darren_stranger | aircon is for wimps

Bushfires caused power blackouts in many parts of the city yesterday, apparently causing chaos on the roads as traffic signals were out. Bayswater and Knox weren't affected, so i didn't see any sign of it on the bus to training. It was only when i got to Glen Waverley that i saw any power out, and pretty much the whole suburb was darkened inside. Of course that meant no fans or air conditioning at training, but who needs that on a 41 degree day?

This session kicked off with, well, kicking drills, using mitts in groups of three. From front stance, one partner held a mitt at the front knee, which the kicker had to kick over to hit the target, held by the other partner. This forced us to pick up the knee and kick out and back, rather than just swinging the foot up. Then a similar exercise for side kick, with two mitts held horizontally about 30cm apart, which you had to kick through to hit the third mitt just beyond them. This was a little harder, as thinking about going between the two mitts distracted from kicking strongly to the target. My other problem in this was not coming back to a proper front stance, but landing narrow and somewhat turned to the side.

Next came a backstance exercise that proved quite instructive: Starting in ready position, turn to left with knifehand block in backstance, then turn to right (of starting position) with right foot forward, then to front with left forward, then to back with right forward, and so on. The sequence goes like this (naming the foot in front, and with 'north' as the starting position): Junbi (N), left (W), right (E), left (N), right (S), left (E), right (W), left (S), right (N), guman. Then the reverse: right (E), left (W), right (N), left (S), right (W), left (E), right (S), left (N), guman. What was most interesting about this was that despite the number of times i'd heard Greg say to turn one foot then the other to turn into back stance, eg in last turn of Taegeuk 8, i'm still trying to turn both at the same time, pivotting on the back foot as the front swings around. No wonder i find it hard to keep balance and sit into the stance right.   It also would apply to cat stance, and the middle rung of Taegeukl 8 that i'm struggling with at the moment. After running though that exercise all together, we paired up and had on partner watch the other to see how the transitions went. Melissa spotted mostly that my stances often ended up too narrow (T shape instead of L).

Then it was on to patterns work, all going through Pyongwon and Sipjin then seniors doing Jitae and Chonkwon with Mr Roz.

New points were:

Pyongwon: After front kick, recover then step down as if in short stance facing away from where side kick is going to go.

Sipjin: On sonbadak makki, supporting hand's wrist is straight, not up against other forearm. then open fingers one at a time, starting from index finger (one per count until both hands are spear hands).

Jitae: Need more twist in slow upper block. Watch where last four knife hand blocks start.

Chonkwon: Twist block - start from opposite shoulder in a gathered in position (actually touch opposite shoulder with blocking hand). This will pull hips around in windup, lifting back heel off the ground, then finishes with front stance a little smaller and slightly twisted.   Sonnaldeung wesanteul makki should stay close to body.

We finished the session with some pnf stretching / strength work for front and side kick, as in session #4.

Oh, there was one other lesson, on a more personal note - i've got to learn to speak up more.   At the end of the class, Mr Roz was mentioning about how far people travel for these classes, like Barry from Hastings and Simone from Bendigo, then mentioned that i travel for an hour by public transport. Greg chipped in at this point and asked if anyone was going toward Ringwood and could give me a lift, since i don't like to ask. I was taken by surprise and didn't think quickly enough to say that i actually prefer to get the bus, that it's my quiet time to go back over what we did in the class and get it written dwon in my book, and that getting a lift actually stuffs up my routine. It's always the way with me - things catch me unprepared and i only think later what i should have said or done. Maybe it's a case of being more on the ball at any time so i can think on my feet, rather than think later what i should have said or done, which would be useful for a lot of situations.

Mind you, with the public transport disruptions from the blackouts, perhaps a lift was a good idea after all.