Brain power

So the holidays are over. Ok, New Years and 12th night are still to come. This year, while I did watch my portions, I threw the diet out the window-- and it is starting to show. Food was incredible. If you followed me on FaceBook you saw rib roast, squash soup, lemon bars, pies, and fudge fudge fudge--not to mention a Dartagnan gift basket from Alfred of Carlysle. The pate and smoked duck, amazing! Also, if you followed me on FaceBook, you noticed that I was working out a bit more than normal. Not too worried about the extra pounds. Oh yeah: I got the tomahawk off my Amazon wish list!

REHAB:
Rehab goes well. Unable to pack my Indian clubs I brought my rubber yoga band. I did my wrist, elbow, and shoulder rehab with it every day. The elbow is better to the point that I will try kettle bells next week after I see the doc.

WORKOUTS
Workouts were great this holiday. I managed to keep my schedule--Yoga class on Monday, treadmill and Yoga Wednesday, another workout Thursday or Friday. Since travelled last Friday I called up a full body dumbell workout on in demand before we left. Not amazing but there were two exercises I had never seen before. Pretty rare. Then Saturday I went for a run in Falls Church. Monday a bunch of us-- Me, Hannah, her dad, step mom, and sister--took a yoga class at the DC University Club (very 1%). The instructor.declared us to be a talented family. Yesterday I went for a longer run, then today I did a full body workout combining the rubber band arm and shoulder work with pushups, squats, calf raises, and lunges. So I have worked out a lot the past week.

FIGHTING:
What I haven't done a lot of is fighting, but that is ok. I have a slow motion kata that I do, which is designed to concentrate on ballance and core strength, and I have been doing that. It is pretty simple:

* In a sword forward stance, sword back (high open Western form) throw an off side head shot.
*use a Bellatrix over-head return and pass forward on the right.
* Throw an on-side head shot.
* use a teardrop return and pass forward on the left.
* Throw an on-side leg shot.
* Use an inside return and pass forward on the right, aligning your feet, toes pointed parallel to the left.
* Throw an off-side body shot.
*Side-step off line to the left.
* Throw a molinee to the off-side leg.
* Pivot into the right, entering a sword-leg lead (weak closed form).

From there I work various combinations-- Double strikes wrap fall away snap: lucky's off side pass. Paul's on side pass. Lucan's off side pass. Radnor's seven blow combination, upsalon leg shot, foot stomp, and his version of the wavy-rising snap. Speaking of Radnor, I watched a couple episodes of Brain Games on National Geographic Chanel. Watch it! One reason Radnor is the best fighter I've ever seen is because of the way he apparently could control his opponent's mind. Papa Houghton and Macenruig could do this too, but Radnor was faster, stronger, and trickier as well. Most of this he accomplished by using the types of brain tricks discussed in the NGC series, especially the mis-direction. He had three rules in fighting: no one can flow three direction changes; all fights are won in between beats, and hit them in transition windows. I guess the fourth rule would be establish a pattern and break it on the third or fourth time through. Oh, change your body tempo to control your opponent's. I guess that is five rules. The transition window is the most important and the hardest to execute. Because, as the NGC show notes, nobody can do two things at once, fighter brains cycle between offense, defense, and movement. The best fighters train theselves to bypass this by honing their reflexes (which can be used against them). But most fighters are constantly cycling. If you can pick up on this and throw a blow at the precise moment that they are cycling off of defense, they will probably not see the blow that hits them. More on this sort of thing later. -r