Live training or life-training?

It was kind of rude to wake up at 4 a.m. this last morning, but the goal that was ahead of me for that day made me get over the sleepiness pretty quickly. Threw in some muzli and a cappuchino and I was already off. Well the weather don't seem to get any warmer in the near future, and it's especially cold at dawn. My fingers got frozen and stuck to the metal part of the zipper on my coat, as I don't really like to wear gloves before it goes under -20˚Celsius. Surprisingly the train came sharp in time and before I noticed I was in the downtown of Budapest. The whole city was yet asleep; it was interesting to see this usually busy city being slow this time. Hardly anybody put their nose out to the streets (probably because of the cold, too).

Anyway, just 1.5 hour went by and I was at the venue where I was supposed to attend a "live training" (kind of videoconferencing) as a visitor, with N. Sensei in Japan. After a few minutes the guy who organized it here, arrived too and opened the building. At last I started getting a bit warmer. It was about time, as I already did not feel my toes from the freezing cold and my scarf was also all frosty so you can imagine how cold it was.

Slowly the other guys arrived, we changed to gi and were staring at the wall where we could see the aussie and Finnish (or Swedish? Danish?) dojos' videosigns projected. But Japan was nowhere on earth. So we decided to warm up until Japan gets connected too, we also did some basic stuff and a little balance workout. 30 minutes went by but the Japanese dojo was still nowhere.
That was the time when the organizer guy started worrying, and being involved in IT, I also started suspecting something really unpleasant. Anyway, still hoping for the best, I grabbed a guy and started delivering various attacks on him, so that we could still practice until the connection with the Japanese dojo gets fixed.

After a while we got a message form the aussie dojo saying that the Japanese were having technical difficulties and probably won't be able to get on the net. Probably their ISP was having problems. (I am wondering if it was because of the snow?)
So there we accepted the situation and agreed to ask for a DVD instead of another live training appointment.
And what surprised me was that everbody started changing back to street gears. I thought we will at least have some normal training if not this interactive one, but it seems that noone else shared this idea. So I changed clothes too, said goodbye and left with a little disappointment. I travelled through all Budapest in such a cold at a cruelly early time and there is no training at all. I am starting to think that maybe it is just me being so fanatic or radical when it comes to training. Anyway, I took this as a lesson: sometimes you make huge efforts, which just don't result on a way that you expect. Conclusion: Do not have expectations, be open for anything! :-D

Anyway I popped in my office before going home, to scan some stuff and took the train again.
The next time when I will attend a live training will probably be after I've returned from Japan. Now saving up as much money as possible is in priority.

Hen-party

Yesterday I attended a seminar at another shidoshi-ho's dojo.
The theme was the basics: taihenjutsu plus everybody's own requirements for the next grading. Mainly beginners attended the seminar, I was the only one say "intermediate" level attendee, and also there was a guy who goes for 8th kyu but he was way better than just 8 kyu. So while the others were practising the basic ukemi and such the two of us was put together and we did gyaku gi kihon stuff.
Man, I got so exhausted by the end of the 3 hours training that I was not able to lift my arms above my shoulders. It was a really good training, which exhausted me not only physically but mentally, too. By the end I had a hard time concentrating on what had to be done.

After the training I went out for lunch with two beginner girls from our dojo, as we were about passing out from tiredness and urgently needed some serious stuff to feed on. The instructor recommended a non-stop Pizzeria which we easily found and had a really nice and long lunch there - we spent some 3,5 hours eating-drinking-talking about all the important things of life and training :)
It was really nice to talk for so long, as I managed to get them known a bit more, and found out that they 're just cool. They seem to be very enthusiastic in training, although they have trouble training with guys. They are having the same problems that I had a few years back: guys dare not work with them seriously because of being afraid of hurting them, therefore they try to completely avoid training with girls. I think his is a really serious problem for women who do some martial art, as it hinders them greatly in the learning process. Even tho women have a different body structure, it does not mean that they are not capable to apply the required techniques on a bigger opponent. They are able to do the same techniques, but on a different way, which they have to explore for themselves. But for this some chance should be provided for them.
I had the same problem before however some change in my "strategy" solved the situation, it seems. I was extra careful whoever I was training with, which means that I'd hit them very lightly, and took them to ground very carefully. Now I see that it was wrong, first because my training was far from realistic, second because the guys took the stituation wrong, and they thought that was all I was able to do. Thus they worked with me accordingly, paying extra attention not to "play" with me realistically as "obviously" I would not have been able put on with that. So I had to change the way I practiced with them. I started really throwing them over, really hitting them and not being an "easy prey" when they did a technique on me. It seems that this strategy worked. Since then I did not experience this avoiding attitude. So I recommended the girls to go on and not let themselves to be an easy prey. As Jan told me once: a woman has to work two times harder to be half as much accepted as a man. Unfortunately he was very true. But this is what makes us grow better in martial arts.

