Steve
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Week 3: It was a wash and I was sick and didn’t see the portal info until the week was half over. Training, in modicum, happened, but was not tracked.
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This week my focus has been on getting to my own level of “satisfactory” with the previous weeks content. Namely the 5 measures, but also Gioco Largo. Also worked toward making my calisthenics program more precisely adhere to the practical uses of the movements during swordplay. Unfortunately, this has also led to an overload in my forearms and I’m having to carefully adjust my workouts to NOT flare up my tendonitis.
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Foundational Cuts
Good grief. It looks like I did false edge cuts, instead of true edge sotani (sp?) on at least one leg of that run. And my hourglass steps could use some hourglass shape in them. But, I will say that I got 7 strikes in each leg/road/directional vector and aside from a couple brief pauses the flow is what I expect for my current level of comfort with this form.
My adherence to the correct order of body part movement still needs work – I can see that when I feel more comfortable moving I’m falling into old habits, that aside my weapon path looks decent.
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I think my mechanics are in good shape, according to the list of things on the self-assess guidelines. I have a definite idea of what I’m doing with each movement. I will admit that what I envision happening in this form may not be precisely what is intended.
Movement in most aspects are satisfactory. The biggest gotcha I see, is that I don’t follow the order of movements as stated. I’ve got 20+ years of doing chinese martial arts that dictate “the waist is the commander.” Meaning all movement starts with a waist directing the movement. This is visible right away in the first movement when I bring my hands to center and shoot out my leg and hands simultaneously. I’ll certainly have to work on that in order to adhere strictly to the teachings in this course – it will be difficult. I want to be quick to say my movement is expected to end the same as described in this course – meaning the strike lands at the same time as the foot, only the start of an action seems to vary.
On the first movement of the second (mirror) half of the form, I may have over-extended a bit – it gets exciting when I image striking something. With time and repetition I expect to ensure keeping my shoulders seated when executing these longer strikes.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by Steve.
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This reply was modified 5 years, 4 months ago by
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What stood out to you? Even though I know leg strength is super important, my current level of conditioning is inadequate to meet my ambition.
Did you have any big “aha moments” in your training? Things will go better for me if I slow down and reduce the intensity of my training.
What was most challenging? Committing new forms to memory.
Did you meet your own objectives? No
What do you think you might do differently next week? Low and slow repetitions, and break down parts of forms to isolate and work on at different times. I’m hoping that will make variant “roads” of a form easier to commit to memory. -
A brief moment for levity. Bernie says it’s not the three advantages he’s used to fighting for, but he recognizes their value.
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I know my participation is sparse on these threads, AND I’m working on content from last week still, but I’ve got to vent. The 5 Measures form is kicking my butt and brain! I don’t know what it is about it, but it has been difficult for me to get this one committed to memory. I suspect the asynchronous middle parts are what is throwing me off. Spent an hour strictly on this form today and still unacceptably chopping regardless of how slow or fast I practice it.
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I’ve been content with the volume of information and practice forms so far, though looking forward the amount of new forms may start to look daunting. That being said, I think to sustain my participation consistently over the whole course I’ll need to change my default intensity level. I will wear myself out, if I try to do every exercise at combat speed as is my inclination (once I’ve learned the patterns and concepts of course), so i’ll need to learn to pace myself a bit better than I have so far.
I’ve noticed my range of motion in the shoulders could be better and I think to address this I’ll need to spend a little more time with warm-ups and focusing on maintaining full range of motion throughout them. I expect balancing range of motion with keeping my shoulders seated will challenge me a bit.
If I’m being honest, I think the amount I’m correcting edge alignment is taking its toll on my forearms already – another reason to manage pace and intensity a bit better.
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What stood out for me in week 1 (and has continued to stand out to me) is that volume of preparation and development that must have gone into this program. What a wealth of accumulated knowledge and experience and how it must be a herculean effort to put it into an organized, condensed program that makes a lot of sense when executed.
The most challenging thing this first week was the logistics – I mentioned in another thread that my time and attention was hobbled by my kids being back in online schooling from home this week and even though they’ve been at for half a school year already, it took a lot of time and effort to get them where they needed to be so I could focus on what I need to be focused on.
I am happy that, although a slow start, I was able to meet my own objectives – which are slightly smaller that the program’s outline. Breaking out of my comfort zone with sharing thoughts will be a hard trait to overcome.
Definitely need to find my training stride earlier in the week. I know we’re supposed to be taking one day off during the week – mine can’t be Saturday, it’s gotta coordinate with other immoveable factors in my life.
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In week 1, I discovered that – despite not being a morning person, the sooner I can get into my training space, the better it goes for me. Week 1 time-wise was plagued by my kids starting school again and needing all manner of help getting back into the swing of things. But, if I can get them “off to pandemic era school” that’s the best time for me to get uninterrupted focus time for absorbing new information and putting it into practice. Made some adjustments to my space and organization of cameras and training dummies. It was fun putting the unarmed poste through paces. I treated it like many of the martial arts forms I practice by altering the repetitions as footwork only, then every poste is a strike, every poste as a grapple and every poste as a joint-lock.
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Thanks, Jen. I’ll work on fixing those things you noticed. I’m glad for the detailed analysis, I’m picky myself so it is inline with what I hope to grow with my practice.
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Thank you for the feedback. I’ll make sure to amend it for the future.
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Thanks. I appreciate the encouragement. 🙂
