Today was the third day in a row of Ninja Training. I have been going back to back to back this week so that I can get my Yellow Belt on Saturday before I head home for a week. Monday was probably one of the toughest days of my Ninja Training to date. I volunteered to help Ninja Master and Ninja Master's Wife train the Little Ninjas during Family Ninja Training. Back in my younger Pre-Great White Ninja days, I used to teach 3-12 year old kids how to swim, so I thought I had some experience keeping kids focused and paying attention. I'm either out of practice or not as good at keeping kids toeing the line as I thought I was, as Monday was an exhausting experience. Of course, it could have also been a combination of one Ninja Instructor, Junior Grade (yours truly) to a dozen Little Ninjas and the fact that I was learning the moves I was supposed to help teach at the same time as the Little Ninjas. Or, it could have been that one of the Ninja Instructors told me that I would be in charge of the 8 & 9 year olds by myself. Little Ninja Funny Boy and Little Ninja Funny Boy's Sidekick did not make life any easier, as they were screwing around and not focusing on the Ninja Techniques that they were supposed to learn. The other Little Ninjas were, for the most part, cooperative. I had prior commitments after Little Ninja Training which kept me from staying for Ninja Masters or Ninja Basic like I have been.
Yesterday (Tuesday, for those of you keeping score), I went to both Ninja Masters and Ninja Basics despite showing up on Saturday, thus not really needing to go to Ninja Masters. I'm glad I did though, because I really need as much practice as I can possibly get. The Ninja Technique taught to us by Ninja Master is probably over my head still, but it is good advice to keep in the back of my mind. Today's Ninja Masters provided a much more useful technique that I actually used during sparring. Ninja Master and I squared off for a 5 minute round today. That man is like a boa constrictor... he allows you to get into position and then slowly, but deliberately positions himself in a way that you know you're in trouble, but can't really do much about it. He averaged about one tap-out against me per minute. Let me say it now -- my new goal is to train hard enough to just be able to last one round against him. I am not crazy enough to think that I'm gonna win, I just don't want to lose.
Speaking of not losing, this has been a pretty productive week for Ninja Defense. Of course the higher belts that I have been rolling with are going at half-speed at first, but I think they realize that I am starting to figure out what I'm doing, so they start to pick up the intensity. Sometimes they're not able to get me to tap, but most of the time, they do. But instead of me tapping 3 or 4 times during a 5 or 6 minute round, I am only tapping once. Which is absolute improvement. The next step is to start trying to attack a bit. At this point, it isn't so that I can win the round, but rather to keep the opponent on his or her guard so I can relax the defense from time to time. The stuff we are learning in Ninja Basics -- basic guard and mount escapes will definitely help achieve that goal. Like I said -- against somebody who knows what he's doing, it won't be enough to win, but it'll do well enough to buy a few seconds of rest.
Well, tomorrow, I'm finally taking Ninja Charlie up on his offer to teach me a thing or two about jiu jistu (also known in shorthand as "BJJ"). These will be my first Ninja Private Lessons, so I'm expecting some great stuff to happen. I'll tell y'all about it tomorrow or Friday.
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