So, after a pretty demoralizing weekend (which was more of a downward spiral, luckily I had a fun time playing Munchkins with some drunk friends), I was right back to it at the Academy at noon. I got paired up with a black belt, which was AWESOME he taught me so much, and I learned a lot moving with him. I'll admit I could be less panicky at the bottom, but give me a break, I'm getting punched! I'm learning how to take a hit and make it hurt less, but next time I'll really try to work on shedding, even from the bottom. Oh, and escaping an armbar when they can punch you is really hard. (But if they're punching you, they can't finish the armbar...)
"Just keep on going." Said the black belt. "See you at 30."
And you will. Thanks for inspiring me.
I tried out some of the standup stuff I'd been practicing, and I surprised myself. The double jab is literally the greatest thing ever. Probably because no one knows how to defend it, but I'm kind of an ass and I go high-low, or I'll shoot my first jab at whatever, and the second at whatever they decide not to block. So it's kind of a guaranteed hit. The only real thing they can do is space better, but I was controlling the space so...
I was going with that one dude with the slicked hair (I think I made him upset :( ), and he was driving me back, and then I had this epiphany that he was eating up a lot of my space, and then I started sidestepping. And that's when it started going downhill for him, very much. All the footwork (well, not all of it, but a lot of it that I practiced) started just happening! I was changing leads, shifting, cutting angles and stuff, and I was getting hit after hit after hit on him. Of course, I did it light, but it was so cool! This guy threw a punch at me and I held the shield up and sidestepped (though it missed me completely) and then I turned and threw a left rear straight (by sidestepping I switched leads), and it was dope.
I also discovered that, even though I knew I trained my speed a lot, I never actually knew how fast I was. Holy crap, I am fast. I can move fast, I can shuffle fast, and my hand gets from my guard to his face...very, very fast. A couple times, I was able to throw the punch, have it get within a centimeter of his face, and pull it back, all before he could react. Holy crap. The wrist torque on the other side helps a lot, but that is some crazy speed. I will try not to abuse it though and train technique instead, because with age I will lose my speed.
The craziest thing that happened though was there was a moment where he just randomly decided to come at me, and, without permission or any command from my brain whatsoever, my foot instinctively sprung off the ground, proper technique and everything, and did a roundhouse. Now, if he hadn't changed levels and tried to shoot, it would've hit him in the ribs, which he probably would've blocked. But because he changed levels, it was going to hit him in the face. HARD. But good thing he blocked, and left a dent in my foot, but yeah....I now know what they meant in Longstreet, when he said, "...like I didn't kick...it kicked." I seek this feeling for all of my moves. Wow.
Anyway, at night, we went to judo, where we just went over all of the throws. I will admit I need to start connecting centers mentally (I am doing it very physically) before I try to throw him, but aside from that it went pretty well.
The sensei decided to teach me Hane Goshi, and I think I might have scared him with my intense concentration when I set about learning it, but after a couple tries, I was able to do it! He came right off of the ground! It's such an awesome throw! Now I just want him to teach me Uchi Mata lol.
I'm noticing more and more that all of these throws are the exact same thing, it's just that the hand positioning or the body positioning is slightly different. But in terms of principles, it's more or less...all the same thing.
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