I Survived!

Ahh Monday training at Pyrmont. Used to be scared thinking about it. You see, my past experiences at that place had not been, for the lack of a better word, memorable. It's advanced class after all, and I suppose I wasn't advanced enough then.

The training structure at Pyrmont is highly rigid. No warm-ups, no bullshit. It's 100% jigeiko mawari-geiko style, with senseis at one end. No rest too, unless of course there is an odd one out.

With the impending Nationals only 3 weeks away, I thought that perhaps it's time for me to return to Pyrmont for a good keiko. My last visit was like September, and I was 6th kyu then. Eventhough I'm now 3rd kyu, I wasn't so sure if I was really good enough to go. So I asked Taek about it, and he reckoned that I should have been training there ages ago. That made me feel more mentally prepared. I managed to convince Rick to go with me.

It was good training and we both survived the 1 hour jigeiko (with a 5 min break as the odd one out). For my first jigeiko I was up against Itakura sensei, then it was Payne sensei. I tried to conserve strength for good ippons rather than simply whacking around. I was able to handle the aerobic strain well as I tried to relax as much as possible. Certain parts of my body began to ache after about 30 mins though. The gluteaus and to a small extent the lower back began to show some strain. However, I'm comforted by the thought that they will strengthen overtime.

I believe that I was able to hold my own in there, though Nishimoto with his jodan whacked me silly. And I had to face him....twice. I wasn't able to try many different things with him due to space limitation, but I did try to katate-tsuki him. :D

Anyway, I will make Pyrmont a regular training from now on.