mattdaddy.net info that bounces inside my brain that makes sense to me, maybe you.

Pushing It

"Dad, what are you doing?" my son asked me last night.  I was taking clothes and putting them in the hallway on the floor near the head of the stairs so I could get dressed without waking the wifey.
"I'm getting my stuff together for tomorrow." I replied, dropping my gi and pants on top of a pair of longjohns.
"Where?  Fabian Sensei's in Princeton?" he said, his eyes bugging out a little.  He's been to practice with me and knows it's outside.
"Yeah buddy.  Gotta sand down my bo staff, make sure there aren't any splinters."  I dropped an extra pair of socks on the pile after checking the weather on my computer.
"Dad, how cold is it going to be?"
"It'll be around 28 degrees when we start at 9am."
"MOOOOOOOM, Dad's freakin CRAZY!" he said, turning to go into my room to tell on me, smiling.

yeah, it was pretty cold out there this morning, I'll definitely admit it.  Felt good tho.  I had a pair of longjons on under my pants and an extra sweatshirt over my turtleneck all which was under my gi top.  A hat and gloves and I was actually pretty toasty.  We started with our warm up exercises - jumping jacks, stretching,  pushups, etc.  Thank GOD I've been working out in the gym the last several weeks.  Did some sword exercises that my body remembered well before my brain did that went rather well.  Switched from wooden bokken to metal iaito to practice the kata that, again, my body remembered quite a bit faster than my brain.  This is by far my favorite part of the practice so I was happy that we did a bit more today than we normally used to.

Switched sword for staff and got to twirl a 6 foot staff around my body, my head, and around behind my back and I only dropped it ONCE!  Amazed, but very glad too.  Forgot quite a bit, but after being shown, I remembered and could execute most of it easily.  I love sword, but I'm better at staff.  Dunno why, just happens.

Moved onto the last part of the work out, my least favorite, jujitsu.  It has nothing to do with the people I do it with or my Sensei.  It has all to do with the fact that I feel like a big, uncoordinated dork when I do it.  Tho I have to say, after we practiced the basics outside - hand releases - we went inside to his small inside dojo and did the more advanced stuff and it all felt pretty good.  I had to stop at a certain point, mostly because I was afraid of the throws and the fact I hadn't done them in a while and didn't want to hurt anyone in my confusion.  He had me practice some other basic throws with the beginner students, mentioning his intention was to get me back up to speed as quickly as possible.

It's been almost three years, and I'm not sure why I stopped going.  Granted, I got a new job in a different state, but I wish now that I had stuck with it longer.  Felt good to get back in and throw some people around, and to be thrown around as well.  Missed a few guys that I enjoyed seeing and who extracted a promise for me to come as much as possible in the future.  I'm planning on going for the rest of the money except the sunday before my birthday (If the whole internet wants to get together, I want Guitar Hero  - the one with the drums).  I have a lot of sore muscles, but feeling good in that I didn't forget as much as I thought, I got to see some good people again, and I'm feeling pretty f'ing good about my physical fitness lately.  Today's workout definitely proved that to me.