Hippy swim and centered shooting

After some holiday errands I finally made it to the pool around 4:00pm. With no nap (and still feeling a little under the weather) I could tell in my first lap that this wasn't going to be a high intensity workout. So I set out to practice some skills that I recently read about in the Total Immersion book I've been reading...namely hip rotation. Whoa! With a little hip twist I was able to get my strokes across the pool down to 12 strokes (I even hit 10 on one length), 14 strokes at full speed. Not bad considering I was generally doing it in 16-18 strokes. My time didn't improve at all, but I did the same time with 4 fewer strokes. Nice!

I did another 4 rounds of shooting in the evening. Did pretty average on the first two targets on the third I tried on of Bill's drills in which you cut the center out of the target and try to get all your shots through the whole. I got all but 4 shots through, which was pretty good, but even better was my next target. I got all but two shots in the black target area. WOOO HOOO! So my highest score is now 69. Still hoping to get into the 80's by the time I switch up to my Steyr.

Long nap, big dinner, squirly shooting, fencing parries, short run

I was feeling a little cold coming on throughout the morning and was really tired from staying up late fencing the night before, so I decided to take a short nap. Well, it turned into a three hour nap. But boy did it feel good. I ended up missing both an option to ride and an option to swim in the afternoon, but I figured I must have needed the rest. To follow up on the nap I had a big dinner for once. Went down to the local pub, Grady's, for a guacamole burger. Taaasty! With the cold and amount of training I'm doing, a big meal is probably a good idea once in a while to keep my winter immune system hardy. During dinner, I read a little more of Pam's (Pam is another pentathlete training in the area) Total Immersion book. The current chapter was discussing how power really comes form the torso, especially the hips. The author used several metaphors from baseball and tennis, but I also noticed how much some of the sports I've been training in both have to offer and learn from what I'm learning from this book. Rowing, boxing, fencing, jumping, etc. all seem to have similar applications of how performing an action, muscle memory, etc. have much more to do with your performance than what one might think.

After the big dinner I went down to my basement and started in on shooting. It was pretty cold down there, which I think made my eyes a bit watery (the excuse I'm using for poor shooting). I got a couple good shots in, but most were not all that good. Dropping to the lower right hand side again, which usually means I'm gripping the handle to hard or with too much of my hand. For the first time I wished I had the adjustable/molded grip that I will eventually get when I purchase my Steyr. Got 40 shots off, which is good enough to keep my shooting arm in practice.

Then it was off to my fencing lesson. Tonight we worked on parries: counter six, eight, eight with counter six and four. My problem is still that I am reacting rather than responding, although I'm getting much better at responding to what really is or isn't coming at me. Practice, practice, practice...although its really brain practice more than anything. Muscle memory certainly comes into play, but not like other sports. You have to think quickly between the muscle memory to get the right motion into gear. I will the Wednesday open fencing, but will plan on attending the Sunday session instead.