Tag Archives: sparring

WD-40 For The Body

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That’s what the first training session of the year felt like for me last night. I arrived really keen to get going and get back into it after almost 3 weeks of comparative inactivity, but I think I was a bit naive in thinking it wouldn’t be as tough as it was. I remember bouncing around before we started feeling pretty good and pretty limber, but after a couple of minutes of the warm-up I was really beginning to feel the effects of my time off. By the the time the physical had ended I was sweating, panting and wheezing. Wheezing! I can’t remember the last time I had any kind of asthmatic wheeze. Forms practise was equally as tiring, and to my shame I couldn’t remember past four moves of Pyung Ahn Sa Dan, which to my mind is quite abysmal. I’m not about to beat myself up for it though, we were told to take a total break and that’s what I did, apparently my brain did too. Once I found that elusive fifth move the rest of it flowed back to me instantly, like breaking a dam in a river.

Sparring was a different matter. As tiring as it felt at first, within about ten minutes I felt really quite sharp and fast, although that could just have been the drills we were working through. It felt so good to get the pads back on though, and to make and take some contact. I’m really fired up again now, and the break was exactly what I needed. My sore hip/top of thigh is feeling so much better, the sore spot on the back of my calf is gone and my tender achilles is fine. The human body is fantastic at repairing itself, but sometimes it really needs the opportunity to do so.

Now the hard work starts, the training and running, and I have to say I’m really looking forward to it.

Oh, and here are a couple of photos from the beach training session from Christmas.

Christmas Beach Training 1

This dip was so refreshing.

Christmas Beach Training 2

And just off at a little tangent, and probably to remind myself of it when I browse back over this in future months, here’s a song which has really got stuck in my head lately, I love it.

Bloc Party – Flux
[youtube WsIMTwVaGyw]

Oops

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I nearly forgot to post again! :)

Training was hard work tonight, the warm-up and physical was the hardest I’ve had in a long time, and the rest of the lesson was spent switching between speed and combination focus mitt work, and sparring drills. By the end of it I was exhausted and my pads soaking. I’d taken a heavy punch to the face, been kicked about a bit and loved every minute of it! Well, except for the physical I mentioned before….

My sparring’s coming on now, I’m definitely getting faster and picking my points better, but my guard is abysmal. I chastised myself so many times during the session for dropping my hands, being lazy and sometimes even just taking a hit! Time to work on that I think. My footwork is much better than it was and I really enjoyed working the sweeps :)

Pretty much all I want to do right now is sleep. Just close my eyes and drift off. I think a nice hot shower is in order, something to eat and drink, and then a warm, comfortable nights sleep.

Bliss.

October Rust

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Yeah, another Type O Negative reference – so sue me! :)

Everything’s turning a good orange colour now, especially in the woods where parts of it are knee-deep in leaves. I’ve also learned something new this year, small ginger spaniels are hard to see in lots of leaves!

I got a vision disturbance again during sparring on Friday, that’s the second time in four weeks. At the time I thought it was after I took a knock on the head, but on reflection I think I just started to notice it more then as I had a target in front of me. Given the way it fades away within half an hour or so it looks like it might be blood pressure related, which has irritated me a bit if I’m honest, as I’m the lightest and fittest I’ve been in a good many years now! Still, a quick trip to the doc’s this week should tell me for certain.

I missed this year’s Battle Of The Celts sadly, and it sounds like it was an eventful one too! I have to miss this week’s coming UK TSD Championships in Essex too, and I was quite down about it, but last night’s training put pay to that self-pity! :D The main lesson was sparring-focussed, and the kick shield work was great with more opportunity to try out the power we know we’re holding back on normally. After the lesson came a fight squad session, and a real belter at that! I was annoyed with myself for holding back in my first fight, I barely threw a single attack, but the next bouts were much better and I gave plenty of strong points. It seems I took some too, I’m aching all over today!