Observations on Practice

I find that I feel very reluctant to begin practice, but that I usually feel pretty great afterwards. On the other hand, I once heard from a "big brother" in hung gar that if you don't feel like garbage after practice, then you weren't training hard enough. Conversely, he said, if you feel good after practice, then it's clear that you haven't trained hard enough at all.

Contrasted with this is the text of Fitness for Dummies, which suggests that feeling terrible after a work-out is a sign of useless and possibly harmful overexertion.

As usual, it looks like I need to work things out for myself.

As to my "quick fifteen minutes" routine . . . it hasn't survived very well. I've practiced only about twice during the past week, that I remember. I did practice tonight though.

It looks like there is no evidence that training at any particular time of the day is substantially superior to any other (mark the word superior here). So, training at 10 or 11 PM is just fine. I've also noticed that it doesn't seem to interfere with my sleeping habits.

Finally, I evidently have a black belt test in hung gar on the 15th of March. I'm a bit nervous, because although I feel my technique is adequate, my stamina is nowhere what it once was. Fortitude and the self-discipline required for its development are the first virtues of any serious martial arts student, especially one studying hung gar.