More Direct Ways of Treading Water

Wedding this past weekend for an old friend.  I stood up front in a tuxedo with suspenders and a bow tie, strictly black and white, armed to the teeth with smooth scotch and a sharp wit.  It was a great weekend, even if it meant that I didn't get to train.

Last week was a good amount of training with a decent amount of reflection and philosophy thrown in for good measure.  Klint and I stayed and talked for about an hour after class on Tuesday, going over what his expectations of me are as his blue belt and what changes that should bring out in my game.  I didn't realize until that night that he had never promoted anyone before.  He's been instructing for years, but he's always been helping other people.  We are his first class.

We talked about competition and how much I should start to build into my schedule when I'm out of school and (dear god let's all hope) working a normal job.  It will entail training for a few weeks and adding training and cross training and diet and all that, not to mention traveling (because Minnesota just doesn't have enough well-run tournaments--and by enough I mean any).  He went through all the positions and talked about where I need to focus on improving, and we went through our academy man by man (we're pretty small, after all) and talked about how I match up and what that says about not only the state of my skills, but how about my mental approach.  For instance, I can absolutely wreck guy A but have certain troubles with guy B (say, he has an easier time sweeping me than he should) even though guy A destroys guy B.  So we talked about that, dissected my mental approach, tried to come up with reasons for it and ways around my mental blocks.  He also told me not to worry about the evolution of the other guys at the academy--basically, I'm taking the role of the guy in class they have to fight who they're more than likely going to lose to.  Except for JD.  Because not only is he big and strong, but his technique is precise, and he knows how to use his size and strength intelligently.  He and I are going to have some serious fights in the academy, and we'll both limp home bleeding from the mouth and nursing our egos.

Other than that, I don't have much to report.  School work is starting to get in the way of my voluntary life.  But that will end, and I have merely to pay its due attention for the next month or so.  Then, I can roll around all I want.  Because I'll have no job to stop me.