To owe the body a rest

All in all it became a very active week - nine days altogether, with some kind of physical exertion every day. Sunday saw me confirm my theory of the possibility of skiing from the back door all the way to the sea, I would have done the same on Monday and Tuesday too considering the weather was just as stunning then, but having had the week I did, and knowing I was to be the trainer for Monday's iaido, and go to Tuesday's Kali Sikaran, I felt I had to forego skiing those two days...

Which is a pity, as there probably shall be no more skiing this winter. But there you are.

 The skiing tour took me over those glorious golf fields - glorious only because they are covered in snow and I don't have to see them, nor am forbidden to go right across them in winter. I followed a small brook, or perhaps a stream, on the northeast side of it, going past a house or two and then across field after field, interspersed with trees and the occasional track from the local wildlife. Actually... there was quite a lot of tree, both beside the stream and around, but everywhere the land was flat enough, there were fields. Eventually I saw the castle (a rectangular, tall building looking like a large house, to be honest, but I've nae been inside it yet), and noticed that I had some time to go yet before the bus would take me back. Now, I'd not normally have taken the bus, but as I said, I knew I had to let the body rest a little, even if I didn't want to.

So I walked (taking my skis off) across the road, put them back on, and found my way the last bit beside the stream and out to the sea, going past a picturesque red house or three on the way, delighting in the feeling of skiing right across another snowed-over golf course, seeing a couple of other skiiers in the distance (they, unlike me, seemed to do some sort of active effort of going fast and getting into physical shape, whereas I mostly... explore, and enjoy the nature around me...) and eventually finding a small collection of wood probably meant to moor boats by in the summertime. The sea was covered in ice, that was covered in snow, and I toyed with the idea of going out across it. It looked solid enough as far out as I could see, it was a rather protected little cove of a sorts, and there was a bus an hour later too... but I didn't have any sort of ice safety equipment, and therefore decided to just ski back to the bus.

Once home, I took a long shower, and, still grinning like a happy maniac, made myself some food. Because one really, really does need to eat as soon as one can after such an extended period of physical exertion.


After Monday's practice, I stayed behind a little and did some Chuden kata from Musou Shinden Ryu, just to work my leg muscles a bit more. ...yes, you can probably see the flaw in the plan here, you too. It wasn't really a bad plan, not really... but maybe I could have done some other kata, that weren't quite that taxing for the legs. The day after I definitely felt the strain and the lack of a whole day of resting them. But I knew the Kali practice was unlikely to be very hard on the legs, and I was right. So they didn't feel worse after that, just "as bad".

This influenced my decision to be a "roller" rather than a "carrier" when I packed my bag - I didn't want to put any unnecessary strain on my knees, and to be a bit careful about them. I went to my lovely Chalcatraz, and spent the Wednesday in good company. Thursday, though, I flitted about, here and there all over town, on a bike and on foot, and Visby may be lovely, but flat it is not. So I do count that as a bit more than the normal kind of everyday exercise!
Yesterday and today saw quite a bit of walking, and I haven't really felt I've missed the training, but that could be because of the resident cat... and the soreness in my stomach muscles after about 140 crunches in succession on Tuesday's Kali practice...

Well, all in all, nine consecutive days of glorious exercise certainly felt like a treat. I still wish I would have dared to go skiing on Monday and Tuesday too, but, I have learned the hard and bad way to listen to my body, and so I had to do this time also.
Have you ever foregone practice purely or mostly because you know your body probably could take it, but shouldn't? Or have you used it as an excuse, feeling a bit guilty - or, perhaps, felt guilty despite having a very valid reason?
I know I've been guilty to that very last part quite a few times.
Listening to what the body tells you is important, though it is important to know the difference when one can push through, and when one really needs to go a bit easier.

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!