Bitch-slap

As a warrior, you are given weapons very few people possess. The self-confidence of a wild animal, a spirit that can’t be broken, the tranquility of one whose roots are too deep to be disturbed by minor events. If you don’t change the world, certainly no one else will.
Daniele Bolelli, On The Warrior’s Path


I spent half the night doing Bung Bo Kuen in my sleep, and it wasn't even the FOD.


Today's FOD is Snake Versus Five Animals.


Thursday Kung Fu.

Hand strike drills. SK came over to hold his arm up for me to strike at during the Tiger straight punches, then took a step backward and I almost fell on my face. Umm, yeah, I see that I am overbalancing forward a bit too much.

Walking line kick drills: box kicks, crescents, flying crescents.

Next, I was to be the punching dummy for RM to practice the first three Black Crane line drills.

After that, Black Crane drill 5 with partners, about a zillion times. Me and Nemesis and MM, then me and Nemesis and RM.

Short spar with MM. He has been working a lot of Wing Chun, and it shows... there was always an elbow (followed by a backfist) rolling over into my face. He's well above my skill level, but I got a few things on him. Then it went to the ground, where I didn't fare very well due to not having the skills yet to compensate for the vast strength differential. I managed to bitch-slap him hard across the face once, which was so funny (to me, to the onlookers, and to him as well) that I got in three more of those over the course of the spar.

Individual forms. I worked on the FOD (Snake Versus Five) and also the other 2-person Snake form, Kiu Two. I can see the influence of Hurricane Hands on both.

Got some more done on the Tai Chi long form transcription.

Signed up for the tournament, an hour before registration closed. I don't really feel like doing it, and ironically that's why I decided to do it. I just have so many deeply absorbing personal problems right now that there is an almost total absence of competition anxiety. It might come roaring back on the day of... but for now, it's like, "Geez, why did this fluff ever seem important enough to get wound up over?" It may be interesting to see what happens- for good or ill- if that mindset holds during the competition.