Poland camp day 6‏

Dzien dobre

Had another intense day of training here. Back into the eat, sleep, train cycle.
Just finished dinner - we had a big photo op session outside on the field with photos of the entire army here as well as various national team shots.
I only felt a little sunstroked by the end of it :)

Speaking of dinner, DJ has agreed to post up a summary of his feelings on the Polish menu we've been served during this time.
Really, it has been great food for training. All the right stuff... just a little quirky at times I guess. But I'm not fussy. Mostly. The blood sausage doesn't do it for me but raw radishes for breakfast? All good... Anyhow I'll leave the explanation of the food to DJ.

Today we spent a lot more time on sparring in the afternoon session which was cool. Generally everyone has very good control which makes for an enjoyable yet hard-working / competitive environment. This afternoon I got to spar many a round with one Polish fighter from my weight division (under 80kg) who has come 2nd and 3rd in this years national championship tournaments to the likes of Daniel Dziala (3x world champ in my weight division). So, needless to say I got a lot out of it. Having the freedom to try out different things on a new opponent who knows how to put the pressure on without having to worry to much about points scoring is liberating.

The morning session involved a long haul of fundamental movements that went on continuously for about an hour and finished with a whole bunch of leg control exercises.
One exercise for example was 100 consecutive turning kicks against a kick shield without a break. Then Master Jedut: "Ok good. Now 200".... 5 mins later with our heads hanging down and clutching our gluts "Ok. Dobje. 100 more to finish".
I don't remember ever doing 800 consecutive turning kicks in a row. Reminds me of what it first felt like to do consecutive kicking... I feel like a beginner again...
Which of course is nice. That is what it is all about. Reaching over those plateaus that seem to exist but we all really just construct for ourselves beacause we can't see past our perceived limitations.
Or something like that...
:P

I think the others have bailed on blood sausages, gherkins, radishes and potato soup and have opted to head for the Pizzeria down the road. I don't blame them. I guess you could get a bit tired of the same food but really I've been pleasantly suprised by the food here.

Just a couple more days to go.
It has gone quickly.
I was just saying to one of the others "imagine if you trained / lived like this everyday of your life"... The conversation carried on as we hypothesised how that might have been the very case for the North Koreans of pre-2003... Seriously, some of the leg control exercises today involving multiple kicks (e.g. two downward kicks backwards per slide with perfect balance across the hall) had us truly stumped. Even Trotts found it very challenging. The jugger-brothers I could barely move. Master Jedut explained to us that these were some of the exercises introduced to Poland by visiting North Korean instructors in 1982! I wasn't even a glint in my fathers eye. Haha
We got some training to do.

Catch up again soon.
And congratulations to all those who competed in the Auckland North Regionals on the weekend... Go Impact :D

CVR