Workout
Posted on Wed Nov 6th, 2019 @ 12:40am by Lieutenant Tree Woods & Lieutenant Commander James Trallos MD
Mission:
Delta Operations
Location: Deck 11 - Gym 2
James looked around, he was thrilled. The gym was empty for the moment. He normally did his morning work out in a holosuite, but today they were all full. While he was familiar with everything he did, he was always self-conscious. Part of his nature he figured, but he needed to work out today. Too many days on a shuttle and too much work was catching up to him.
He walked over to a center mat wearing his black Saam. He stretched for a moment and then began to slowly move through a form in Tai-chi to help loosen him up. Once he was loose he began to move through a Taolu or form. It was pretty apparent for him that he needed to do this as he felt the stiffness slowly melt away.
"Oh hey Doc." sounded a familiar voice from the entrance, as he went through his forms. Lieutenant Woods entered, wearing work-out clothes, a tank top over training shorts and running shoes. More noteworthy though was the sword she was carrying. A one meter long, single edged blade on a one-handed hilt. The blade had a somewhat slightly heavier design, favoring a balance point further from the wrist, for high impact cutting.
James flailed for a moment jumping backwards into a ready stance. He was so focused on remembering what he was doing he did not hear he walk in. "Oh, Lieutenant Woods. Sorry, I did not hear you come in." He looked around quickly, at least she was the only one that came in. "How's your shoulder doing?" James asked and cast a curious look at the blade she was holding.
"Getting better, thank you." she mused, moving to a safe space, setting her weapon down and starting a warm-up. "As we're not doing anything official, feel free to call me Tree." Beat. "Short for Teresa. Blame my father."
"Glad to hear that Tree." He smiled. "James, short for...James." He shrugged. "Didn't get the most creative of names. Did you get that nickname in a good way or bad way being called Tree?"
She shrugged a bit. "What does it matter. It's my name. It's the only one I have." She really didn't like talking about it. Like her name was the only thing about her that mattered to people. "Nice form. I don't recognize the style." she changed the subject.
"Fair enough." James answered and stretched a little. He was not going to pry at anything. "Thanks, It's an older style of Earth Kung Fu called Shaolin. It was practiced by ancient monks on Earth. My roommate in Med School was a descendant of Shaolin Monks many generations ago and had kept the practice. It looked interesting so he started teaching me. I used the holodeck to learn more. I've still got a ways to go, but I found it to be good for me." James watched Tree stretch for a moment. "What about you? You've got more then a butter knife there so I would assume you know something yourself."
"I'm trained in boxing. No fancy name, just simple - boxing." She effortlessly switched from her warm-up to a dukes-up defensive stance, dancing around on her feet for a moment, throwing a few quick jabs at the air as if to illustrate. "As for my butterknife, it's a Messer. Though it's an antique in and of itself it's not an original, this replica was made about two hundred years ago." she explained, reaching down to grab it off the ground, moving into a defensive stance, sword up, point forward, feet apart and grounded, entire body supporting the sword arm.
"I do HEMA - Historical European Martial Arts. Again, no fancy name, just a series of forms, stances, defences and attacks based on medieval historical treatises." she once again explained, taking a quick half step forward, giving a fierce slash forward with her blade at an imaginary opponent, before dodging an imaginary return strike and retaliating with a quick one-two high and low jab and doing a quick hop back, slipping into another defensive stance again.
"That's pretty impressive Tree. Fancy names mean little anyway. Boxing, Hema or Kung Fu, it all defends yourself and is used for protection and a means to keep you alive. I assume that in a position like yours, the more you know the better odds are you'll come out on top." James started his Tai Chi again. He felt a little spot in his leg that was already trying to cramp up. He made a mental note that next time Starfleet wanted him to go that far across the galaxy to have them add more time in a real ship instead of one shuttlecraft to the next.
"At the risk of sound all new-age-y and crap, I do this to find balance within myself. The control over the body, breathing techniques, finding my own limits. It brings me peace." she mused, her words almost in a rhythm as she moved from stance to stance, flowing motions, it was almost like a dance - but not quite. "Plus, it helps keep me in shape. Nice bonus." she smiled. "Though I guess it's similar for you?"
James smiled. "I'd say you pretty much nailed it. That pretty much explains why I do Tai Chi, helps me with control and forces my body to slow down. The King Fu was fun, but while on the Bajor I realized a doctor is just as vulnerable as anyone and I better learn how to defend myself quick. That was when I started taking it more serious then just something my friend and roommate showed me."
James looked over at the athletic mat near the center of the gym. "Do you feel up to go for a round Tree?"
