ELSU
16 winter, 513 av
It's absolutely balmy for winter. Jackets are unnecessary in comparison to the chilly days prior, especially if one plans to be rolling about on the muddy ground. Muddy and cold ground, thanks to the recent snowmelt. And, with his lack of skill, it's no doubt the majority of him time will be spent on the ground, whether by his own will or someone else's. Shyke, but he really needs to improve his fighting. And something that will help with that? Training. Training, training, training. And some more training. And probably some more after that. You're not done until you can't move, and even then you better stand right back up and get on with it. Elsu pats out a rhythm on his thighs as he walks, every now and then a hand coming up to snap against the straps of the pack he carries.
Entering the pit, the Kelvic nearly skips over to his usual training spot, a sunny corner that tends to have slightly softer ground than the rest of the area. Probably because no one comes over here. They don't want to have to deal with having the sun constantly in their eyes. He drops his pack into the corner, not even bothering to find a relatively dry spot, and takes a moment to push his hair back from his face and then rolls up his sleeves, foot tapping impatiently against the ground. Shoes come off next, and are laid softly next to his pack against the wall. Oh gods, the ground is freezing. He dances in place a moment, until his feet are accustomed to the temperature of the ground, which gives slightly with little squelches whenever he shifts his weight. He's going to need a bath by the end of this, if only to get the mud off him. But before then, stretching, which is necessary but awful, so dull and ew, he'll have to stay still. For ten seconds. In each position. What a trial. Letting out a world weary sigh, he near about folds his body in half, nose almost touching his knees as his arms fall heavily to the ground. Nimble hands press against the ground, and Elsu shifts his weight to the balls of his feet and his hands, pushing up on tiptoe for a greater stretch. His muscles tense for a moment at the pain, and he wills them to relax, letting his head get dragged down by the sheer weight of it for a better stretch. Holding the position for a few seconds, he can't help himself as he starts bouncing softly, shifting his center from over his feet to over his hands a few times before falling forwards, changing the movement into a quick roll. Head tucks, opposite shoulder rounds forward, and he manages to push with his feet to complete the roll, standing up at the end again, albeit shakily. The squishy ground does not help him regain his footing.
He lets his tongue hang out of his mouth after wincing, bruises still much too real from training yesterday. So, rolls were decent. He needed to work some more on them, obviously, but he still had stretching to do. Walking here from his apartment probably wasn't considered sufficient warm up. Ugh. Really, poor him. Plopping himself down on the muddy ground, Elsu stretched his legs out to either side of him, reaching forward as far as he could. He pointed his feet, then flexed them, then pointed them again, letting his hips roll forward only to turn them out again. A dull burn settled along his inner thighs, and he sighed, kneading his fingers into the dirt. A few more seconds was all he could stand, and he pushed his upper body over to his left, making sure to stretch his side for a few beats before folding over and grabbing his foot, flexing it. He repeated the movements with the right side before standing, swinging his arms and legs around experimentally. Shoulders were a bit tight, he registered, so he pulled his arms behind his head, rolling out his neck as he stretched. A few more minutes of this, and he was satisfied his body was as relaxed as it was going to be all day. It wasn't long before his head began to bounce along to some unknown tune only he could hear, however. Time to get going.
First order of business: falls. He could perform a forward roll cleanly, but getting up out of one was still difficult. And there were also backward rolls. Since those needed the most work, he decided he would do five backward rolls to start and see how far that got him.
He started by crouching, back to the center of the pit, and began by tucking his head in and to the side. Pushing off his feet, he let the side of his thigh touch the ground, followed by his hip, then opposite shoulder. It was clumsy and unbalanced, and Elsu took a moment to regain his bearings before realizing that he must've rolled on his shoulder funny. A muscle he didn't even know he had hurt. Oh well. The boy repeated the backwards roll a few times, getting wobbly to his feet by his fourth roll. Definite improvement. The roll itself was neat by now, slower than he would like but smooth and without gaining any new aches with every turn. Getting up was, again, the difficult part.
