![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
I'm still sore. Obviously I'm not training hard enough yet. But it's not like it _bothers_ me. Either I welcome that sort of pain as a sign that I'm learning and improving my strength and flexibility, or else my body knows that it's from physical improvements, not damage, and so the signals come in a way which doesn't discourage me from doing it again. At any rate, that type of hurting all over isn't unpleasant the way a paper cut or headache is.
A friend of mine who does not train sent me a chapter from her novel in progress in which the protagonist gets punched in the face. As I have now been punched in the face an embarrassing number of times (I should guard it better) and she never has, we got in a discussion about how it would really feel. I suggested that the sensation is more one of impact than of pain, plus the mental shock her heroine would feel because of the circumstances. I don't know if that's universal, though.
I noticed that after I started training, especially once I started free-sparring, I stopped primarily associating being hit with fear and pain, and started perceiving it more as if the initial feeling of impact was the most important one. (I'm talking about the kind of blows that would bruise at the most, of course, not cause real damage.) The immediate thought becomes, "He got me-- get my guard up better," or "He got me-- get him back," rather than, "Oh, my God, he _hit_ me, ow!"
I don't actually expect anyone to ever strike me in real life-- I have excellent avoidance skills, and I would also hope that I'd see it coming and get out of the way, block, or counter first-- but I think there's some value in learning what it feels like in a safe environment, so if it ever does happen you won't be paralyzed from shock and unable to respond appropriately.
Those of you who also train (or play sports or hit the gym often), do you feel the same way about the perception of such things? If you remember the "hit by a train" feeling from the first few months when you'd just started, was it different or did you perceive it differently from the way you feel when you go an extra mile now? Have your feelings about certain types of pain changed since you started?
Tweedkitten came over last night bearing soju, grapefruit juice, and an astounding selection of manga. I loaned her TRIGUN, UTENA, GRAVITATION 2, the novel BATTLE ROYALE, and ANGRY WHITE PAJAMAS. She loaned me more manga than I'm industrious enough to name, but I will no doubt be writing about here. But not yet. I'm now glued to the novel she also loaned me, THE DIM SUM OF ALL THINGS by Kim Wong Keltner, Tweedkitten's autobiography with the heroine's ethnicity and location changed to avoid lawsuits--- I mean, a very funny novel about a young Chinese American woman living with her grandmother and exasperated by the stream of obnoxious white guys with Asian fetishes who keep hitting on her, while rather guiltily flirting with a co-worker, a white guy and fellow secret carnivore on the staff of "Vegan Warrior."
A friend of mine who does not train sent me a chapter from her novel in progress in which the protagonist gets punched in the face. As I have now been punched in the face an embarrassing number of times (I should guard it better) and she never has, we got in a discussion about how it would really feel. I suggested that the sensation is more one of impact than of pain, plus the mental shock her heroine would feel because of the circumstances. I don't know if that's universal, though.
I noticed that after I started training, especially once I started free-sparring, I stopped primarily associating being hit with fear and pain, and started perceiving it more as if the initial feeling of impact was the most important one. (I'm talking about the kind of blows that would bruise at the most, of course, not cause real damage.) The immediate thought becomes, "He got me-- get my guard up better," or "He got me-- get him back," rather than, "Oh, my God, he _hit_ me, ow!"
I don't actually expect anyone to ever strike me in real life-- I have excellent avoidance skills, and I would also hope that I'd see it coming and get out of the way, block, or counter first-- but I think there's some value in learning what it feels like in a safe environment, so if it ever does happen you won't be paralyzed from shock and unable to respond appropriately.
Those of you who also train (or play sports or hit the gym often), do you feel the same way about the perception of such things? If you remember the "hit by a train" feeling from the first few months when you'd just started, was it different or did you perceive it differently from the way you feel when you go an extra mile now? Have your feelings about certain types of pain changed since you started?
Tweedkitten came over last night bearing soju, grapefruit juice, and an astounding selection of manga. I loaned her TRIGUN, UTENA, GRAVITATION 2, the novel BATTLE ROYALE, and ANGRY WHITE PAJAMAS. She loaned me more manga than I'm industrious enough to name, but I will no doubt be writing about here. But not yet. I'm now glued to the novel she also loaned me, THE DIM SUM OF ALL THINGS by Kim Wong Keltner, Tweedkitten's autobiography with the heroine's ethnicity and location changed to avoid lawsuits--- I mean, a very funny novel about a young Chinese American woman living with her grandmother and exasperated by the stream of obnoxious white guys with Asian fetishes who keep hitting on her, while rather guiltily flirting with a co-worker, a white guy and fellow secret carnivore on the staff of "Vegan Warrior."