rocked out - part ii

[...continued]

so... sparring with the beast. firstly, i was in trouble for arriving fifteen minutes late. secondly, i hadn't had time to get any caffeine in my system beforehand. thirdly, i was hardly recovered from the day before and finally, i'm just not at his level. his thirty-pound muscle-weight advantage was irrelevant.

the positive? i lasted four rounds with him, and even though it didn't help me overcome all the other obstacles i've definitely fixed a lot of elements of my game: my movement's better, i'm flinching less and i don't let my opponent stand in front of me for a second without throwing something at him.

the negative? my chin's still too high because i back away every time i'm hit, and in addition to the many strikes he landed (as opposed to my many strikes that didn't land) he also set me up beautifully so that in order to avoid one of his punches i slipped right into a spinning backfist.

two things about that backfist: the first is that - and i only learned this afterwards - it's entirely inappropriate and disrespectful to use that technique in sparring, especially with someone a lower level than you. the second? while he didn't put power into it, even his soft strikes are rough and i added to it with my momentum. there's not much that compares to the experience of seeing the gym spinning around you and hearing "ooooh! there's the knockout!" from the corner...

i'm not sure if my eyes rolled, i do know that i came back swinging and i'm happy with myself for that. the slight headache i've had since (it doesn't hurt at rest, at least) is on the other side from the big punch, so if i do have a concussion it's possible that it's from all the other shots he hit me with...

... later on i went to jiu-jitsu but the class was even (why does working in three's bother me?) and i was late (there's always something that holds me back a few minutes, every time :S ) so i decided to try taking the kickboxing lesson easy. i worked with the slow guy but even so my body was working so hard that i sweat as much as if it was high summer :/

i had a long talk about what happened with our kickboxing instructor, badger and a couple of others, and they've all convinced me that a) i shouldn't spar with the beast until i've made up the gap and b) that i need to rest my body a little and avoid any further head shots for a week or two. i was scheduled to spar with the guy from boxing and the boxing instructor was not impressed with me for bailing :(

---i spent the evening watching ufc fights and once upon a time, it was a real struggle to get up to make dinner and even more of a struggle to eat it. i was exhausted and sore and everything felt... foggy...

---friday:

i watched the bbc documentary on sir gawain and the green knight: i'm pretty sure his is the translation i read three years ago. out loud, to myself. because it's bloody brilliant. the documentary was nice, but not particularly inspirational. at least i finally used an icepack on my damaged left knee and shin (minor compared to everything else :P).

i went to bed around 2.45 and slept a little better. i did sleep late, though, which i obviously needed quite badly. i've spent the day resting and not doing much of value. now, to correct for that, i'm off to watch a foreign film (hah! it's israeli) with vfmp and his boyfriend at the gay film festival. and the birthday wishes have just begun flowing in... oh, boy...

---the harshest news of the day: ian watkins, the singer in one of my favourite bands, lostprophets, has admitted to the charges against him. the charges are completely insane, there's more detail over here. be warned, it's pretty disturbing stuff.

art may be separate from the artist, but now i'll be trying not to have an aneurysm every time i hear one of their songs. idwtlotpa :(

...

in related news, bikers against child abuse is very cool indeed.