06.10.06 - Saturday Practice

New Items Today:

• Full Speed Sparring

Reviewed Other Items:

• Stretching & Warm ups
• Techniques (Orange & Purple belt)
• Master Form (Through Orange belt)
• ¼ Speed Sparring

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Warm Ups & Stretching
Warm-ups were typical today – ball kicks, foot replacement roundhouse kicks, lunge punches - and then we did some stretching. In the old place we would ‘grab a chunk of wall’ and stretch with leg lifts. Because of the way the dojo is set up now, it appears that we are going to be a little more confined to the mat so our warm up stretching has adapted. The stretching we are doing now seems to tilt more toward static stretching as opposed to the dynamic leg lifts we were doing before. We still do front stretch kicks but the mat stretching was definitely more static.

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Techniques
We paired off and worked with partners on the techniques, starting with the Orange belt. I was working with Walt today and we definitely worked up a sweat. Doing the technique once slow, then fast, we alternated back and forth with any given technique until Sifu told us to go to the next one. I always seem to pick out some little refinement when we do techniques and Walt was willing to answer questions for me – though I tried to keep them to a minimum. After the Orange belt techniques, we went right on into Purple belt. I haven’t had much time going back and forth with anyone on the Purple belt techniques so I learned a lot today. It was solid practice and I felt better about the techniques by the time we finished. Thanks for the help, Walt!

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Master Form
In practicing the Master form today, I was with the Purple belts on the mat and simply went through my portion of the form and then bowed out while they continued on with theirs. I was getting stuck in the transition between Deflecting Thunder and Thunder and Lightning. I was going off to the wrong angle and it was screwing me up. Phyl saw my issues gave me some pointers between sets. I got it after that – thanks, Phyl!

Sifu called me out to the center of the mat after we had finished practicing as a group. He wanted to show me an adjustment that I need to make in the form when going into Deflecting Thunder. When moving back into the lunge stance, it is a quick transitional stance that “spring-boards” you into the ensuing ball kick. I wasn’t “spring-boarding” at all. We went through it a couple of times and I did better.

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¼ Speed Sparring
We paired up and did some 2 minute rounds of ¼ speed sparring. We just rotated out 4 times so we didn’t all get to spar each other this time. I purposely tried to stay away from the take-downs and be more technical in my movements. As Phyl and I bowed in and got ready, he said (with a smile) something about “owing” me for some take-downs. We kept it cool and we both tried to stay at true ¼ speed. It was a good workout and nobody went to the mat. I did find that myself quite reserved and withdrawn today and I’m not sure why. I guess I just didn’t feel very aggressive.

I went a round with Jeff next and we did the usual stuff. He had his long kicks and I moved inside to try to stop him. In my attempts to try something new, I started moving around him when he came straight in with a kick. This is easier to do when moving at ¼ speed and kept that in mind. As with times before, when I get inside on Jeff things moved to grappling, but I didn’t engage much and worked for a stalemate to reset.

Walt and I sparred next. Like Phyl, he mentioned take downs before we even got started and I told him that I had been trying to stay away from them today, but if he gave me something, I would take it. I was doing the same as I had been with the other guys and generally just holding back a bit. Then Walt came in with a straight kick and let me get inside and behind his leg. Since he gave it to me, I took it, and just brought a forearm up to his chest – at ¼ speed – and down he went. He landed kind of funny so I didn’t pursue him on the mat. Later he told me that he also had tried something different, and that was to try to roll out of the leg buckle but it didn’t work well and in fact, he thinks it actually added to the force of the take down because he hit and just kept rolling. Sorry Walt.

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Full Speed Sparring
Sifu told us to “gear up” after we finished our ¼ speed sparring. I didn’t have my mouth piece with me so I was a little apprehensive at first, everyone was made aware and we proceeded. Walt and I paired up first and got to work. This is the first time I have sparred with these guys at full speed and I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect. Walt came right in swinging, more or less charging in. I went largely into defensive mode and simply blocked and ducked his strikes. He came in with a few to the body but he did me the favor of avoiding head shots. I returned a few shots of my own but they were highly selective single shots, no real combinations. The 2 minutes were over in a flash.

Next up was Sifu. He lined up with me and waited for me to make the first move. In sparring with Sifu in the past, he typically hangs back and capitalizes on me when I commit myself to a strike. This time I hung back. Sifu did a little “Bruce Lee” move as we lined up, lead arm to lead arm. He came over the top with a quick strike, like Bruce did in “Enter the Dragon”. He told me to be more aggressive so I lead with a low kick to the knee. Still holding back, he told me to use more combinations so I lead with that same low kick and then double kicked to the solar plexus, which surprised him simply because he wasn’t expecting an immediate reaction like that. Although I was relatively well covered up, I did expose my core to him once and he came straight in with a thrust kick and connected well. Two minutes went by quickly again.

I kept time for a couple more rounds for the other guys. When we were finished sparring and started packing up for the day, Sifu approached and told me straight up that he wanted me to be more aggressive in sparring. I reminded him that I didn’t have my mouth piece today and was holding back. He acknowledged the mouth piece issue but stated I have a tendency of sparring less aggressively than he wants to see. What could I say?