Combos

129.0

Saturday Conditioning Boot Camp aborted in favor of a "one-on-one" with CN. I more than half expected this to be a setup for CN to call me on the carpet for skulking away like a kicked hyena whenever DD darkens the door... A discussion that I was dreading. Happily, he didn't have a peep to say in that direction. My other suspicion- the one about the remedial sparring help- was a winner. But that's a good thing. A GREAT thing, actually. It was awesome to get an entire hour (well, 40 min... he still made me do 20 min of conditioning drills first) of CN's undivided attention, focussed on things that he thinks might help my specific IMPROVEMENT OPPORTUNITY AREAS in sparring.

He had a few specific new drills regarding balance, targeting, moving around, and other points relating to what he had in mind for me: which was short combinations.

Kicks: Inside crescent into side thrust. Shovel into roundhouse. Things to work on include getting the balance up to par on my retarded side, keeping the energy flowing into the second kick, rechamber the first kick fully, remembering to guard the groin, and in particular remembering to keep my guard up around my head.

One-two head-level punch, duck under, lunge and punch to ribs with inside arm. Things to work on include retracting each fist after the jabs, keeping the guard up (again), NOT bending at the waist with the duck-under, Duck under in the correct direction (toward the arm that the opponent is punching with), have the range so that you are close to but not at full extention, target the rib punch more precisely, (rib-punch with the correct arm (inside arm), and have the power for the rib punch driving all the way up through the back foot.

A lot of improvement points for two- and three-step combos! CN wants me to work these on my heavy bag.

He mentioned that he had noticed me quailing and recoiling to some degree at kicking attacks- and he thinks that once I'm confident with these kick combos, I won't be so trepidacious about what's going on below the waist. He also mentioned the leaning forward at the waist. I'm pleased that many of the things he brought up were the same ones I had pinpointed for myself when I was talking this over with SK on Wednesday. At least I have a decent idea of what is going on and where the issues are.

I so wish we could do something like this regularly. I am starved for some individual and specific attention. Unfortunately, when I used this opportunity to quiz him about his college program, I found out he's going to be schooling for the next EIGHT years. Dismay.

We didn't have a whole lot of time to talk on the drive home, but I did make sure to 1)thank him repeatedly for his time and attention, and 2)express how relieved I have been to see some sparring making its way into the recent classes, and that I would like it to continue. I also reiterated that all three of us women are scared to spar with Nemesis, leery of sparring with JoE, and in addition JM and JB are anxious about sparring with SK.


Oh, and during the conditioning drills- when CN told me to do ten iron buffalos, I told him I could only do about two of those with the back-up curl included. Turns out I was able to do eight. (Well, I did ten, but the last two were pretty crappy, so I'm not counting them.) That was nifty.


Over the next few days, I need to work on my assigned essay (I twiddled with that a little bit at work today), keep working the combos, and I also need to have a form in mind to address in case DD really does show up on Tuesday and pulls me out in the hall. I don't want to whip out my best form, because if I slaughter it in my nervousness, that would be quite demoralizing. Also, I don't want to feel like I'm on an audition or something. Nor my worst form, to make a poor impression. And I can't really pull out any form that CC has tinkered with, either- for politically sensitive reasons. Damn. Maybe he won't be there after all.