We started almost cold today, warming up only with floor hip and
shoulder exercises, i.e. wiggling across the floor using just the
shoulders while laying on the back or stomach and then using only the
butt, backwards, forwards, side-to-side, while keeping your legs bent
and off the floor. The side-to-side is difficult, I think I moved
about an inch or two to the right today for the first time. But
despite that, I barely broke a sweat, in contrast to the usual warmup
routine which leaves me breathless. We moved into drills with
practice knives. We stabbed at our partners as they lay on their
backs or stomachs, then up against the wall. The object is to avoid
by moving just the body part being stabbed. This was a light yielding
exercise, not a sparring one. Edgar told us it is like a massage for
the pressure points. We also practiced avoiding a knife slash by
redirecting the attacking arm and swiveling behind our
partners, "like dancing," as Edgar frequently reminds us.

We practiced elbow joint locks and I had some trouble with these. I
am a little afraid of hurting my partner, and I can't help but think
that even a nudge to an elbow held straight across my body would be
too much painful leverage on a delicate area. But even my Mom, who is
not exactly stoic about pain, kept asking me to put more aggression
into my attack. Luckily we moved into different sorts of exercises,
the rolling and trapping motions of arm and shoulders. We practiced
avoiding attacks to the neck, waist, and legs by ducking under or
over the attacking arm, by weaving an arm around it to capture and by
pulling the knife arm further in the direction of the attack, with
corresponding takedowns.

My favorite drill was on the ground, trapping the attacking knife by
rolling from side-to-side and following up with a takedown. I've
always thought whoever is on the ground would be at a huge
disadvantage in a fight, but to my surprise we all managed to execute
takedowns from the floor without struggling. I think I finally got
the hang of the weaving motion to trap an attacking arm, figure
eight, snake-like movement, or whatever you wish to call it.
Something about the floor encourages intuitive motions, I think.
Perhaps it reminds us of the natural movements of childhood; most of
us sat on the floor a great deal in elementary school. The floor also
has a massaging effect, it's helpful to use the floor as a passive
stretching partner if your shoulders or hips are tight. I would love
to do even more floor-work in class, I find it so relaxing and fun.

We worked with practice knives for the entire class. For our final
sensitivity drill, we stabbed and slashed slowly at our partners
while they avoided and "rolled" around our attack. There was a
general theme to the class: maintaining contact. Thought precedes
action, as Edgar demonstrated by maintaining contact with my arm as I
stabbed at him, mirroring and even predict my attacking motions.

*Vsego nailuchshego* (best wishes),
Rachel