The other day, I tested my right shoulder with a brief carenza with a pair of kamagong sticks. It turned out surprisingly well and represents a small step forward for me.

First, what is “carenza” in Filipino Martial Arts? A short answer is that it is a freestyle exercise where a player improvises FMA moves. It is akin to shadowboxing and is popular among FMA players. Due to the tendonitis in my right shoulder, it had been several months since I played with the kamagong sticks. Believe me, these are heavy sticks and are great for developing forearm strength.

Yesterday, I decided to video myself. I decided to keep it short to test my right shoulder. I also want to see how my carenza looked.

Regarding my right shoulder, it came through very well, albeit with a short carenza session. There’s a reason why I said, “Let’s see what I can do.”

Is my shoulder 100%? No, not yet. But it has come a long way in six months, and I’m pretty pleased. I just have to keep up with the physical therapy exercises.

Regarding the technical aspects of my carenza, I spotted a few deficiencies that I’d like to eliminate. Let me share them with you.

For the first 30 seconds, my body was somewhat tense. At the 30-second mark, I visibly straightened up, a sign that I was finally relaxing—a sure sign that it had been a while since I’d done this exercise.

I kept making one mistake over and over. I kept crossing my center line while doing the redonda portion of the carenza. See the photograph below.

In the picture above, my right hand crosses the centerline (a martial arts term for the center of the body). Ideally, I should not let my right hand cross the centerline while doing the redonda portion of the exercise, especially for the first half of the video. My double zeros and abanico double-action moves were okay.

After several views, I noticed that my crossing the centerline became less prominent around the 30-second mark. There is likely a correlation between stiffness and deficient techniques.

Heeeyo, this is what I love about self-analysis via video. Video does not lie! Either you deny what happened in the video or face the deficiencies head-on and fix them.

Too often, folks focus too much on their strengths and downplay their weaknesses/deficiencies. Why not embrace working on the weak parts of your game?

Anyway, despite the deficiencies in my carenza, I am pretty happy with the results. I experienced no pain in my right shoulder despite playing with heavy sticks!

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