I also mentioned that probaly a very high level female instructor will visit to Hungary this year and it would be very recommended to attend that seminar. She is going to show things from women's perspective, showing how to apply the techniques when there is a significant difference between you and your opponent, and what are the attack methods we females can most possibly face in different situations and what kind of defense methods can we apply against them. They got all excited by this news so probably I will not be the only one attending this seminar.
As far as I see there is really a big need to explore those special or uncommon things that women can work with and apply, because of their different makings.
The lunch ended up with having Irish coffee and a really "high" mood at 5 pm.

It must be repeated! :D

First training of the year

Well, yesterday was the first training of the year. I thought the dojo would be overcrowded, with a lot of people who promised themselves they would go to trainings diligently in the new year. Seemingly I was wrong. There were 10-12 people only, mainly beginners, and a few (4-5) more advanced students. We had fun again, although the training itself proved to be exhausting by the end of the evening. We mostly practiced basic dakentaijutsu things, with proper kamae and distance, and after then each of us moved on to practising the things required for the next grading (18 February).

I ended up as being the uke for a guy who goes for 7th kyu and we practiced Gogyo no Kata, some Osoto Nage, Gari and Keri. I was a bit surprised to experience that the more tired I got (I had a long day yesterday), the easier I could work with his balance, the easier it was to get a feeling of how his body can be moved and controlled, although he was much taller than me. Well it's not too difficult to be taller than me, hehe.
The instructor (A.) came to us several times and used me to show him the proper technique and the main points of it. I can really learn a lot by being his uke. Although I started to feel recently that maybe I should change my way of practising - I should kinda restrain myself a bit and cool down, regarding the "derring-do" I have while training. (Some advice on this from more experienced Buyu would be really appreciated.) I seriously need to work more on being softer, otherwise I will have to deal with great obstacles later on.

I also noticed that I arrived to an important point in my training, as if stepping on a next stair. I feel it both in my motivation and in the pace with which I automatically "digest" and turn into practice all the things I have been taught recently. It made me recognize that time has finally come to take the big step... going to Japan to see and feel "The Source". Japanese residents, beware! You still have some time until about August to take up the pavement - because I AM GOING! (if I live to see)

As a start of 2006

This is the first day of 2006.
What will it bring? Who knows. Every year we expect something good, something better, but at the end of the year we always have to face the fact that it brought not only happy memorable things, but also things that you would have preferred to avoid. What happened to me in the past year? Let's see briefly: Got an additional position at the uni I am working at, which kept me two times busier than before (for almost the same money of course), new challenges in my work, new colleagues. I found a new kind of motivation in training, which I have never felt so far. Probably something started to mature in my point of view, regarding training. Well it was about time, after 13 years! So now I ride this huge wave. I also made new friends int he ma I am into, and finally met two really cool friends of mine with whom I have been in touch only via the net, for many years until now. We spent a really awsome week together. I have to make friends with the thought that probably we can never make it again. C'est la vie! Take it or break it.

Some like to make promises at the start of the New Year, and after then they either keep it or not. I dunno but I am not a big fan of this. Either keep your word or don't promise anything at all. I like to look in the mirror every day without having the feeling that I can't trust my own word at all.
New Year's Eve went by very calmly. The thing I wanted to do the most would have been some really hard training, but there was noone around who could give me some really good beating.

Tomorrow work, but I don't really feel like wanting to go. Well, it's not a question of wish, I can still be very thankfull for having a well paying job (at least by Hungarian standards). It allows me to go for seminars and to see and experience more in training.

So what will the New Year bring? I really don't know. But I suspect that I arrived to a turning point in many areas of my life - in trainig as well as in my job and in my private life. But that's already the subject of a new entry ...