Obviously, he needed more momentum, so that he was able to raise his legs over his head, stop himself, and get to his feet. After a few more tries, that seemed to him to be easier said than done. Grumbling to himself, he stood up, stretching out his limbs and glancing around at the other folks practicing. Some were sparring, some practiced with dummies or invisible enemies, and a few just stood chatting. Whatever. Elsu jumped up and down without thinking, before settling into a crouch and conducting a forward roll. This was easier, pitching himself forward, he could push off easily with his legs. His front rolls were quicker because of this, and he took a moment to congratulate himself at being able to do something before continuing his practices. Each roll was faster, harder, more momentum, until he could barely control his body and slowed down enough to ensure being able to get up smoothly.
Satisfied with the state of his forward rolls, he did a few more for good measure, than paused. Time to get back to backwards rolls. They seemed to require a totally different method than their counterpart, and now that Elsu's body had settled into the pattern if falling forward, falling backward seemed counterintuitive and near impossible. His legs hurt. His shoulders hurt. He wasn't quite sure what other part of his body hurt, but he was pretty sure that the whole thing hurt. Waking up was going to be hell tomorrow. So many bruises, and he'd barely even done anything.
Backward rolls required a different approach. After a moment of contemplation, he decided to try falling from an upright position. The further away from the ground he was, the more momentum he would have, and the easier it should be to push off backwards. Pushing himself to his feet, the Kelvic took a moment to attempt to brush off the cold mud that was clinging to his body and clothes in drying clumps. The chilliness of the air and ground were beginning to get to him, seemingly freezing his muscles and decreasing flexibility. A few jumps in place helped to get rid of the chunks of dirt as well as warm himself up, and Elsu was ready to continue.
Breathe in, breathe out, relax muscles. Bend knees, shift weight back and tuck in tailbone, shoulders, and head. Hip against ground, push off with feet, and... he was stuck. Great. Huffing, he fell over onto his side and got back to his feet, trying the same motions again. This time he managed to complete a roll, although he didn't even bother to attempt getting to his feet. A few more tries and he figured he should be able to at least struggle to his feet. The first endeavor he made to rise to his feet he was able to stand up, although lost his balance a moment later and fell down, this time turning the fall into a neat forward roll. It figured that forward rolls would be practically second nature even without all that much practice, while rolling backward was an alien concept.
Whatever. He would get it eventually. That didn't stop him from wishing eventually would hurry up and turn into now. But now would come with practice, so all he could do was just that. Practice. The rolls were beginning to get rather tiresome. Repetitive motions were not Elsu's favorite, they got dull quickly. But ones such as these required paying attention, putting full effort into each movement, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Front roll into standing, then back roll into standing. Repeating the drill Elsu formed for himself, he continued until each roll shifted neatly into a sturdy standing position that left him poised and ready to strike. Not to mention caked in mud.
Entering the pit, the Kelvic nearly skips over to his usual training spot, a sunny corner that tends to have slightly softer ground than the rest of the area. Probably because no one comes over here. They don't want to have to deal with having the sun constantly in their eyes. He drops his pack into the corner, not even bothering to find a relatively dry spot, and takes a moment to push his hair back from his face and then rolls up his sleeves, foot tapping impatiently against the ground. Shoes come off next, and are laid softly next to his pack against the wall. Oh gods, the ground is freezing. He dances in place a moment, until his feet are accustomed to the temperature of the ground, which gives slightly with little squelches whenever he shifts his weight. He's going to need a bath by the end of this, if only to get the mud off him. But before then, stretching, which is necessary but awful, so dull and ew, he'll have to stay still. For ten seconds. In each position. What a trial. Letting out a world weary sigh, he near about folds his body in half, nose almost touching his knees as his arms fall heavily to the ground. Nimble hands press against the ground, and Elsu shifts his weight to the balls of his feet and his hands, pushing up on tiptoe for a greater stretch. His muscles tense for a moment at the pain, and he wills them to relax, letting his head get dragged down by the sheer weight of it for a better stretch. Holding the position for a few seconds, he can't help himself as he starts bouncing softly, shifting his center from over his feet to over his hands a few times before falling forwards, changing the movement into a quick roll. Head tucks, opposite shoulder rounds forward, and he manages to push with his feet to complete the roll, standing up at the end again, albeit shakily. The squishy ground does not help him regain his footing.
