13 Miles Later. . .

Last time I was a few days away from the Great Scottish Run.  It's now in the past and having stated that anything under 2:15 would have been awesome, I actually completed the 13.1 miles in 1:59:34.  I was delighted.

Two days later, I took my very tired legs to Bearsden Academy to continue preparation for possibly grading in November.  It was a fairly intense session, with some pads, grappling, parrying and kata.  I wish I could give you more detail but exhaustion kicked in to the point I can barely remember the details of the night.  Along with my fellow brown belts Davy and Emma, we finished the night running through katas up to Kwanku Sho and I was shattered by the end. 

Wednesday night was a bit clearer, albeit one with the lingering after effects of the weekend's exertions.
We started with some 1-on-1 pad work to loosen off before moving to groups of three, one person in the middle and two pad holders.  Each session was about 1 minute with me having multiple turns.  It's amazing how long one minute feels when you are striking pads and trying to move.  I feel my hand strikes are good, with a nice variety and decent level of power.  I'm conscious that I tend to kick more with my right leg, mostly because those kicks are better so I was trying to mix it up and use my left leg more.  My left legs kicks still need work.

With the sweat starting to flow, it was onto two rounds of the breakfall kata.  Such a tiring exercise and given I was still tired from the weekend, two rounds was about as much as I was going to manage.

We moved onto the first six moves of the takedown sequence, with Emma, Davy and I demonstrating the moves and then training together.  I find these moves are coming together and pleased to say that after hurting my back about a month ago, there were no ill effects from either taking the moves or performing them (including hip and shoulder throws).  I do still struggle a bit with technique on sacrifice throws, sometimes leading to me getting squashed as my opponent lands on me rather than in front of me.

Finally it was some ground work, with some variations on a favourite technique of mine in half guard.  I find this a good way to defend and Hugh was giving some guidance on alternative ways to move an opponent, including a very grace knee in the backside which proved very effective.  I like the half guard so I think these additions will prove useful.

​By this point, my energy level was pretty much zero but it had been a good training session.  Next week I'll only be at Wednesday's session so in the next entry we'll look at that in a bit more detail and try and rank my strengths and weaknesses.