thing to fix, that it's incredibly hard to see what is wrong if someone is doing it "almost right", and even more so if they've already been doing it wrong for, oh, eight or nine years.

My katana being a wee bit too heavy for me, just a wee bit, does make things worse. I think I have a fair idea of the principles and the theory of it, and I may have felt what it feels like if I hold and cut right about once or twice, but it doesn't stay that way, and we shan't even speak of what happens when I actually do kata...
But I am working on it.
With fifteen minutes left of practice time (twenty went to warmup, and fifty-five for cutting and cutting only), I finally felt that my frustration was more of a hindrance than anything else, and went over to doing a few of my favourite kata. Now and again I did only cuts, but mostly I did kata.

Ah, how frustrating it is with these old troubles! One can only continue to work on it.

Kali Sikaran was far less frustrating, much, much less. I certainly didn't do perfectly, but I didn't hurt anyone, and I had fun. I didn't overexert myself, but managed quite well! I have actually begun to get some sort of control over the fighty stikks (or rattan sticks, baston or whatever you wish), both double and single. I am starting to see how things fit together, with and without weapons. Sometimes I can't really figure out how I'm supposed to do a particular string of movees, but most often I can figure it out after a while.


And then, Friday arrived, with lovely sunshine, and I absolutely could not resist: I took out my skis, and grinning rather broadly I'm afraid, I set out across the fields behind the house. And then I found a tunnel under the road (oh AM I going to use it for when I can run again!) and after following the broad path for a while... I found wide, wide fields, pristine and sparkling, with houses scattered far and wide, and forests encircling it, or dotted here and there on them. I found the tracks of other skiers, and followed them. After a while it turned out that the fields had turned into the fields of a golfing club. This reminded me that I am often not very interested in taking long walks, but skiing, oh, skiing is freedom! I could go anywhere with skis, through a forest or across fields, and hurt nothing and no one, and not be stopped. It's fast going, it doesn't hurt and I can go fast or slow.

I revelled in the feeling of freedom.

The track ran around the golfing area, though I didn't follow it all the way around the meandering edge, I stayed on the south side of a brook. But next time I am going to cross it and go out to the sea - it's not far, I've looked it up thoroughly on a map. Or, "far", I should say... This jaunt took me about two hours, and I think it was ten or twenty kilometres. I'm not certain. I loved it, regardless. And then I came back home, still grinning, had a long, good shower and then ate a nice meal. I ought to have stretched more than I did, but, oh well.


And theeeeen... today was again Open Floor, or Security Fitness. I couldn't resist it in the end, but went, and in quite high spirits too. And it was good, really good! Nice warmup with a mix of complex moves and physical exertion, too.
We mostly used the baston, sticks, building on what we did last week and variants of that. Blocking, hitting, but first and foremost: footwork!
As many martial artists know, footwork is paramount if you are to ever have a better understanding of fighting, whether said fighting is in competition, only amongst your art-mates, proper self-defense, UFC... or what ever. There are those arts who have lost that knowledge over the years, or simply do not need it anymore. However, the Filippino Martial Arts are often still very much grounded in real life application, and I am very, very glad of that, partly because it complements my iaido so well. If I ever were in a sword fight, I couldn't rely on simply walking back and forth. I would need to be able to dodge this way and that, step lightly and adapt. And with such a focus on kata, these things are often, if not overlooked, under-trained. We don't have the opportunity. The knowledge we may obtain, but the practice is far less often possible.
Oh, if I had the opportunity, I would learn. I certainly did get a grip of the basics when doing longsword fencing, and during my miserably few kendo lessons. But when you are armed or attacked empty-handed or with a knife, why, then it is very, very relevant to have it in your backbone to bloody well move not just back and forth, but to the sides and a bit of everywhere. So I am learning it at a high speed, which feels very good.

