the brick wall and the obstacle course
Apr. 26th, 2009 10:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
anotheranonOne of my ongoing concerns at practice has been increasing my endurance. Ever since I figured out that going "all out" translates to success, I've been pushing myself a bit harder each time I go to club to extend my ideal "top of the curve" between warming up and wearing out.
Still, 2 1/2-3 hours seems to be my limit, no matter how hard I do or don't work between getting there and going home. By hour 3 my strategy is starting to unravel even if my body isn't (and happily, physical stamina is improving - maybe just I've got a good run of endorphins that kill the pain :P) - sometimes I can barely even string sentences together.
When I started flailing today V. observed that I fall into a predictable rhythm that makes me an ideal target. He suggested I do what we'd done in lesson a couple of weeks ago: change up the time and feint, what he calls "throwing up obstacles". I understood it then and had played with it some, but didn't fully internalize what he was trying to tell me.
Given that my brain was far more burnt out than my body at that point I figured, why not? I decided to stay in constant irregular motion and make my opponents' lives difficult.
That's when I started improving. As in, scoring touches on the tall infighty-people who had been tidily cleaning my clock all afternoon (!)
I may still not fully "grok" obstacle deployment, but I think I'm a step closer. And I know that I can do something in situations when I'm up against my physical/mental limits, yet am still compelled to fence (DEs).
Badger advised that it might also be useful to just take a break when I hit the wall and see if 10 minutes sitting down/drinking water buys me some more time. I think she may have an excellent strategy here - instead of fence constantly without "pedal to the metal", go all out and have more sit-downs.
Hmm..
Still, 2 1/2-3 hours seems to be my limit, no matter how hard I do or don't work between getting there and going home. By hour 3 my strategy is starting to unravel even if my body isn't (and happily, physical stamina is improving - maybe just I've got a good run of endorphins that kill the pain :P) - sometimes I can barely even string sentences together.
When I started flailing today V. observed that I fall into a predictable rhythm that makes me an ideal target. He suggested I do what we'd done in lesson a couple of weeks ago: change up the time and feint, what he calls "throwing up obstacles". I understood it then and had played with it some, but didn't fully internalize what he was trying to tell me.
Given that my brain was far more burnt out than my body at that point I figured, why not? I decided to stay in constant irregular motion and make my opponents' lives difficult.
That's when I started improving. As in, scoring touches on the tall infighty-people who had been tidily cleaning my clock all afternoon (!)
I may still not fully "grok" obstacle deployment, but I think I'm a step closer. And I know that I can do something in situations when I'm up against my physical/mental limits, yet am still compelled to fence (DEs).
Badger advised that it might also be useful to just take a break when I hit the wall and see if 10 minutes sitting down/drinking water buys me some more time. I think she may have an excellent strategy here - instead of fence constantly without "pedal to the metal", go all out and have more sit-downs.
Hmm..
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no subject
Date: 2009-04-27 10:57 pm (UTC)The suggested mini-break fits that analogy as well ... read any autobiography of somebody who's been in the front lines in a war and it's pretty universal that any moment of reprieve in the fighting was used as an opportunity to eat/drink/catnap because one never knew when the next chance would be. Unofficial "military strategy" could be an excellent way for you to go. :-)