Posted 1:18 AM by spitgirl
THE ROGUE SHINAI

I just had a nectarine craving. There's nothing quite like it, and it happens almost every fall. There is no joy quite like eating a perfect white nectarine, its flesh firm and sweet, just begging to be bitten into. Before you think I'm crazy... talk to a pregnant woman. I'm not pregnant, but I get cravings, too. (But unlike most other women I don't crave chocolate and rarely crave carbs. I crave... fruit. All right, maybe I'm half crazy.)

But anyhow, so I had a nectarine craving and went down to the fridge to find one... but after pawing through the fridge for a few minutes, I had the sinking feeling that there were no nectarines in the house. How could it be? It was in season! Mom is a magician! There are always nectarines and random fruit in the house! So I appealed to the higher power (Mom), who said she had hid them in the garage. Out I trooped to the garage... and lo and behold, my nectarines were there. ... so I just realized that was utterly useless and would give any psychologist worth her salt (ahem, Cindy) the proper ammunition to disprove my sanity, so I'll move on to martial arts.

With that fascinating and utterly clumsy segueway, my day today was fairly light - we warmed up with lines and even pulled the mats off the wood to do any rolls we want, barrier rolls included. I ended up using the doubled up mats to practice my not-so-soft soft rolls. (I think that particular roll is going to take a really long time to learn to get to the point where it looks graceful. I still look like a pregnant platypus being dropped from four feet high into thick mud.) I also did some forward and backward rolls on wood, only to discover that my right side rolls are great, and my left side rolls will bruise bone. Gotta fix that one... after the bruise goes away.

So then everyone cleaned up, and I made the mistake of grabbing a broom. Paul and I were cleaning up about ten minutes longer than everyone else... the class was exchanging grabs in order to practice escapes technique. Techniques I had the pleasure of learning today:

1. In reaction to a one-handed choke (Paul [6'3" long limbed friend] simply grabbed my sleeve with one hand and shot out his hand to strangle me), one can turn and catch the strangler in a wrist technique.
2. In reaction to a two-handed cross-hand choke, one smack a hand flat against the chest and then trace up to the little hollow at the base of the neck, and then hook and pull.

Thank you, Paul.

The second half of the workout was working some club defenses, using kendo shinai (practice swords) as weapons. I was able to work through some of the techniques Dr. Link taught us. (From the outside of an overhand strike, back hand blocks elbow, forward hand slides down and follows the movement of the shinai in order to get the offender off balance. From the inside of an overhand strike, block with forward hand, grab shoulder with back hand while choking opponent with forearm, turn in, and perform a forward body drop or some kind of a hip throw with a claw hold.) We then had an additional time to experiment with upper belts, and I had fun trying out the Raymond move from Wednesday on Scott. It's really mean - you step to the outside from the block, do a quick hook to the face, then drop your body on their arm. Owie.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went climbing at Ironworks. I'm slowly getting better but it'll take time and practice to do so. Until then, it's just a fun thing to do. Should be planning another LSF trip, this time to Ironworks, sometime this month. Hmm... when...