Mr Stick

Last summer, my neighbour, knowing we do a lot of camping, gave us a very cool walking stick.  My first thought was, “I wanna use that as a weapon.”  And so of course, I tried using it as a staff. 

It did not go well.  

It was big, bulky and very unbalanced compared to my regular stick.  It was clumsy and awkward in my hands and was very difficult to maneuver.  Quite frankly, I didn’t trust myself with it.  And so I set it aside. 

Today, I decided to give it another go.  Surprisingly, it felt much better than what I remembered.  I was able to wield it fairly smoothly and found that I had much more confidence with it. I ran through Stick 1-3 a few times, and it actually started to feel pretty decent.  This exercise was very valuable in that it showed me some of the clear progress that I am making.  A year ago I was clumsy and unable to confidently do anything with this irregular, bulky stick.  Today was very different.  It actually felt good in my hands.

Of course I would probably still be “better” with my regular stick.  This guy will definitely require more strength to wield, simply due to it’s size and weight.  I also have to move a little slower with it, or risk really abusing my shoulder or damaging my foot, but I think once I figure it out, I will be able to speed back up again.  

Overall, I think throwing this guy into the mix will offer some interesting benefits to my training and I can see this really challenging my ability to make a weapon an extension of myself.  

I’m looking forward to getting to know him better. 

And I think he needs a name.