BAT Practice training

Boy, it’s a good tired.

Yes, I have returned to my fighting blog. While I was out of commission I didn’t work out much. I was hurt a bit more than I though. I recuperated the first week. Got on the treadmill all of once the second week, but I did a lot of walking. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday I rode my bicycle around and got good workouts.

Today, the theme from Rocky echoing in my head, I got up at seven am and went running in the park. It was the first time I’ve run since our rear-end auto accident exactly three years ago today (I know it was exactly three years because we were on our way home from the fall NASCAR race at Dover, and the Dover race is on right now (three of Jack Rouch’s drivers, Biffle, Edwards, and Kenseth, are all racing for the lead with 23 laps to go). Running hurt my back a lot after that, and I started concentrating on spin class, which is as good a workout with lower impact. But I wanted to run. I did my usual run, around the lake and then up to the top of Lookout Hill. I actually took the last set of stairs two at a time. When I get to the top of lookout hill I am always sure that that is it, I am about to die. But so far I haven’t.

Then I came home, worked a bit, and went to BAT practice.

There were only three other fighters there, Louis, Gil, and Bill. That meant two solid unbelted fighters and an OTC (Order of the Tiger’s Combatant). It also meant a right handed fighter, a left handed fighter, and a two weapon fighter.

Fighting Gil I had some kind of epiphany. I found that place in between too relaxed and too pumped up. Usually when I feel that feeling I am all tensed up and jumpy, just on the edge of pushing too hard. Today it was more like I was just very focused. I felt more relaxed than I normally do. I have felt that way before, and usually it is a good thing. I went through closed form, open form, high and low, and goofy foot, and in all of them I was relaxed but very focused.

I won nearly all my fights. I fought Gil, then Louis, then Bill, then we did a meat grinder where we each fought the other three then the next guy fought the other three, so we each got six fights. I was pacing myself and not fighting to fatigue. Gil beat me twice, Bill beat me twice, Louis beat me twice, maybe three times. In the meat grinder, which I approached like a tournament, I only lost my very last fight, to Bill when he was holding the field. That fight is instructive, because I threw a fake that I thought I was throwing small and Gil told me it was very broad. That was fatigue.

I was most proud of my fights against Louis. I always have trouble with him, but today I was winning pretty handily. I had two great fights. In the first I planned a leg shot (I’d been planning it for about a half an hour at that point). I threw a blow at his leg, which he blocked with the ax, I stepped in an threw a dropping wrap to the same leg. It worked really well. In our last fight I was getting a bit tired and trying to figure out what to do. I never kill Louis with off-side body shots (in fact I rarely kill him with the edge at all), but I decided, what the hell, I’ll throw a butterfly on him. I used to never be able to get anybody to count my butterfly. But I threw this one with my wrist locked, something I picked up watching Radnor last year. It worked like a charm.

BAT usually has a lot more fighters than that. I think it was light because of the Queens Farm demo. Next weekend is Fort Tryon, and if I’m in town that is where I’ll be.