Reverse Lead

I arrived at the dojo feeling good. Even though I’d done Cindy that morning I had the energy for a three hour session at the dojo. I decided to to take the fitness kickboxing class. Over the past few weeks my boxing has broken through a learning plateau. My hook looks like a hook, my cross looks like a cross. My stance itself is better. I’m better at controlling weight distribution through my feet; the legs are turning with the punches. When I want to emphasize power I can do so (with the kickboxing not so much, although I’ve gotten better at using my hips and turning my head off the line). I asked Sifu if he thought I was ready to work in reverse lead, and how to go about doing so. He thought I was ready, suggesting I remind him from time to time on boxing days (work with leftys, work with experienced folks who themselves needed to work reverse leads)

He decided now was as good a time as any so he paired me up with H, who had just passed her first Thai test.

Working reverse lead is like hitting the reset button, as you simply don’t have the muscle memory. To have a solid right lead hook, you must practice the right lead hook, likewise for the left. Knowing one doesn’t mean you know the other, it’s not a transferable skill, but the JKD ethic (and our curriculum demands you learn both). Even though it might be a couple years before I actually have to test this stuff there’s no time like the present (and if it takes as long as my right side I may need these two years).

H didn’t share my enthusiasm for working the left side. As the class progressed she became progressively upset, she wasn’t getting the workout she wanted. We were both equally clumsy, but I was trying to be patient, to look at the big picture. She blamed me for ruining her hour, at least that’s how I was taking it, and I just about had enough. I was being blamed for learning and adaptation, for being challenged. Can’t have that in a dojo. She got cattier and cattier, had we not switched to kickboxing (and leads) there would have been a blow up. Luckily, I didn’t say what was on my mind

“Have you ever been raped? Ever had a gun to your head? How about tortured?

No? Then shut the fuck up and work the combination.” Yeah, sayin’ that would have been bad. I don’t know what the long term result would have been, but suffice to say I think the class might have come to a dead stop.

I stayed for grappling. H didn’t stay for the Thai class.