Monday night musings

I got corrected quite a lot in training tonight. I think it's a good sign :-)

I'm always impressed by a teacher who can leave the room to teach a different group, while I practice my forms. I work on honing the newest sequence of movements that we have been shown, locking it into my memory - but somewhere earlier in the form is a little grey area. Something that I haven't quite picked up yet... When the teacher comes back in, they take one look, and suddenly I have to go through the form from that weak point... despite not seeing it performed in the class that night.

There is no hiding mistakes from this one... and it's really helping me to consolidate the Mantis forms that I know, from each of the different styles.

I trained tonight with a pair of iron rings, too - one resting on each wrist, while I went through a few hundred drills. The weight isn't worrying, although they are pretty thick - the main reason for using them is that they make you think more about how you perform each movement. It completely changes the emphasis of each movement, and keeping them moving smoothly (so multiple rings don't jangle together when moving) will take a lot of practice. I will be trying to scrounge up money over the next week, to buy a set of twelve - if I can't afford them, I'll just buy six. Enough to keep me training for quite a few months, before I need any more.

My legs hurt, but it's that good, muscle-pain hurt that will fade in a couple of days. I've had quite enough of the broken/sprained ankle pain in the past couple of years.

Hmmm... time to do some more stretching, and then off to bed...