The new season started last week, and we have a couple of new members. Hopefully they will stick around.
The consequence of having many new members is that the pace of the class drops significantly because everything is new to them, and it takes a while before everyone has a rough idea of how to step, block and punch without getting legs and arms tangled up.
This is normal of course. We all have to start somewhere, and after a couple of weeks when people get more comfortable with the core principles, the pace will pick up again. When I started I was no better, and it took a great lot of practice and dedication to just get to the point where I am now, which is still nowhere in the grand scheme of things.
Having a previous background in other arts can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. The blessing is that one is already familiar with elementary things like breakfalls, rolls, punching, etc. The curse is that those things are done very differently in ninpo. Modern day JJ (which was my background) uses a lot of short and straight punches / blocks. Ninpo otoh emphasizes 'flow' and circular motion during blocking. It took quite some work to make that switch.
Atm I am having a bad head cold, and for a moment I thought about skipping class. I decided not to, reasoning that missing class with a good excuse is the first step on a slippery slope. I decided early on that I will only skipp class if it is physically impossible for me to attend, or if I have something really bad (like stomach flu. don't want nasty accidents in the dojo
)
Of course, as 'luck' would have it, I was the senior student yesterday so it was up to me to initiate the bowing ritual and say the words. With my nose clogged up, my pronunciation was less than stellar, with the number of 's'es and 't's that had to work their way through a layer of mucus.
I am glad that the season has started again, and am looking forward to working hard and maintaining my progress rate.
The consequence of having many new members is that the pace of the class drops significantly because everything is new to them, and it takes a while before everyone has a rough idea of how to step, block and punch without getting legs and arms tangled up.
This is normal of course. We all have to start somewhere, and after a couple of weeks when people get more comfortable with the core principles, the pace will pick up again. When I started I was no better, and it took a great lot of practice and dedication to just get to the point where I am now, which is still nowhere in the grand scheme of things.
Having a previous background in other arts can be a blessing and a curse at the same time. The blessing is that one is already familiar with elementary things like breakfalls, rolls, punching, etc. The curse is that those things are done very differently in ninpo. Modern day JJ (which was my background) uses a lot of short and straight punches / blocks. Ninpo otoh emphasizes 'flow' and circular motion during blocking. It took quite some work to make that switch.
Atm I am having a bad head cold, and for a moment I thought about skipping class. I decided not to, reasoning that missing class with a good excuse is the first step on a slippery slope. I decided early on that I will only skipp class if it is physically impossible for me to attend, or if I have something really bad (like stomach flu. don't want nasty accidents in the dojo
)Of course, as 'luck' would have it, I was the senior student yesterday so it was up to me to initiate the bowing ritual and say the words. With my nose clogged up, my pronunciation was less than stellar, with the number of 's'es and 't's that had to work their way through a layer of mucus.
I am glad that the season has started again, and am looking forward to working hard and maintaining my progress rate.
