Due to illness or injury a few of the senior guys were absent last night. However, Scary was back again so as one door closes another opens.
Us lowly level one guys got to work with Mantis last night which was a good thing. We also got to review a few techniques that I have not seen a while.
I’ve come to the conclusion that I need to get my hands on the Yang DVDs. There’s a couple sets floating amongst the students and if that’s a dead end I may go and buy them. Being able to visually review that which I’m practicing may be the next best thing to a partner. I’ve checked with my Chin na classmates and we are all scattered to every point of the compass. So logistically it would be very hard to meet for extra practice.
My extra training with Tornado is also drawing to an end. Logistics, adequate practice space, and schedules have gotten in the way. Over Christmas break he’s going to investigate commercial schools. Since he made it half way to black belt in Taekwondo that’s where he plans to start again.
We have 17 locks to learn at level one. Add a dash of “options” to each lock and the number grows. Options are considered extra credit as far as testing is concerned. Still, a lot of the senior guys like to show where you can take a basic lock. Anyhow, it’s a lot of stuff to learn and I’ve found that it’s much harder to learn than boxing, PPCT, or Taekwondo. Harder does not necessarily mean better (or worse) and this is really just an observation and nothing more.
After locks we did the line versus line drill again. Basically one side attacks and the other side defends with Chin na. As Mantis quipped: “It’s humbling because it shows you how much you don’t know.” I agree. I’ve been at this six months and have seen all 17 locks. Last night was probably the best line drill I’ve had. I was able to make wrap hand one, back turning, and two wrist presses actually work. They were not text book but they did work. However, for every success I had I’d have to say I also had a failure when trying to realistically use other locks. Some of the failures were spectacular too. In fact, Scary simulated punching me three times in the face while I dicked around trying to get a lock to work. Lesson learned for sure!
What else?
Notably absent again were Mr. Aikido and Mr. Japanese Jujitsu. Something tells me that they’ve both decided Chin na is not for them. On a positive note the new “new guy” is still coming to Chin na and Praying Mantis. This is good. The kid almost passed out last week from pain but keeps coming back so that’s a good sign.
~BCP