Today's practice, then, was good in many ways. I also learned a few new ways of blocking and checking, and we finished it all off with a "king of the hill" sort of thing. I did quite well, despite everyone there being more experienced in me in those kinds of arts. In fact, I DID get quite a good hit on the fourth participant (a man who has practiced FMA for 18 years) with the softknife, almost at the very start of our second bout, but maybe he was too surprised to notice. I did well, but most of all I am happy to find out what I can get better at! And it was all done in good spirit. He also went on to tell me, afterwards, a lot that I could get better at. I tend to prefer hesitating and grabbing the initiative from my opponent, and he gave some very solid advice on how to do that in a better fashion. Even after two hours of new information, exercises and physical exertion, a lot of what he said stuck.

Now, however... oh, am I glad I have learned to make those after-workout smoothies. My body is admittedly a little sore, and a little tired... And I am going to have a lot of bruises tomorrow! But that's all good, really, and getting hit in a safe environment in a way that does not give permanent injuries is good practice. Otherwise, I'm probably not going to react very well if it happens in real life.
Although... I do think of getting some sort of boob protection. When holding up a large blue mits, the force of someone's punches or kicks still spread through it and onto my chest, and when being stopped doing a pushkick, with one hand on my chest, well, that kind of hurts too.

...you know what, I ought to write something about how those things get in the way - boobs and crotches. Something for a future post perhaps. Today has mostly been about "wohoo yay six days of practice this week".
A lot of legwork, all in all, and they are pleasantly tired. And quite a bit of armwork too. Good, allround training this week!

And my question this week relates to that:
Do you only do your "routine", whether that be jogging, gymming or martial arts (or whatever)? Or do you sometimes add something else, just for fun, or to up the level a bit? Maybe one more session a week, or a new way of working out?

Until next week - enjoy using your body, enjoy keeping it strong, and take good care of it!

Fun in training

Monday's iaido practice was certainly one of the better I've had lately, intense and focused. Not as good as last Monday's, but good all the same. Some of it was led by the sensei, but other parts were "do this kata, I'll come around if it's needed" and I definitely managed to focus quite well. I may have ironed out a few details too, that I've been having trouble with. Wednesday, however, something upset my stomach, and I had to stay in bed.
Tuesday and Thursday were given over to Kali Sikaran, of course, and oh my did I have fun. I was exhausted after Tuesday's practice, and found out that 10 oz gloves get really, really heavy after a few hours of hitting people and things, and acting as a punching bag, or blocking... etcetera. Lovely. Though my blood pressure did that odd thing that happens sometimes when as soon as I calm down, I feel close to fainting, and have to sit down for a while. Bloody annoying.
Thursday, oddly enough, we were only three at practice. This meant a lot of focus on details and techniques. Some kadena de maño, some knife fighting, mostly, and I had my one Valentine's Day greeting: me and Jen were practicing cutting eachother over the chest with mockup knives (before learning to block such a proper cut), and suddenly grinned. In Sweden, Valentine's is called something which is translated something like "All Hearts' Day/Day of All Hearts" - thus making cutting eachother's heart out quite funny indeed! Quite cheering, which gave us new energy and focus.

I feel a bit guilty that I haven't made use of the snow that's been lying thick outside, but I really haven't been feeling up to going outdoors for anything but "musts", which have been going to training, this week. My social phobia seems quite mild compared to before, those times I go out with such a definite goal in mind. I did make up for it a little by going to Open Practice (Security Fitness) for its two hours today. And it was great fun! Nastily (and therefore awesome) exhausting warmup and strengthening exercises, and then, variations on the same fighty theme with empty hands, knife and stick. The theory behind it was also explained, which is always beneficial, at least to me. It was all finished with an "all on one" circle - one person in the middle, the others around, making attacks that the center person meets with, well, anything, really. It is a very good exercise, helping one to not get a narrow focus, meet a variety of attacks and learn to take hits - we used soft padded sticks, for example, and so, a bop on the head when I didn't manage to block an overhead hit was a good lesson rather than annoying or painful. One learns to act on instinct instead of over-think, and, if having a weapon, using it. In Miyamoto Musashi's way of thinking, taking over the initiative from your attacker.

So as you can see, I've been having fun in practice lately. Sometimes it seems pure drudgery, and then one have to push through no matter what. And sometimes, one feels elated and happy and, well, one has fun! It has kind of been what's been keeping me alive lately.

