Free flow Tuesday

I have found a new obsession. Eskrima. I have been dedicating most of my free time in the last two weeks investigating the art and thanks to the course on Saturday I have also learned a bit about its physics too. I find the art fascinating. There is just something about two worriers engaging each other with weapons. Eskrima offers a very effective and reasonably safe way to engage each other in training.

I rushed to the dojo with the hope that someone will be willing to go over the drill we learned on Saturday with me. I practiced against the bag at home on Sunday and I was itching to face an opponent. Sure enough our Sensei took up the gauntlet and we started off with the padded sticks. I struggled to get into the drill initially but soon it was second nature and we went over to bare sticks just before the class was called to order.

We did the plank as usual followed by stretches and warm-ups. I was boiling by the end of the warm-ups and I took my gi top off as we started with some engagement drills. We trained how to block a punch and strike, lock and take down. I found myself getting in to the rhythm and flow of the moves fairly quickly and although I felt I had better moves to some of the drills I forced myself to analyse the movements presented to me. Diversity is after all the spice of life.

As we finished up with the drills I requested we drill the night out with bag work. I was anticipating that we would do Syllabus work, but felt that we should work on cardio a bit and that we did for the rest of the evening. We have had more intense bag sessions, but not by much. I didn’t get winded although I was throwing almost everything at the bag. It felt like the additional weight training was paying off and I had more energy and stamina than usual.

For the last ten minutes our Sensei showed us how to finish the opponent once the take down has taken place. For most of us the ground is a daunting place to say the least and definitely the last place to fumble and give your opponent the opportunity to regain control of the fight. Yes you might have struck your opponent good and proper with two or three of those deadly strikes we practice on the bags in the dojo and yes, you might have done a killer takedown and smashed your opponent into the paving, but finishing off the fight is a definite mist in the Ninjas world and like everything there is a right way and a wrong way. Don’t be afraid to show intent and be mean in the grading. Go for the knee in the ribs if you lose your balance and the knee on the neck while showing the arm break.

We greeted and went our separate ways. Just a bit more than a month to go before the next grading and this one will be the apex of the years training, so focus, train hard and be prepared...

Embrace the shadows.