Nutley training

No, I'm not training as much as I want to be. A wise philosopher once said "this game is 50% inspirationa nd 50% perspiration." Our ladies provide us with ample inspiration. Howver, another wise philosopher once said "women weaken legs!"

What really weakens is getting the snot beat out of you though.

After last weeks Nutley practice I did not go and work out on thursday. I was too bruised and tired to do so. Today I am typing instead of in the gym. I will try to work out after my 3PM class today. I'm not near so beat up as last week--I didn't fight Doug and I didn't have a great sword fight with Gregor.

I did get in one good workout this weekend. I was in Atlantic City but our time share had a good workout room. I did three sets on the Universal Gym and twenty minutes running barefoot on the treadmill.

Speaking of running barefoot I picked up a pair of five fingers on Monday, on the theory that having spent money on them I will want to use them and run at least once a week.

But back to practice. I only fought four guys: Bill Vicente, Gregor, Heinrich, and Jan Janovich.

My fights with Bill were good warm ups. I killed him most of the time using a variety of mostly cuts. I don't really remembeer details.

Gregor is using a new shield. It is lighter and larger than his old one. He's gone to semi-finals with his old shield in the last two crowns. You do the math. With his new shield his leg is harder to take and he doesn't react to fakes much (one of my best fighting moments was when I killed Gregor with a wavy-rising snap). The only good thing I can say about my fights with Gregor is that my offense was good enough to make him cautious and my defense was good enough to make him work. I tried a lot of stuff--hook/thrusts, back hands, the thrust fake followed by a leg shot. wraps, everything really. The only time I laid stick on him was in our last fight, when I went low with a double strike as he was moving and managed to take his leg. My plan was to cut to his offside, step in, hook and thrust. I cut to his offside, and he killed me. Drawing the sword back for the thrust leaves too much of my head opena nd I didn't compensate with the shield. He just took me with a straight fast (very fast) snap. Afterward he said I was leading with my thrust and telegraphing it. I told him it was candy I have trouble avoiding. I had mostly been doing it to set up the fake thrust/leg shot. He advised me if I was going to lead witha thrust to come from below with it--a shot I have a lot of success with but am avoiding right now because Darius pointed out how easy it is to loose my arm doing that.

Heinrich fights a lot like his knight Kelson and gives me fits some times. He was not following through on his shots so they weren't as hard as I am used to feeling from him. He had two shots on my that should have been kills but died. He was winnning msot of our early fights and I won our later fights after I tightened up. I killed him with the foot stomp/thrust (grin). and with some lateral movement to my left. I also got him with Hauoc's counter punch off the leg block.

Jan is a really tough fight for me becuase we have the same style--but altely I've been fighting a northern region style with the kite. He wasn't expecting that. I also borrowed Bill's sword. It is lighter than mine, better balanced, allows me to do a few Gendy techniques while still punching my cross shots, and is much faster. It also doesn't ahve a thrusting tip, and I decided that fighting without one ould be good practice after what Gregor said. It worked. I fought well. Jan played into my game by circling and sniping at range, and he left himself open to a lot of stuff. I was throwing two and three blows combos that were fast and precise. I took his leg a couple of times. I hoked and cut. I even got him once with the foot stomp. (BIG GRIN).

Unfortunately, no fighting for me at Coronation this weekend. I have to go to my uncles' funeral in West Virginia. My next time in aromr will be next Nutley.

If I am going to get into Crown Contender shape again I will have to start fighting twice a week at least. That means that I need to be able to recover faster. That means I will need to wear more armor, expecially on my shoulders. Time to get to work.