Catching up

I didn't post about Sunday practice because I ended up sleeping through it. In fact I slept away a very large portion of Sunday. I must have needed rest though, since I hardly ever sleep like that unless I'm really tired out. In any case half the heavies were gone to Gulf Wars, so it may have been Max & myself, maybe that other guy who came last week. I don't know if any of them were going. Jeff may have been there, but his thumb injury may have still kept him out.

Last week Tuesday was a great practice. They suited me up in a jacket and mask and away I went. I didn't do great, and I had some trouble getting everything to work right at first. Basically my brain was trying to rewire to a totally new style and kept tripping over itself. Will was very nice and patient with me, which was great, but he kept telling me not to get frustrated which made it... not worse, but not really better either. He's a decent teacher, but I think my learning style and his teaching style are on two different planes.

I have a perfectionist streak. It really bothers me when I know something in my head and I know that I know it but I can't seem to replicate it with my hands and feet. Fortunately he didn't blunder into that one thing I cannot stand: Treating me like I don't know anything. He obviously could see that I knew it in my head, and that the trouble was physically doing it. I did have to tell him about talking to me though. If he sees I'm not getting something after the first two or three times he's just poking me, to TELL me about it so I know what I'm supposed to be looking for. When you haven't been doing it for very long it's sometimes hard to see the openings on your opponent, much less yourself.

By the end of the evening though, I felt I was making progress and we had a lot of fun.

Pell that night was good too. Mittion thinks my snap is coming along well and had me doing a backhand/flatsnap change up. One then the other. Flat, back, flat, back, etc. That's pretty much all I did for the whole evening. Except when we went in to watch Biggest Loser and his Lady made cake. He said that when he got back we'd work on incorporating the wrap more and when I got that down it would be on to... mullenne (I know it's spelled wrong, but I can't find the correct spelling.)

Last night, I worked with Jen since Will was off at War (he called Seamus at practice and said he had just come off the field after 7 hours of fighting). I had some trouble with what she was trying to show me at first, I think because she didn't understand that I hadn't learned anything about what she was showing me, so she didn't go into details until after a few tries where I wasn't really doing much of anything. After we worked that out and did the drill for a little bit, we took a short breather then went onto bear pit rounds. Oh did I mention I got swtiched up to schlager? It's a good bit heavier too. Still lighter than my heavy fighting stick, but a big difference between the epee and the schlager.

So there were four of us going round in turns: Myself, Jen, Kevin and ... crap I'm bad with names... He got the pink sleeve jacket so I'll call him Flamingo for this week. I did alright against Kevin and Flamingo, and more one sided w/ Jen. She one shotted me on one round.

I don't know what it is but I have such performace anxiety still with fencing. To be honest I can't recall if I was ever like this with heavy or not. It's not so bad when I'm in a match up, but doing drills and stuff, I keep feeling like I have to hit it right or else. I don't know what "or else" actually IS, but it doesn't seem to stop me from feeling bad about it.

Will's gone for another week after this one visiting family. Kinda bummed about it, but family's important. I'll have to see how the shirts he ordered from me held up for the week when he gets back.