And this aspect of training, fun... Do you have fun, training? Do you have any ways of making your training fun, do you ever do that, or, is it perhaps something you've never thought of?
I have of course spoken at length about the joy of running, the lovely feeling of cleansed mind after iaido and so on, but... sheer fun, that's a bit different. Joking too much must not be done, because that frazzles concentration and focus, but still - sometimes you need some smiles, some grins, some laughs, or at least something that just feels... well, fun, amusing. So what're your takes on that?

An all-round good training

I decided that those smoothies I came up with were worth doing, and so, I now try to keep some fruit at home, some frozen berries and also canned fruit. It is a good thing to be able to get something so filling in the stomach right after training, and the mix of ingredients once again gives relief from muscle soreness. Thus I make a new smoothie every time I go to Kali Sikaran practice, and have a sandwich after every iaido practice. It seems to be working out rather well, so far.

We all train for different reasons. One of mine is, very clearly, that it makes my body stronger, which I definitely approve of. For various reasons. Once, I worked hard at it because if I was to be superior to my tormentors in school not just in mind, but also in body, well, I'd have to work for it hadn't I. So I did. Then my knees got in the way until I discovered iaido, and...
It occurred to me many years ago by now, how much better I feel after iaido, and it has at times been the only thing that kept me going. I get edgy and skittish if I am unable to go to practice or train something. It is oh so easy to just sit still and try to fill my mind with something, to make it not go haywire or hurt. But practice, oh, once I get into the swing of it, there is no thing as good for clearing the mind and giving me the strength to go on, as training!

Iaido is particularily good for cleansing the mind. Kali Sikaran too, it seems, has the effect to clear my mind and calm me down somewhat. It is social in a wholly different way from iaido, and I seem to crave that. We may hit, punch and kick at eachother, but it is always done with respect and in the interest of mutual benefit. And I get to use my muscles to the very end of their strength - and that, often, is just what I need. With the way the public transport runs now, I also have about half an hour extra after training has ended, and I use it for extra exercises and stretching, and some socialising, and perhaps a bit accidental extra practice.
Yesterday I found a new nice tool for training - I think it is called the "t-rex", and the basic idea is two handholds on one string each, and then there's all manner of things one can do with those. The core-strengthening exercises were particularly brutal, and therefore, I must of course feel the urge to get one myself. My shoulders, too, had a nice time of being savaged and thus strengthened. I do appreciate meeting others who train, and especially martial arts. One can always share and learn from eachother!

To me, iaido and Kali Sikaran complement eachother in just the perfect way for me. I am overjoyed at the snow outside, and will definitely be exploring the area behind the house to see if I can find some nice fields to make tracks along, now that it's stopped being all thawy and icky again. I cannot run, as the way they keep the roads here... argh. Honestly, making them all spongy and sploshy, instead of letting them get hard and fast, so that one can run properly! But I can run in the apartment - yes, indeed, I discovered this after I returned after the holidays. It's not a big apartment, but if Nelson Mandela could run two kilometres every day in his tiny cell, then so can I in my apartment... All right, so I do not run every day, but the point is that I can, and I do, just to assuage my burning desire to run outside.

I like a good overall training. I love "finding new muscles", so to speak, and to learn how to work them, too. It does require cold showers afterwards, healthy food and after-practice eating, and good stretching, but once one gets into the habit of actually doing some sort of working out, one can just keep adding more if one likes.

So, like I said - the things I practice complement eachother quite well. Do you think about this aspect of your training at all, do you do it without thinking, or is it perhaps something you ought to think more about?
And - what are your methods to avoid muscle soreness, if you get it at all?

Return to power

Dear me, but I have let this blog fall asleep. Well, there was a lot going on, and I had rather better things than sit down and type...

