Sparring with CK

132.5

CK and I met up at the community center at 9:30. There was some inevitable catching-up chitchat, then she suggested that we spar a little "to warm up". I told her about Epic Slump 2010, and that the Shaolin group is still very deficient on sparring practice, and that I am feeling very out of practice and intimidated. I didn't spar at all with MM when he was visiting. I just was not feeling up for a violent beatdown at CK's hands this morning (and she can bring the Violent Beatdown, I assure you). I suggested freeze-frame sparring, but she's not a big fan of that process. So we agreed to just go slow and light.

I am so very outmatched against CK, it's ridiculous. I usually do my best work close-up, but I can't close with CK- she just crushes me. I have to keep some distance, and of course her reach is longer than mine (although nowhere near as bad as SK or Nemesis). This is one of those faceoffs where you go in with the knowledge that you are just not gonna win this one.

I don't think I got a single head or throat strike in all morning. I was getting some belly strikes, some belly/groin kicks, but mostly what I was getting was knee kicks. You have to be careful trying to kick at CK, because she has very quick and bony knees that pop up to cover, and you end up hurting yourself with the kick more than you hurt her. She was also getting belly kicks in at me, which I find very frustrating- I'm unhappy with myself when I leave myself open enough for her to get a solid belly kick. She was also getting a lot of throat strikes on me.

I observed that I am still falling into the habit of getting frustrated, tense and sloppy as soon as my opponent lands a few solid hits. I also observed that I was very tense in general. It is quite exhausting to spar for long periods when you're that tense.

I made the mistake of mentioning to her that Cindy is trying to get me to observe when an opponent's head extends past her knee, and then grab around the back of the head and force the opponent to kiss the mat. So CK started doing that to **ME** whenever she saw my head come too far forward.

She also commented about how I was keeping my hands resting on top of her forearms the whole time. It wasn't conscious, but with my hands there, I could feel whenever she was about to move and I coud react immediately- I could try to keep her from striking at my neck and head- and this way I didn't have to WATCH her hands; I could keep my gaze on those treacherous feet of hers. This must be something I have started doing in BJJ, but I wasn't aware of it. Will have to take note of whether I notice that next time I roll. Anyway, CK says that the gesture reminds of her her late cat Niko, who used to place a paw on her kittens' heads and bear down... it was noticed at some point that Niko used the same gesture on her humans. This behavior took on the moniker "The Niko Dominating Paw". So after that, one or the other of us would periodically break into giggles during the spar, as we noticed my "Niko Dominating Paw" coming into play yet again.

I noticed that she overcompensated with the backing-up and covering whenever I bent over in low Leopard-strike position- even though I never got anywhere near her and in fact don't think I ever even extended any of the strikes. I also got her once by throwing a circular Crane top fist to the side of the head which was COMPLETELY a ruse to distract her from the kidney kick that I was *really* setting her up for. I also got her a couple times with a second kick after she'd blocked my first one, if I didn't put the foot back down before following up with number two. I balance well on one leg, and I think people tend to assume that after a kick, they don't need to worry about that leg any more until after it regrounds... not so!

Any time I did land any sort of a hit, though, it was like pressing a "GO" button on her- she immediately followed up by closing in rapidly with an aggressive attack. After a few of those, I got more intimidated and hesitant about trying to land something.

Once, she knocked me down and stepped toward me to help me up- only I assumed that she was stepping toward me to drop her considerable solid weight on top of me and flatten me into roadkill. So I balled up and then pistoned my leg out and kicked her in the knee- not that hard, but harder than I'd meant to. She gave me a shocked glare and an "OW!!!" and I felt Reeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelly bad. She stopped and put some jow on it, so I know it hurt. Then I was trying to be even more careful with my force and targeting, and trying to not kick her again in the same spot on the same knee.... but darn it, knee strikes were the only thing I was having decent sucess with!

We paused for me to hop around and swear a little after kicking her ankle bone at the wrong angle with my toe... she checked the time and realized it was already 1pm. Wow- time flies when you're getting beat up. So we adjourned in order to have a little downtime before Tuesday kung fu class. We had gotten one run-through of the tai chi short form in there during a sparring break, and a very little posture work, but mostly it was sparring. I know she wants to get some stance/posture work done and some formwork as well- and I do too- but I think the sparring practice was very valuable and time well spent.

I got home ravenous, and ate everything in sight.



Later............................

Kung fu Tuesday. No CN, and a small class- It was just me, Nemesis, SK, and CK- then JoE showed up a little later.

While waiting for class to start, I worked on all of the Snake Dao stuff. It seems pretty good, and I'm particularly proud of the slashy-spinny-flying-kick. I got that tricky footwork sequence, too. (SK peeked around the corner and warned me to not be too hard on my knees, after spending all morning sparring CK.)

We started with some forms- Little Red Dragon, Black Crane Three (walking CK through that one- she hasn't worked it in too long), Northern mantis Bo form (same). Then SK set to teaching CK some of the Snake dao, and told the rest of us to work on the Dao-vs-staff material. Since there was an odd number, I left Nemesis and JoE to work together on that and went off by myself. I went though all the Sanke Dao material again, but since I was pretty satisfied- and my knees were starting to ache- I got my bo and worked the spinning (high and low), turning (both directions), spinning-with-abrupt-stop-and thrust- (both sides, and with same-side foot lunging forward, then opposite side foot). Then I picked small visual targets on the trees and bushes and did the spinning-with-abrupt-stop-and-thrust while trying to develop decent thrusting aim at speed. That still needs more work. Everything is a little trickier with a staff that is too long for my body- but I can't really cut it, even had I the means- because I haven't paid for it.

By that time, my upper arms were starting to get tired, so I went around the corner and practiced Dragon forms. Touch Bridge (flow is seeming a bit better), Long Qi (that one's gone downhill a bit- I need to revisit that one again very soon), Box Form (a little stumble on a couple of details, but I figured them out after a few minutes... it's still a bit too staccato and needs a little smoothing out.... the energy and power in this form is still stunning). I was about to start on Dragon Plants the Seed when SK called me back to work the Dao vs Bo with CK. That took the rest of the class.