Anybody else getting a sense of waiting for the other shoe to drop?
As things are opening up, most of the folks around me are very cautious in how we're running classes. We're doing our best to social distance and to work on material that doesn't require getting in close with other people.
I am so, so, so glad I'm not a grappler right now.
For those of you reading this that are grapplers... I am so sorry, dudes.
Anyway, for Arnis, it's not too bad. We have lots of drills that can be converted to solo or long range drills. In my lineage, at least, we have anyos (our versions of forms). We're adapting feeding drills from stick vs. stick to staff vs. stick, and we're reviving staff material that I hadn't thought to teach.
We've had to get creative with how we train and teach. I don't think that's a bad thing for the growth and development of what we do. But it's certainly not adequate in the long-term to getting students to the point where they are actually DOING Arnis, against other people who aren't letting them do it.
As the lockdown eases up, all of the things canceled or postponed during the spring lockdown are being revived.
That's what's giving me that sense of foreboding I started this post with.
We're trying to cram a year's worth of seminars and camps into a couple of months, while we still can.
We all believe, on some level, that we're going to be locked down again, maybe by September if we're lucky to go that long.
I don't think anyone believes this is over. This is a temporary reprieve to live a little before the doors shut on us again.
So every in-person seminar or camp we can possibly schedule is getting scheduled, around the problem of trying to maintain all that social distancing stuff and the logistics of travel. It's a complicated problem and I am glad I am not trying to organize one of these things.
On the one hand I really wanna do the training, on the other, I'm kind of scared to do the training.
I desperately, desperately miss my peeps, y'all.
That's not a trivial thing.
BUT.
A small part of me is afraid of getting sick from COVID-19. Just a small part of me; generally I think the risk is incredibly low and with the precautions in place it'll be fine.
Another thing that I fear is the stress of managing the logistics of travel (at least one thing, maybe two, require travel to Texas). Is it safer to drive, or to fly, all things considered? Are hotel rooms safe? What precautions do I have to take? Having to figure all that out is kind of scary.
However, what's really bothering me is the possibility that getting together with folks I don't get to see very often in the best of times might actually make the next lockdown worse on yours truly.
I dunno if I want to get a taste of my old life before it's snatched away again for who knows how long. Maybe it'll hurt less to miss them if there's no contact at all until we're past this and we can do what we like...?
I don't know. I can't know until I do it and find out.
Either way, that's pretty scary.
So are you getting in as much training as you can in person before we're put back in lockdown? What are you worried about, and what do you most look forward to? Let me know in the comments!