He stated that he had always been a fan of gamebooks and wanted to create his own.
In an interview with Paolo (which you can read the full version of here), I asked him what exactly inspired him to leap into writing about wrestling. One man has released his intentions of bridging that gap with an interactive novel called Slammed!, and that mans name is Paolo Chikiamco. Do you pretend that reality does not exist? Or is there some way to bridge that tiny gap?
This arises the biggest issue within making a professional wrestling-focused video game. These pieces of reality tend to appear backstage, with politicking making up a huge part of a wrestlers effort to become a big name in the wrestling world. Wrestling is mostly scripted, with elements of reality sprinkled in. Obviously, Japanese developer Yukes has tried to do so for years with their WWE 2K series, and while they have occasionally produced a solid game, they have yet to recreate the true magic of professional wrestling. Call 97.Creating a video game experience that pleases wrestling fans is a difficult task, one that many cannot understand unless you are a true fan of the sport. on Wednesdays at 1420 Riverside Ave., Unit 100, Fort Collins, as part of the jujitsu techniques class. Information: The class is taught at 12:15 p.m.
By the end of the hour-long class, you will find that movements become more natural and fluid, even if they aren’t graceful. Don’t be discouraged if you can’t perform certain exercises because concepts such as finding your center of gravity and shifting your weight and center of gravity are a bit abstract at first. I had no difficulties walking up flights of stairs or bending my knees.Īdvice: Be prepared to take off your tennis shoes because the class is done barefoot. The morning after: There was no pain, but I definitely woke up feeling like I had worked the lower part of my body the day before. Students make their way across the length of the mat, before continuing another sequence of exercises. The positions are straining, and to help relieve some of the tension O’Donovan has her students assume the “butt crawling” position by sitting on their backsides, fully extending their legs, and lifting each cheek while slowly inching forward.
It is the move students learn before learning shiko, the famous “sumo stomp.” From this stance, students lean into the bent leg and are instructed to use their oblique muscles to help lift the straightened leg into the air. O’Donovan transitions from sonkyo to shinkyaku by having students pull one knee out to the side and toward the chest, while straightening the other leg. “They are trying to psych each other out, without saying a thing,” O’Donovan says, as she notes that sumos have been known to sync their breathing while searching for their opponents’ vulnerabilities.Īs students practice the position, O’Donovan walks around the room, pushing each of the four students on the shoulders to show them how stable a stance sonkyo is. Once the cracks and pops have been worked out, students get into the warrior spirit by practicing sonkyo, the position sumos assume at the starting point, when their legs are spread, they are squatting, and their hips are shifted downward as they glare at each other. “Sumos were warriors, they had to be in good health, and everything had to be natural to the body’s movement.” “It’s about moving your body in natural ways,” O’Donovan says to her class as she guides her students through the first set of sumo exercises. O’Donovan works her way up the body, continuing this same rotation concept and applying it to the hips, upper torso and arms. What it’s like: Students prepare for class with traditional martial arts stretches, which entail warming the muscles in the ankles by rolling them in their sockets clockwise and counterclockwise. These guys are strong – and very flexible – as we learned when we tried to touch our face to the ground while we were sitting in our splits stretch, which requires you to straddle-split while hinging forward from the waist to rest your head and chest on the floor in front of you. How hard it is: Don’t underestimate the 500-pound fighters you see on television. O’Donovan describes the average student as an adult who is a former athlete and now suffers from hip and back pain as a result of not stretching properly while younger. Digital Replica Edition Home Page Close Menu