Day Twenty Six: The Ultimate Training Tool

Peter has a million fascinating stories like scaring off the Chinese Tong family from the Wong dojo in San Francisco's Chinatown (during the "Tong Wars" to give that context) to using Effortless Power to throw a 400lb man across a room, but one I really liked was how him and another equally crazy friend used to throw themselves off cliffs to practice 'being in the moment' and 'responding to now'. You can't look before jumping off though, otherwise you can plan what you'll do and that's cheating.

I know it mostly sounds like garbage but when you've met the man, you know he has done these things. His martial ability is just astounding, coupled with an incredibly quick and perceptive mind.




Fitness/Aikido: We played Pressure No Pressure again and a lot of Game B. Game B is like Game A, except there are no roles, and both of you attempt to move the other person against their choice whilst continuing to yield and remain in contact. I have spent almost the entire day in a squat stance and my knees are feeling a little bit tetchy. They're resting in a hot towel at the moment. They like that. Ah yes, 8.30am until 9pm in the dojo.

Derby: No skating today.

Diet: Weetbix, banana, maccas for lunch because I couldn't bear the thought of going to the mall, Nandos for dinner... why didn't anyone tell me Nando's is sh!t? Holy crap, worst food ever, and I don't even care about food. Then when I got home I had a second dinner of lamb, avocado, capsicum, tomato, spring onion. Blueberries for dessert again. Aside from the maccas and the Nandos everything else was fine. I can tell my body has already burnt through everything already anyway. Game B is... exhausting and demanding. I overheated for about three minutes - I became confused as normally when I overheat on skates I just keep skating, and the breeze cools me down. Standing in the dojo I didn't know what I could do to cool down faster. My point is even the poor quality food was burnt to nothing today. If anything, I should have eaten more, regardless of it's content.

Sleep: Stayed up a bit last night, I knew I'd pay for it because this workshop is demanding but part of me was also a bit traumatised by a long weekend and no capacity for a sleep in. No sleep in now, nothing last week, and probably not until the 18th. So, I'm feeling sorry for myself. I don't sleep in any more, don't get me wrong, but not having the opportunity to makes it seem worse because I don't have a choice in the matter.

And I'm all, "......."

I spoke with Antonio about mind blanking today at lunch. He used to do boxing for a couple of years and is a very quick study. He agreed about mind blanking, and how in the first number of his fights he could never think anything, just nothing. Until you have experience, the techniques are still techniques, and even after you have experience, they are still just techniques and likely to never be used in a real situation. A fight is a completely different scenario, completely removed. I know things like this don't actively help me, but they help relax my mind. I found this hurdle with hockey stops - I couldn't get my mind around going on my left side, but when I knew everyone had struggled the same struggle, I felt the weight lift and then I could practice them and actually turn my body correctly.