Saturday, February 21, 2009

Saber Circuit

Even though we don't have *real* sabers yet, we've embarked on doing a circuit-training routine with our proxies, and it is kicking my butt. It only has seven exercises on it: most of the basic drills we covered last fall in Vermont, and the idea is to get through the whole routine three times and reduce the overall time spent while maintaining/increasing quality. Today was the second time we did it, and it wrecked us again (last time it ripped a bunch of skin off my hand, so I had to put it up for a while).

Basically, the first time through the routine, it took us about 12-13 minutes to complete all of the exercises, resting as little as possible between them. We essentially failed on the third time through, with 43 minutes on the clock, but we weren't done with all of the exercises yet (last time we only made it through twice, and only kind of on the second go). The lack of rest is a killer. Even now (about an hour later), typing this is brutal on my exhausted hands.

The goal, which seems reasonable enough, is to get through the routine three times in under forty(-five?) minutes without compromising quality. At that point, we'll be qualified to up our training to "Level 2," which is the same routine with more repetitions of each exercises. There's a "Level 3" also, which will be worse (more repetitions again and a reorganization of the drills to be in a more demanding order). It's going to take a while to get to that point, particularly at the two-days-a-week training pace on the circuit.

According to my sheet, I'm not done because I didn't turn yet today. I'd better get on that.

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"The most important thing when studying the martial arts is not to be lazy. These skills are not easily attained. For them, one must endure a lot of suffering." -He Jinbao