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!

Regarding the differences in bodies

I am a wee bit busy, so I shall for that necessity keep this shorter than I had thought. Yesterday saw another Kali Sikaran practice, but even before, there was something up with my right knee. The right knee is usually more well-behaved than the left, but not this time. It might have something to do with a wonky move I did during a kata on Monday, where I certainly did not make the right movement with my right leg while turning from a sitting position, and it felt as if I had almost torn a muscle or something in the thigh. I kept going, of course, but that may have affected my knee. Thus, the Sikaran practice, where of course we were kicking, we also were to grab hold of the other's leg and hold it, sometimes drag and sometimes push, and that, as you may imagine, did not do anything good for my knee. In fact, the trainer managed to make me say "Aow, that hurts, that hurts." which is rather rare indeed. Of course, I am careful in general, having no softening stuff underneath the kneecap itself, but this was something more than that. Some of the twisting and turning when kicking also stressed the same parts of the knee, and I resolved to be careful with stretching, and do it several times also today. It does not appear to have helped much, so I suppose I tore something small, or caused a... well, something. This evening I was to be the trainer for iaido, since sensei could not come. To my surprise, neither did anyone else, bar one woman from the beginners' group. This was of course turned into something very beneficial as soon as we figured no one else would come, and the entire practice was spent with the added focus of having a woman's body in what is, gender equality and so on notwithstanding, a sport essentially designed by and for a male body. Biologically, this does make quite a difference at times. The positioning of certain parts of the skeleton are different, such as the hipbones. Our hips are far more mobile, I suppose you could say, giving slightly different conditions in many areas - for example, when running, biologically female bodies expend more energy than biologically male (henceforth, the terms "female" and "male", "man" and "woman" will be used without such prefixes, but rest assured I am aware of the difficulties and nuances and variations of gender and sex, chosen and biological). In iaido, the most noticeable part is the cutting. A proper cut with a katana is stopped partly by correct grip of the tsuka (sword-handle), and more besides, but definitely by your arms sort of naturally hitting a stopping point: your chest. Even with shoulders rolled back, if you hold and cut correctly, your upper arms will naturally come to a halt because there is a chest in the way. For a body where there is not merely a chest with ribs and muscles, but also two bags of fat, that can be everything from nothing annoying to a bloody nuisance and huge in size, there is a problem - your arms will suddenly stop before they ought to. (Quite apart from the fact of the shoulders being built slightly different, and women having a wee bit of a harder time building muscles). So there you are, cutting as beautifully as you can, but... bump. The most natural way is to in some way bend your elbows, but be careful the male sensei and senpai (lit. "teacher" and "person of higher [status]") know WHY you do this*, and do try to find a compromise between having the "correct" posture and way of cutting, and adapting it to your own body's condition and prerequisites. *And don't let them get away with the "hrrrmhhrrrrmh" of not wanting to speak of it. We are at practice, training in one way or another a martial art. Stop being flustered about body parts. It's just a variation on a general theme - sacks of fat, or no sacks of fat. If you have them, you do have to do things a wee bit differently. Get over it. But be careful you do not suddenly start doing strange things. Keep your shoulders back, have a look at what you're doing with your elbow - it might possibly have to be a wee bit more bent, and try to twist it so it doesn't show the inside upwards, but rather towards your body. Now, I am using iaido as the example here. But the discussion is still valid: every body is different, the differences between bodies of different sexes are generally the largest. When running or walking, a female body will swing the hips a bit more than a male, their way of using the feet is a bit different, when doing crunches or pushups or what the bother ever - it will be different. Variations on a theme (the theme being human body with bones, muscles, ligaments etcetera), but still variations. Your body is different from everybody else's. This means one body may have visible, swelling muscles with no effort, and you forever wishing your softness would disappear (mine won't, it just doesn't run in the female side of the family to go without a most charming little roundness on the stomach and well-shaped arms that look soft and feminine no matter how strong we are, but the legs, and the butt, oh, THEY show at once if we have been running or walking or somesuch). Or your body may refuse to be more dextrous than it already is, no matter how good at yoga you have become, whereas your neighbour can bend around like a gymnast. Or you need to work bloody hard at the dexterity part, whereas your stamina has been good since you were little. Always try to follow the advice of your trainer, but do read up on it too. Don't go wikipedia or youtube on it. Don't argue too much (especially not during your training session! damnit, there's little enough time as it is), but do ask questions and pose suggestions in a creative way, rather than a criticising. If you train something that has very set rules and ways, well, deal with it, and keep in mind who it was made for, and in what circumstances and how your body may differ from the conditions of that. If, however, your trainer says "...but we have different strengths and weaknesses, and our bodies are different" then rejoice, because then you know what no matter how long you train, you will always meet other people who do the same thing as you, but perhaps in a slightly different way, to better suit their own bodies, and sometimes you will gain good insight from this as to your own way of doing things. Always be ready to listen, and try, but be also always a little bit careful. ...did I say this was going to be short? I seem to have failed. Especially relevant for this blog, I would say is the matter of running. Surprisingly many people have now confessed to me they run barefoot style in various situations, and one even during their normal jogging , but I got the feeling that the people selling them shoes didn't quite accept that way of running... It can work. It certainly does for me. Suddenly, changing style and way of using my body, I found one that suited me. Have you experienced such a change in your preferred way(s) of physical exercise? How do you deal with the limit, constraints, strengths and opportunities your body has? Give an example, if you like!