He lets his tongue hang out of his mouth after wincing, bruises still much too real from training yesterday. So, rolls were decent. He needed to work some more on them, obviously, but he still had stretching to do. Walking here from his apartment probably wasn't considered sufficient warm up. Ugh. Really, poor him. Plopping himself down on the muddy ground, Elsu stretched his legs out to either side of him, reaching forward as far as he could. He pointed his feet, then flexed them, then pointed them again, letting his hips roll forward only to turn them out again. A dull burn settled along his inner thighs, and he sighed, kneading his fingers into the dirt. A few more seconds was all he could stand, and he pushed his upper body over to his left, making sure to stretch his side for a few beats before folding over and grabbing his foot, flexing it. He repeated the movements with the right side before standing, swinging his arms and legs around experimentally. Shoulders were a bit tight, he registered, so he pulled his arms behind his head, rolling out his neck as he stretched. A few more minutes of this, and he was satisfied his body was as relaxed as it was going to be all day. It wasn't long before his head began to bounce along to some unknown tune only he could hear, however. Time to get going.
First order of business: falls. He could perform a forward roll cleanly, but getting up out of one was still difficult. And there were also backward rolls. Since those needed the most work, he decided he would do five backward rolls to start and see how far that got him.
He started by crouching, back to the center of the pit, and began by tucking his head in and to the side. Pushing off his feet, he let the side of his thigh touch the ground, followed by his hip, then opposite shoulder. It was clumsy and unbalanced, and Elsu took a moment to regain his bearings before realizing that he must've rolled on his shoulder funny. A muscle he didn't even know he had hurt. Oh well. The boy repeated the backwards roll a few times, getting wobbly to his feet by his fourth roll. Definite improvement. The roll itself was neat by now, slower than he would like but smooth and without gaining any new aches with every turn. Getting up was, again, the difficult part.
Obviously, he needed more momentum, so that he was able to raise his legs over his head, stop himself, and get to his feet. After a few more tries, that seemed to him to be easier said than done. Grumbling to himself, he stood up, stretching out his limbs and glancing around at the other folks practicing. Some were sparring, some practiced with dummies or invisible enemies, and a few just stood chatting. Whatever. Elsu jumped up and down without thinking, before settling into a crouch and conducting a forward roll. This was easier, pitching himself forward, he could push off easily with his legs. His front rolls were quicker because of this, and he took a moment to congratulate himself at being able to do something before continuing his practices. Each roll was faster, harder, more momentum, until he could barely control his body and slowed down enough to ensure being able to get up smoothly.
Satisfied with the state of his forward rolls, he did a few more for good measure, than paused. Time to get back to backwards rolls. They seemed to require a totally different method than their counterpart, and now that Elsu's body had settled into the pattern if falling forward, falling backward seemed counterintuitive and near impossible. His legs hurt. His shoulders hurt. He wasn't quite sure what other part of his body hurt, but he was pretty sure that the whole thing hurt. Waking up was going to be hell tomorrow. So many bruises, and he'd barely even done anything.
Backward rolls required a different approach. After a moment of contemplation, he decided to try falling from an upright position. The further away from the ground he was, the more momentum he would have, and the easier it should be to push off backwards. Pushing himself to his feet, the Kelvic took a moment to attempt to brush off the cold mud that was clinging to his body and clothes in drying clumps. The chilliness of the air and ground were beginning to get to him, seemingly freezing his muscles and decreasing flexibility. A few jumps in place helped to get rid of the chunks of dirt as well as warm himself up, and Elsu was ready to continue.
Breathe in, breathe out, relax muscles. Bend knees, shift weight back and tuck in tailbone, shoulders, and head. Hip against ground, push off with feet, and... he was stuck. Great. Huffing, he fell over onto his side and got back to his feet, trying the same motions again. This time he managed to complete a roll, although he didn't even bother to attempt getting to his feet. A few more tries and he figured he should be able to at least struggle to his feet. The first endeavor he made to rise to his feet he was able to stand up, although lost his balance a moment later and fell down, this time turning the fall into a neat forward roll. It figured that forward rolls would be practically second nature even without all that much practice, while rolling backward was an alien concept.
Whatever. He would get it eventually. That didn't stop him from wishing eventually would hurry up and turn into now. But now would come with practice, so all he could do was just that. Practice. The rolls were beginning to get rather tiresome. Repetitive motions were not Elsu's favorite, they got dull quickly. But ones such as these required paying attention, putting full effort into each movement, and repeat, repeat, repeat. Front roll into standing, then back roll into standing. Repeating the drill Elsu formed for himself, he continued until each roll shifted neatly into a sturdy standing position that left him poised and ready to strike. Not to mention caked in mud.
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