Practice was frustrating tonight! We did a drill in the beginning to work on counterattacks. I've never had great counterattacks, but it's something my new coach really emphasizes as an important tool to perfect. The drill was...difficult. I kept missing the timing of my retreats and getting hit, or else I would retreat well, but my extension would fall short (or my arm just wouldn't do anything at all!). I did start getting it a bit at the end though.
Then free fencing wasn't that great either. I ended up being the odd woman out a lot where there were no open strips or opponents. Or I would fence with someone who had stayed up, so they would end up getting tired sooner resulting in a much shorter bout. Then there wouldn't be anyone open to fence and I would end up sitting on the sidelines.
My poor husband, on the other hand, ended up just never coming down. At one point, he had fenced 3 or 4 people in a row, and instead of his opponent staying up, he just hopped down. This would have left me sitting out even more. My hubby then stayed up for me, exhausted as he was.
And this was where the frustration really began. I knew it would be difficult and I'm definitely not expecting miracles. It will take time. But I failed to hit even one counterattack during my bout with him. He gave me a good number of straight attacks (it was all he had left in the tank, poor guy!), and I either misjudged my distance or simply failed to extend.
We re-did the drill a few times since I was having so much trouble with it. I got 100% of those! They were smooth and pretty, right on the arm. Then, as soon as we went back to bouting, nothing. My arm just didn't extend or I instinctively went to do a parry or something rather than a counterattack.
So all in all, not the best night of practice. I'm heading back on Wednesday and will be happy if I can just land ONE counterattack in a bout. Baby steps, right?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment