Because I'm a glutton for punishment.

Classes today weren't too bad. This morning's class had the usual suspects, but Sandy came along too. Class is always so much easier and fun when Sandy's around. She helps with keeping things moving, at least in making sure I work more, and keeps me on track. ;-) We worked on sparring combinations whereby we didn't have to get our gear on (yay!), doing first a #3 round, #2 round, then progressing to doing the same but adding a reverse hook or crescent as a 3rd step. It was good. I'm going to have to think about doing that sort of thing more when actually sparring. And since Sandy and I are starting to both work on DSJB, we both showed each other what we had learned on our own (or in our own classes, to be exact), and then worked on all the information together. I showed her the stuff I learned last week, and she showed me something where you alternate that underarm tuck and move it to the alternating hands of the V and back. Sandy showed me this one move that's really cool. It's actually a juggling trick, but it's where you flip the SJB downwards in a swing that throws it back forward towards your shoulder and you catch it. She can do it with one hand and not as well with the other. I can't do it with either hand, but she was showing me how to do it with at least one hand.

When she showed SW, SW gave us a challenge. It was basically something whereby you learn to do the 360(degree) release on a diagnonal. She showed us how to do it with one SJB to do a triangle throwing in that release move, and then she showed us the two handed whereby you just go across the body on a diagonal and the hands alternate (one is up while the other is down, and vice versa). Oh, what did I get myself into? Conceptually, it's an easy enough idea, and it's an easy way to show a lot of flash. But ohhhhhhh maaaaaannnnnn. I've got the hang of it a little bit with my right hand, but as usual, the left hand is generally uncooperative. Blast.

Fast forward to tonight. Before class, I decide, since I got there early and there weren't a lot of people there, I'd work on this new move. SW noticed, and teased me playfully about it. I was getting the hang of it a little bit more, but heck if this is another one that's going to take me a few weeks to get the hang of it. We reviewed the sparring material again, and we worked on our forms and weapons. I did get another section of IW#2 today. Gosh darn it if there seems to be some sort of hook kick with every section! I have really been having a difficult time with stationary kicks in forms as of late, or mostly stationary. For example, the section that we are doing now is where you do a low knife hand while in a closed stance, and immediately go into a #1 sidekick, #3 hook kick combination before ending with a double knifehand block. I can do it, but does it look pretty? Not exactly. I know more now. I need to be more conscientious about how the kicks are executed overall. Most importantly, and I started having this problem during the last cycle, but I seem to be losing my balance a lot more. You'd think the opposite would be true, but nay, it's not. I lose my balance more now. Perhaps it's because I'm being more thoughtful about what I'm doing now than the first time around. I don't know. Sometimes I think it's something whereby I'm getting unused to standing on mats vs. a flat floor. I don't know.

So, the DSJB challenge has already been kicked up a notch. It should keep things interesting. Now, I also have to work on my board breaks. I haven't done any since the week of graduation, and that was 3 weeks ago, so I need to get moving on that. I have a round kick to get done with a new foot, after all, so you KNOW I'll be at board breaking class on Saturday!