Conditioning: 30 push-ups (I did 25 while others ended -- still lagging) crunches, frog jumps, running in place (hurts my broken knee a bit). I am having hard time completing the crunch set (30 count). Muscles do not hurt outright like after frog jumps, but do not work either.
Curriculum: lapel grab counters, first barehanded, then with a stick. Ninjutsu stick is about 80cm long, which is longer than the escrima stick to which I'm used.
After the class, I asked (complained actually) that it's hard for me to be mentally flexible, but this school places a lot of emphasis on mental flexibility. Mr. Young gave me some special excercises to do over the weekend. It goes like this:
- Start in ichimonji (standard, right hand back)
Keep the stance low - Swing right up, extending, over the top, then behind (well, as much as it goes), down and palm forward in front, like a pendilum. The move aims for the three-finger strike under the chin.
- In the same time, step forward. Left hand comes into ichimonji.
- Repeat everything on the other side.
As I understand it, the trick is to perform all movements simultaneously. The practitioner has to a) keep the stance low, b) excute the step, c) form the 3-finger hand position correctly, d) swing big circle. This makes the brain to contol a lot of motion and excercises it.
Adding to it, I have to keep myself from tensing up.
We'll see on Monday what the result is going to be.
P.S. Tried 構え(かまえ)の方 before class, and I barely can remember it. Weak sauce.
