It's all in the head

Yesterday's class was kinda special. I've told you how my usual Monday evening instructor is usually not as heavy on the cardio side as the Saturday morning one, well we had a surprise coming our way yesterday. A good old switcheroo. The Saturday morning instructor was in front of the class, replacing our usual Monday evening instructor. Not that I mind, don't worry. Both instructors have their own styles and I learn about ways to work the techniques differently with one or the other. Some people get mixed up when they face different point of views regarding techniques. I think that's because they try to do it too much by the book, thinking "oh this guy wants me to do it like this while the other wants me to do it like that". Heck, the result is the same with both ways, is what I'm thinking. Try to learn about both ways and find your own way in the middle. Maybe it'll be more similar to one, or the other, or a mix of the two.

Anyway, some people even try to avoid André, our Saturday morning instructor, because he is known to be pretty intense in his warmup/workout sessions. I actually like that with him. He worked us out pretty well yesterday and I'll tell you this, my arms were shaking, my legs were shaking, my abs were killing me, but I loved every minute of it. :)

After that warmup, some of us who'd just finished learning Cat 3 the previous Saturday put in a request to keep on working on it, just so we wouldn't forget what we just put into our memory drawer. I was able to do it on my own the first time we did it and was very happy with it. It had about no flow to it as I kept fighting with my brain, but at least I knew it from start to finish. After we did it with our instructor once, I then went to work on it with two other people who were kind of struggling. I told them to follow me as we'd do it slowly. We did and while I think I was able to steer them in the right direction, I also think that doing it slowing, dissecting every move, helped me learn it at the same time. A win-win situation.

At the end of the class, I was able to do about half of the kata with some sort of a good rythm to it. I'll work on it some more and I'm really thinking I might be able to have it ready to present for the December 10 competition. I, and some other bloggers, have said it before but there's something to be said about competition being a good motivator...

Speaking of competition, or show for that matter, I asked the guy in charge of getting bos for the school. When I asked him if he'd had news, he shrugged, shook his head, rolled his eyes and went "nooooo". I didn't want to push it and simply asked him if he thought we'd get one soon and he simply answered he would give the order to the guy today (Tuesday). Oh God, nothing's been done yet. I guess the one I've borrowed for now will have to do, at least for the show. MrX commented in a previous post that they have bos in stock at Hugo Sports in Montreal and that I could drive down there. I guess I simply wanna whine about it, but I don't feel like driving 2.5 hours one way, then 2.5 hours the other way, with the price that gas is these days, to get a bo, given that I have one who should do the trick. As I said as a reply to a comment from Mat, the damage is already done. It's more psychological than physical at this point. I need to get over it and tomorrow evening will be the first step I will take to get acquainted with a new (borrowed) bo.

Ironically, this has happened before. Right before my second competition ever in last March, I cracked my bo, one week before the competition. Just when they'd given it to me, a week before that, I had spotted a knot near the middle of it and told the guy that I fully expected it to not hold for long. True to what I thought, a week after that, it cracked. Thing was, there was only one week to go before the competition. We put in a call to have a replacement bo done, to their expense, since it was defective. They agreed to do it and told me they would have it at the competition site. When I showed up at their table, they told me they'd forgotten to bring it. They had left it at their shop. Good thing I had practiced with another bo all week long and I had brought it with me. Anyway, even if they'd given me a new bo, I was not even planning to use it. Well guess what. I won that competition.

It's all in the head...

Now if I could only convince myself...

FM