It was another warm evening in the dojo, so naturally I decided the sensible thing to do was to practice with Indian clubs, gada, Persian meels, speed bag, double-end bag, burpees and rope flow.
A few hundred club swings later, some gada work, six rounds of meels and burpees, a bit of bag work and 12 minutes of rope flow, I was finally done; and then I noticed I had company, Maddie had joined me.
At 16 years old, Maddie has a very different approach to physical culture.
She doesn’t bother with warm-ups, she doesn’t count repetitions, she doesn’t do conditioning circuits,
she certainly doesn’t do burpees. She simply watches, occasionally wanders through my legs and then finds somewhere comfortable to lie down.
I suspect she’s less interested in my technique than she is in determining whether I have finally learnt how to conserve energy.
Looking at her lying beside the rope, I realised something; perhaps I’m the one who needs coaching.
Maddie’s training philosophy:
- Move beautifully when necessary.
- Rest whenever possible.
- Explode instantly when a neighbour’s tabby cat appears.
- and always finish with restoration.
She’s been practising this for 16 years, I think she may know what she’s doing. 😻
