This and that

It’s finals week at PU. So last night we only had one student show up and it was Tornado.

Good because you can cover a lot of material and refine stuff. It was also good to practice one-steps and self-defense on him. He’s got thick bones, muscle, and thick wrists. Consequently it’s very hard to get him to tap in any kind of arm bar/wrist lock. The good news is that almost all of ours also have a balance disruption step and now I know why. The steps are either horse stance or a 180 circle step. As long as you time it with your opponent’s momentum you can still take them down even if the bar/lock is not causing much pain. Then it just becomes an appendage hold that transitions to a take-down.

My right hand is…tender. The thumb joint is still not right from having been accidentally punched their by sabum a while back. So when they got to practice on me things were…interesting.

Sabum wrapped things up with light sparring. This meant pads on feet, shins, and arms but no head or chest gear.

Sometimes I think I’m starting to dread sparring.

The “light” match against Tornado rapidly degraded into an almost full-blown match. Thankfully Sabum stopped it but not before I got drilled in the thigh. I now can feel a nice knot that hurts like hell.

This was another one of those mornings where I hobbled out of bed like an 80-year-old man.

It’s looking like sabum is going to keep things going at least through the summer. She’s still torn about closing the school and is looking at options for pursuing her next dan rank and keeping it open. We shall see. I told her I’d help if she did but I have no intentions of pursuing second dan. *If* this happens (and logistically it’s looking like a big if for her) I told her I’d come to class once a week and help out. I’m still headed for Chin Na or aikido sometime this summer.

~BCP