The Kali Sikaran Christmas camp in Gothenburg was a blast, of course, and the ensuing soreness was glorious. I struck up an old friendship again, the person who once mentioned the very thing of Kali Sikaran to me in the first place. That was really nice, and we are a rather good team as far as practice and sparring goes. It was clear to me that my talent this far lies mainly in unarmed combat, "chaining" techniques, knives or improvised weapons. This is a nice thing as the movements for one can usually be used for the others as well... Karambit was inordinately fun to learn, although apparently it is not a very good idea, juridically speaking, to protect yourself with them in a real-life situation... (Open-palm slapping however, is, to my great pleasure, as I have also proven to be quite adept at using open hands rather than closed fists if applicable).
It was also rather cool to see the advanced classes and those I did not participate in - and there were a few, and oh, how hard it was to choose at times! Good fun, all in all, and great to have many different partners of varying skill levels and body builds.

And as soon as I got back, the very day after, I went to iaido practice, of course. To my disappointment, the holidays, during which I had been rather looking forward to going skiing a ridiculous amount, went... well, soggy. One good long ski tour was had, but then the weather changed for the worse. And of course, bad enough that it wasn't possible to have a good run either, until later, and when I did, well, I borrowed mother's shoes, and had blisters that are still healing (not hurting anymore, though, just... the last loose pieces of skin are falling off). But damn, it went well! I had to slow myself down again and again to pace myself, and not come back home completely exhausted. So, of course, I did have energy to spare when I had completed the run, but... well, I think my lungs still thanked me.

I had a go at being ill in mid-January, to my great unhappiness. It was no fun at all! Just when the training had started up, too!
Buuut, then, I hit the ground running and have been keeping it up since. The muscle soreness is a joy to feel, and this week, there's been a lot of it. The two arts truly do complement eachother well regarding my muscles. My shoulder has not been giving me too much trouble apart from a brief spell around the time I was ill, when I could hardly sleep for the pain in it, and the rest of the neck - I am uncertain as to why this was, but, it passed, and I now sleep with a plastic teeth-protection-bit-thingie. This helps my jaws to no end, and I no longer wake up with my front teeth in a new shape every morning....

For me, it was easy to get back into training after the involuntary hiatus over the so-called holidays. I occasionally run to the train just for the hell of it, or, jog, at least, as I can't run properly in my big boots, I challenge myself in every training session, and I am working on my cutting technique in iai, and, well, whatever is thrown my way in Kali. I have really started to have the various pieces fall into place, even double stick. Today's practice was a joy, with and without sticks. And it's not just me who find that speed is one of my strengths - one of the others grinned and muttered that it'd be far easier to "hit" me were I not so quick. ("Hit" because it was warmup, and all about a light touch to the shoulder or knee, rather than a punch). Also, today I had a truly epic smoothie after the training. I usually only take a sandwich with inordinate amounts of cheese, sausage or something such, usually with salad on top, but I had the chance to mix up a pure-fruit smoothie, and so I did. Strawberries, raspberries, an orange, a banana, an apple... ecologically grown, too, or as locally grown as I could get them - because it damn well tastes better, and is better for the environment too. And, I added a dash of that powder (Gainer or Whey-80, can't remember which and can't be bothered to go and have a look right now) from StarNutrition which I used for a while when I went from pretty much easy workout to four days of hard training a week and very little sleep - it saved my health and I am not ashamed to use it, though I do not use it as a substitute, but rather a complement to the food I eat, a dash of extra help to avoid muscle soreness and promote muscle growth. It's Swedish made, tested for pretty much everything and one of th brands with the best reputation there is, as far as I have found. And if I take just a dash, and blend it into a LOT of other things, well, then I can hardly taste it, and I can stomach getting it down. So tomorrow, I shall see if it has helped the muscle soreness somewhat! I will not overuse it, but, like I said, use it as a complement to give that extra little bit that my body needs. I didn't slack off too badly muscle- or fitness-wise over the holidays, but I am certainly not going to let my evolution stall here...

Over to you, now - was it easy getting back into stride after the holidays, or did you just not stop doing your regular routine?

I hope you're going to follow me yet again, because I am back, and so should you be! Oh, and that enormous blue blotch on the inside of my knee, pay it no heed. That was caused by a well-placed heel, and is now being treated with a very helpful gel, hopefully to be vanished soon...