2005 Workout #74: My Roomba does a better job than me, and that’s not saying much.

Last night was Sweeps Night at the dojo. This is a technique that I am neither good at, nor particularly like to have done to me. I came to realize by example that I have been doing this technique completely wrong. No wonder it never works for me.

My dry wit detector was retardedly out of whack last night, because Sensei Brewer was in that special mood where he was giving us a good natured kidding for a little bit followed by some correction. The correction tended to come with that special brand of Sensei dry wit where you were never quite sure if he was seriously annoyed at something or just helping out. Just a point of record here from the first class: punches and the Starship Enterprise have NOTHING in common. You read it here first. Really, I mean that. 🙂

I mentioned before that I figured out a few things by example… Sensei Brewer had me come out to help him demonstrate the next point on sweeping where one would shift to the side and sweep behind the ankle near where the calf muscle tied in. Of course, due to his ability to sweep anyone at any time he got me in the same spot about three times.

I then had a nice “pink belly” style whack mark on the back of my leg to use as reference on where to sweep someone. This was useful to me for the rest of the second class. By the end I was starting to get it, however I still have a tendency to sweep a bit higher than I should. When I was sparring with Oedewaldt I kept accidentally sweeping him with my shin, but that was in part due to the fact that he would buckle his knee inward when the sweep was coming to attempt to soften the blow.

Sweeping Erbe or McCabe is like sweeping a tree and a bear respectively. Its a wonder to me that this technique will ever work on them, but I think I’m going to make it a goal to work on it enough to make it happen. Sensei Brewer made a good point last night… its really not about strength, its about timing.

I was told that when I get upset (even at myself) I have been tensing in my shoulders which is slowing me down. I know this is happening, but I’m never conscious of it until after I’ve been doing it for awhile. I thought I was only doing it during something specifically, but it seems that I’m doing it much of the time. I need to figure out how to relax myself again.

This morning I woke up to some stiffness and soreness in my leg joints, I’m sure its from the unfamiliar feeling of actually putting a sweep on someone with the intent for it to work.

There was only brief discussions about the recent goings on with Alan-san. He’s pretty much history as far as we’re concerned, and if he shows up he gets shown the door. Dad still feels pretty bad about it, but he understands its probably for the best and it was only a matter of time.