New Stripe

Thursday I was awarded a stripe on my Blue.  I guess it is a result of losing 5 matches last weekend, but hanging in there nonetheless.  I don’t really get being promoted for losing, but we all can’t be winners, right?

In the last little while, I have made a subconscious change to my standing game.  I have only become aware of it recently.  It used to be that I would shoot in for a double or a single, right away.  I hate dancing around, grip fighting, or pushing and pulling.  I was confident enough in my shot that, as long as I didn’t telegraph it, I had a good chance of finishing on top.  But lately I haven’t been shooting in at all, or if I do, it’s half-hearted or weak.  This last couple of weeks, the reason has become very apparent.  My god damn knees hurt too much.  I physically can’t get them to work in a way to make the double effective.  Or when I do force them to work, the pain make me never want to do it again.  Arthritis is a bitch. I hate the guard pull. That’s not my game. I’m not too sure what I am going to do. I’ll have to think about it for a while…