fandomhigh | Physical Education. Wednesday, Period Three

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Physical Education. Wednesday, Period Three

Ghanima was back today, and if she looked faintly amused, well, you'd gotten Anakin. It was funny.

"I apologize for missing two weeks in a row," she began once everyone had assembled. "I got sent to Caladan--" and hadn't that caused her tau some distress. Ghanima herself had not been a fan. Far too much water. "--for an issue with the Great Houses. Politics always takes twice the time actually needed to resolve a situation."

"I understand that Bubble Soccer was a resounding success, and that you had Master Skywalker last week. I hope you got a good workout." Ghanima, don't laugh at their pain. It's mean. "Today I'd like to talk a little about why physical education and self-defense is important outside the island."

"Violence happens, even when you're not living on an island known for rampaging gremlins and the occasional evil twin or sadistic megalomaniac," she said calmly, motioning for everyone to take a seat on the mats. "Women are, sadly, higher targets for violence given the highly misogynistic cultures of this time period and the prevalence of rape culture. Men are not immune, however. Not from muggings or assault, sexual or otherwise."

"Which is why today, we're learning a bit of Krav Maga. When you are in a real fight, there is no such thing as honor, nor does anyone care about your technique, purity of form, or the spirituality bound up in your particular fighting style. Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and its extremely efficient and brutal counter-attacks. You fight dirty, you fight hard, and you end the situation before it can escalate."

"Krav Maga is a self-defense system developed for the military in Israel that consists of a wide combination of techniques sourced from aikido, boxing, judo and wrestling along with realistic fight training. It was derived from street-fighting skills developed by Hungarian-Israeli martial artist Imi Lichtenfeld, who made use of his training as a boxer and wrestler as a means of defending the Jewish quarter against fascist groups in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in the mid-to-late 1930s. In the late 1940s, following his immigration to Israel, he began to provide lessons on combat training to what was to become the IDF, who went on to develop the system that became known as Krav Maga. It has since been refined for civilian, police and military applications. Krav Maga encourages students to avoid confrontation. If this is impossible or unsafe, it promotes finishing a fight as quickly as possible. Attacks are aimed at the most vulnerable parts of the body, and training is not limited to techniques that avoid severe injury; some even permanently injure or cause death to the opponent. Drills provide maximum safety to students by the use of protective equipment and the use of reasonable force. In some teaching organizations like Krav Maga Global (KMG), sparring is slow and light until you reach G2 level, which takes approximately 3 years because climbing from one level to the next in the Practitioner and Graduate levels takes about half a year of consistent training. Once in G2 then you also do simulated “real” fighting with protective gear."

"Today we're going to learn some very basic Krav Maga moves and basic training," Ghanima said, before beginning to demonstrate some moves. "We're going to start with a basic warm-up, and then start out slow. On your feet, then, and let's get moving."

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Ghanima kept working after class, practicing her Krav Maga in-between checking in on students ~~if any stayed afterwards today~~.

Towards the end of the hour she took the Danger Shop programming pad and gave herself a pack of opponents to work against, her motions brutally efficient as she worked out her frustrations from the past two weeks. Her speed, however, was much faster than most people would ever be able to achieve.

Ringo stayed a bit late, practicing the movements and trying little variations that felt more natural given her own training and reflexes. But that all stopped when Ghanima really started moving.

It wouldn't be fair to describe her expression as 'slack-jawed', precisely, but she was definitely staring. Part of that was how much concentration it took to even follow Ghanima's movements, but part of it was definitely a sort of shock. She'd never seen anyone move with that kind of speed without the assistance of AirTrek. Despite some of the weirder things she'd seen since arriving at Fandom, it hadn't even occurred to her as possible.

Ghanima noticed Ringo's attention, but didn't want to provide a bad role model by pausing her fight. Always finish what you've started, students!

It didn't take her too much longer to finish her workout, and begin a cooldown kata. "I know it's unsportsmanlike to clothesline a poor hologram, but it's surprisingly satisfactory," she confessed. "Did you have a question for me, Ringo?"

Well, she did now!

"How do you move like that?" she asked, eyes still a bit wide with wonder.

"Many years of physical and psychological training, understanding of time-space interaction, and casual disregard for the laws of physics," Ghanima replied honestly. "It is called the Weirding Way, a method of combat from my universe which centers around the concept that your mind creates your reality. You learn to control every muscle in your body, down to the smallest part of your smallest toe."

"Once you have optimized your muscle control, a practitioner of the art has to know that the action he or she "wants" to perform has already been performed. Time is one. Space is one." Ghanima went and stood in front of one of her 'fallen' foes. "For example, to imagine oneself behind an opponent at the current moment in time--" she blurred, and reappeared behind him. "When trained well, this knowledge will place you at the spot desired."

