2015/09/22: Perception, Wing Chun, "Surprised," Homework for the Week

Today I went for a walk with an old mentor of mine (in music, particularly Trumpet and Piano), Jesse. And as we walked, he was pointing out things that I either noticed or did not pay attention to, or did not notice at all. The entire time, he was carrying out a conversation with. So either one of two things was going on; either he was barely paying attention to the conversation and his mind was all over the place, or he just has such an acute passive awareness that he registers literally EVERYTHING.

I'm quite certain it was the second, since he was carrying out a conversation with me the whole time. Interesting. I am certain it was part of his art training, but I am starting to understand why samurai were so obsessed with art. And many other martial artists, for that matter.

Also, Nathan, a guy from my Judo Club, asked me if I wanted to train Wing Chun under one of the other guys in the Club, named Peter. I said sure, and made some adjustments in my schedule to check it out, and I am so glad that I did. I have not felt a Pak Sau with full body power like that in years. He had me do a lot of drills right leg forward, which I wasn't used to (WHICH IS GOOD, IMPROVEMENT! :D), but I was starting to get back into the groove. My sensitivity is all still there; I actually accidentally hit my training partner in the face a couple times because his hand left the centerline and I felt kind of bad lol. The sifu told me it was okay though. (He was a student of Hawkins for who knows how long)

But man, this guy is the real deal, I can tell just by the way he moves and the ideas he was throwing around. He is trying to teach us old man's Wing Chun, which is very contradictory to the use your structure and run them the hell over approach I learned, or my current boxing style, which is still quite economical, but uses SOME muscle (that I am trying to replace with internal power). The style of Wing Chun I am being taught however, uses almost exclusively the other guy's power, as well as dead weight. It's quite impressive.

After that I gunned it to the Gracie Academy, and thankfully I was only like 15 or so minutes late. We reviewed the guard stuff that we did yesterday, so that was all good. Sparring rounds were good too.

Then I rolled with Jordan, the instructor/black belt, for the first time, and that was such an awesome experience! Right off the bat he wipes some sweat off of his forehead and uses that as a disguise to try to shoot a cross-collar choke LOL. Luckily the sensitivity I developed from Wing Chun saved me and I got the frame in in time. In fact, he couldn't get a cross-collar choke on me! Obviously he wasn't trying as hard as he could, but he did shoot pretty fast - yet I defended just as fast.

He caught me in an armbar that he let me escape from, as well as a SICK triangle that he got off of an attempted guard pass (from a kind of Kuzure Yoko Shiho Gatame position) where he faked a rollaway and then came back and triangled me.

What was really surprising to both of us, however, was how comfortable I felt at the bottom of the mount. To me it's kind of like, "whatever, I know what you're going to do, and I know how to stop it, so let's see if I can do it." I don't freak out.

Jordan was surprised too, and was impressed with my defense. So we are making progress :D. Also,

"If you want to go for a submission, always go for a different one first." Truer words have never been spoken.

Though I won't really be going for many submissions in the next 6-10 years unless someone decides to haphazardly fall into one.

So my homework for the week:

• Jiu-Jitsu: Play Guard! We are now on guard chapter, be on both sides of it, there is plenty of defense to be learned on both sides.
• Judo: Fundamental movements, controlling their body. Forget the throw, I can't throw them if I can't control them. If they throw themselves, however, I'm all for that.
• Wing Chun: Work on my Southpaw stance, and the weight on the REAR leg. That's new for me since I rely on the trigger step a lot. And if their weight is in that leg, they can't kick!
• Boxing (not really boxing), work on my combos: Double jab, 1-2, Hook off jab, straight right to body off jab, jab uppercut, alternate hooks, uppercut hook, double uppers, 1-2-lead hook, 1-2-1, left jab-hook to right, triple jab, DOUBLE SHIFT, Fitzsimmons shift on both sides
• Footwork: Two styles; light and weighted (and practice in between stuff, as long as I have control) Practice forward, backward, circling, sidestepping, cutting, shifting, drop stepping, and whatever other footwork stuff you have on BOTH SIDES.
• Defense: Practice wedges, as well as all of your covers and guards

I think that's enough to keep me occupied for a while.