He had marked out a rough boundary with four stones and was running through a sequence of movements in the center of it with the unhurried precision of someone for whom practice was not an effort but a habit.
He stopped when I reached the edge of the marked space. "How's your Shoulder?"
"Manageable," I said.
"Show me your stance."
I moved into position and he walked a slow circle around me, looking at my feet, my hips, the angle of my shoulders. He said nothing for a moment, then he stopped in front of me.
"Drop your weight two inches lower. You are carrying it too high. In a trial format with contact elements it will make you easy to displace."
I adjusted. He looked at it then nodded once. "Better."
We worked through basic sequences first, he called moves and I executed them. He wa