Ringo was still staring in awe. "So you're not just moving too fast to follow? You're actually, um," what was that word? "You're just there?"

"Teleportation? In a way, and short range only. Really it's my body moving so fast as to almost bend time itself. There is no 'now' and 'later,' it is always simply 'now,'" she said, smiling. "I've always been good with temporal concepts, and I have been practicing the Way for a very long time."

There was Ringo, still pretty much blown away by the idea. Much less having witnessed it.

"Do you," she hesitated, eyes darting to the side as she took a deep breath and screwed up her courage, "do you think I could learn it?"

"I can teach you, but I can't promise you'll learn it," she answered honestly. "Most members of the Sisterhood begin training as very young children, when their minds and bodies are the most flexible, and even then not all of them master it."

Ringo considered that. "Is it dangerous, then?" she asked. Because it sounded really interesting, and she wanted to learn, but not at any cost.

"Dangerous? No. I have lifetimes of experience teaching the Way," literally, "--and have never even gotten a student maimed. But it is very hard work, and you do run the risk of injury if you try to push yourself too much too fast."

"If, if you do not mind, I'd like to try?" Ringo ducked her head, looking embarrassed. "I don't know if I'll be able to do it, but I'd like to find out?"

Ghanima broke out into a wide smile. "And that attitude, Ringo, is what makes me think you just might be able to learn," she said affectionately. "We achieve nothing if we do not try, and being willing to risk failure is the first step."

"Well, the failure thing I've got down, at least." Ringo's smile was a bit self-conscious, but totally genuine. Even with all of her physical advantages, getting good with ATs involved a lot of falling down.

Hanna was practicing, but this was... mesmerizing. She had to stop at one point and just stare, watching Lady Ghanima speed through the exercise.

"How are you doing that?"

"With many years of micro-muscular training," Ghanima said, giving Hanna a smile, "--and the understanding that the way people perceive time is flexible."

The first part made sense; the second part... "Flexible? In what way, flexible?" Hanna sat down, water bottle in hand, ready to listen.

"There is a flow to time, and patterns that are easier to see, with a bit of distance," Ghanima said, slipping easily into Bene Gesserit teaching mode. "Time is nothing more than a subjective measurement of distance traveled. Even if you are holding still, the planet you are on moves, and so you move."

"Yet one cannot walk backwards to regain time, but what if you go forward without moving? A to C, without stopping at B? If your mind reflects your reality, why can't you cover ten yards in a single step when all time is now?"

Hanna was not entirely certain her English was up to this, but she was still trying to imagine this. The metaphor of moving-in-space as part of a larger whole helped. "We don't, usually," she said cautiously, uncertain if she'd missed a step. "We are bound by physics. And..." She paused, trying to imagine this, struggling with it. "What if something got in your way, between A and C?"

"Physics bends," she said, waving a hand. "It's flexible, because you cannot confine it. If there can be wormholes in space, why can't people do it? Reality is defined by the limits we set on it."

Hanna stopped to think about that, then realized that she had no answer that would contradict this. She stood up, brow furrowed in concentration. "How long -- did it take you to learn that? And could I learn it here?"

"I have known how to do it since I was very small," Ghanima said. "My grandmother and my step-mother were both members of the religious order that created this method of combat. All initiates of the Sisterhood are trained in it starting at a young age, but not all achieve the ability to use the Way."

"It's difficult. You must have complete mastery of yourself and your mind," she said honestly. "But I am willing to teach if you are willing to learn."

"Yes! Please." If she could learn that--- then maybe she would never have to kill anyone, or hurt anyone, even if she were cornered. She would simply never be trapped. "I have trained before. Trained hard. I am willing to work on this."

Kathy had been shamelessly eavesdropping on Lady Ghanima's conversation with Ringo and as soon as she agreed to teach her, Kathy had to ask for herself as well. "I don't suppose you would mind one more student?" she asked, shyly. "I am a very diligent student."

And since there was only one person she'd ever seen move like that, she asked, "Did you teach Reno, too?"

Ghanima smiled, her blue-on-blue eyes crinkling with mirth. "I did," she agreed. "He was one of my first students, and also one of my best. I believe he surpassed even his own expectations, much to his surprise."

"And since it would seem we have a class going..." Ghanima gestured to Hanna and Ringo. "You are welcome to join us, Kathy. I will warn you, it is brutal, hard training. You may never achieve even the most basic level of the Way, but you will be the better for having tried."

Kathy smiled at her friends, then lifted her chin just slightly. "I'm not afraid of working hard," she said. "Or pushing myself to my limits and beyond. Even if I don't learn it, at least I'll have tried."

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Physical Education. Wednesday, Period Three

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