2005 Workout #134: The hips, they are a-turnin’…

Tonight’s workout revolved largely around two topics: hip rotation and deep stance.

My body is still feeling the after effects of this weekend’s clinic… most of the soreness was gone today, however my tendons have been left in a degraded state. I could not feel connected most of the night, and it felt like I was dragging through mud when I was moving around.

I’m trying to focus on the fundamental topics of Sensei Yabe’s clinics… keeping good posture and deep stances. This is a very difficult endeavor, since my default action is to raise up and get destroyed. I worked on it a little tonight, but with things not quite responding to requests properly I felt very awkward. It just felt like from a stance that low focusing on forward intention with the hips wasn’t enough to get me moving quickly enough.

We also got the chance to do something that we don’t regularly do anymore… some good old fashioned body conditioning. I got across from my Dad during the sparring portion of the night and we were laying into each other HARD. Sensei Brewer mentioned that he wanted to see a little body contact. Dad and I were ringing shots in there pretty hard and it was GREAT. Even though every third shot rattled my innards and made me want to poop.

For some of the workout I had the opportunity to work with … I’m pleased to say that once I got him leaving his hand on his hip until the last moment he was winging them in there pretty hard!

For some reason he (and many others) are afraid that I’m going to break if they hit me as hard as they want. It just isn’t true, folks. If I can spar with the likes of and Sensei Brewer, most everyone else can do their worst. I think this same assertion applies for most of my other black belt brethern… we can take it. Besides, as often says… I’m composed of 90% scar tissue anyway.

Speaking of… I’ve got that disgusting “I just worked out on a foreign floor” condition where the callous on the bottom of your toes and heels seperates and slides around like a giant blister. They haven’t torn yet, I’m hoping that they will remain intact so I don’t have to spend several months reforging them.

I’m not going to make it to Mapleton tomorrow night after all because I have to take care of some random things at the homestead that did not get done this weekend. My plan is to make Thursday and Saturday.