She considered a moment, then smirked. "If the ship's chief medical officer deems me and my shoulder fit enough I can't really say no, can I." she offered, moving to set her sword aside against the wall before making her way to the center mat, hopping up and down and loosening her shoulders a bit.
"If you followed my advice and took it easy the last couple days, your shoulder should be fine. I have confidence in my work." He joked as he stepped in the ring. He then paused as he got closer. Did he really just challenge the Chief of Security to hand to hand combat? Well, he would soon find out if he really was paying attention to those classes he took. He gave a small bow and assumed a ready position.
"Alright, some ground rules. Nothing above the shoulders or below the belt. We're looking for hits, not damage." Tree mused. She reciprocated the bow, then put her hands up in front of her face, defensively, starting to bob and weave a bit on her feet. A moment later an exploratory jab in James' direction.
"Agreed." James said as he began moving around. He saw her jab coming and blocked it quickly, redirecting it away from his chest. He saw she was feeling him out and based on her strike, James knew that was as basic as she had. James threw a counter punch to test the waters himself.
Said punch deftly dodged as she weaved to the left, following it up with a quick one-two at James' abdomen, hoping to hit where his cover was weaker.
James blocked the first punch but was slow to fully avoid the second punch, taking a glancing blow to a rib as he moved out of the way. He tried to throw a feint jab high to her chest with the real punch going to her abdomen.
His feint half worked in that she knew instinctively by how he moved that it was a feint, but she was still caught half off guard by the attack to her abdomen and was almost able to twist out of the way, reducing it to a glancing hit. A grin on her features as she adjusted her guard, smiling at him. "Not bad. Not bad at all."
"Thanks, although I think I'm better with a phaser." He said with a smile and came in with a straight one-two combination hopping to get at least one more strike in before she got tired of playing with him and really turned it up.
A quick hop back so James hit air, then forward again, her eyes firmly on his, her expression a bit more serious - he was better than he gave himself credit for. A quick one-to jab aimed at his upper torso, she knew those wouldn't challenge his defense, but she hoped that the rapid follow-up towards his abdomen caught him off guard.
James held her gaze, and reading her body language to try and predict her strikes. She was turning it up and he knew her strikes were coming with precision. He switched to being more defensive. He blocked the upper hand and tried to counter, realizing two late that a follow up was coming. Her strikes landed square in the abdomen. He took the painful strikes and threw a strike to her chest.
The strike dodged, though barely, as Tree ducked to the side, keeping her guard up. The to and fro was fascinating to watch, James giving as good as he got, but Tree just landing a few more hits than him - though he kept her on her toes.
After some time though, she stepped back and held up her hands, chest heaving as she was trying to catch her breath. "Ok, that's enough. Starting to feel my shoulder a bit again. Sign to stop, I think." she smiled, obviously pleased with the sparring session.
James smiled as he took deep breaths. "That sounds like a good stopping point to me." He reached down and touched his ribs that took a couple good shots, he winced and looked around. "Is there a doctor in the gym?" He asked, unable to keep the smile off his face as he said it.
She approached him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "You ok there, big guy? I got a few good hits in. Tried to hold back but I think I got you good a few times."
He laughed. "Thanks for holding back some. You did get a couple good ones in. I'll just head to the Broad Axe Lounge tonight for a drink and that should fix most of the soreness. Tree that jab of yours is something when it lands." He was surprised at even with her holding back, she could generate a lot of force with a small frame.
"Most people punch just with their arms or shoulders or even their torso~" Tree started, showing him an example of punching only with movement generated in the arm or with the shoulder, holding the body still. "But the real power comes when you punch from the hip. Like so." Another demonstration, slow motion, showing how she placed her feet wide for a stable stance, then twisted her entire body at the hips, generating the movement from the waist up. Torso twisting, shoulder moving forward, arm moving - a lot more motion and power generated, using her entire form.
"I'm throwing together some self defense classes, want me send you an invite too?" she asked. "I'm sure I could learn you a thing or two."
"That would be great. I'm always interested in learning something new...and I'm pretty sure I got learned a couple things this round." James was looking forward to learning some new lessons. He needed to work on his close in fighting and she seemed to be very efficient at it.
"Right. Consider it done." She gave a nod. "Now what was that about a drink in the lounge?"
James tossed Tree a towel and wiped his face. "An old doctor's prescription. Kentucky Bourbon. Mix it in anything and you'll feel right as rain in no time. Will do wonders for your shoulder strain."
"I'm into it." Tree's muffled voice sounded as she wiped down her face. "You're buying."