#bergen_county

Whump, whump... Sam dribbles, she gets into place.... she shoots, she scores! Annnnd she runs after the ball to try it again!

And sees Adam coming up the walk, stick in hand, grin on his face.

She fumbles, almost dropping the ball. "Oh! Ah. Hey." Grin. Blush.

A bigger grin. He likes something he sees. "Hey. Practice? Or..... you wanna just shoot some hoops? Just for fun?"

"I was just.. yeah. Practice..." Purple again, and a worried crease between her eyebrows. "Uh."

"What?" He stands in front of her, relaxed, casual, confident.

She looks down at the ball, frowning. "Um. Well, I mean, you came over to practice staff stuff."

"Yeah?"

"So. Um." Shrug, foot-scuff. "I'll.. I'll get mine. Tove got me a staff, too. Good practice for me, right? Can't depend entirely on FLyswatter being badass."

"Oh, I think you can depend -exactly- on that, but I guess it's good to be able to pass -and- shoot." Easily.

"Uh.." Flush. Shrug. "I'll be right back." Confused retreat.

Adam looks a little puzzled but shrugs and nods, waiting for her.

She returns in a bit - no basketball, but a relatively plain practice staff in tow. Hers is rather a bit larger than Adam's - but then, chimerically, Dag also stands a touch over 7 ft, herself.

His grins lights back up when she returns. "Ok, so... warm ups, or what?"

"Warm ups. I was thinking we could maybe try different guard combinations.... "

"Yeah? That's the 1-2-3-4-5-6 stuff, right?"

He gestures around, approximating the moves. He remembers! Kinda.

She nods. "Because muscle memory."

"Like... if I hit you one way, there's a guard that matches?"

That worried scowl. "I'm sorry, I'm not really a teacher."

"S'ok, I'm a great student." Oh, so cocky. Well. Not cocky if he can back it up.... then he's just honest.

"An' hey, I think you're a great teacher, so...."

Blush/Shrug. "You're nice.... so, okay. Start with doing it in order, I'll do them too."

"Ok." He nods and starts, even doing a few self corrections before she can point them out.

Self-corrections get the Grunt-of-Approval. Dag mirrors him with her staff, going through the order.

He's far from perfect, but he clearly -wants- to learn this.

Dag is patient, and her corrections are gentle, if terse. "Ok, so instead of the circle, we're going to jump around. So... uh.. 3-5-2-1-3-6." She demonstrates.

"Woah, ok, mix it up..... " He moves around to face her, so he now is not working alongside but opposite her, a mirror that reverses the image. "3.....5.......2.....1...3...6..." he gets better at it, a little. Transitions are rough.

"Yeah, see, easy to go in order, tougher to jump..."

"But.... you do this, okay? In order..." And as he does, Dagmar does half-speed blows - and the guards naturally seem to counter them. She holds back, careful to restrain her strength.

Adam's entirely focused on the drill, intense. Not his normal look.

"Good. Okay. I'm not gonna give you numbers, you guess."

A slow strike at his left side.

Hesitation, and he counters it. Doesn't seem to mind slow-speed.

A nod, and next is upper-right.

Another hesitation; he'd be dead in combat. He uses the correct counter, though.

Once he blocks, Dagmar stops the swing - her face is also a picture of concentration, it takes effort to hold back. "See, hesitation - that'll get you hurt. That's why we have to run them until you stop... like.. thinking about them?"

Adam nods. "Yeah. Like ball. When you, you know, see the shot and then take it."

"Come again." He gestures her to go on.

"Exactly!"

She keeps a slow pace - steady, waiting to see if the hesitation shakes off before speeding up.

It gets better. Maybe not as fast as he'd like, there's tension when he misses some, but small improvements.

"Hmph." A nod. "Again."

Dagmar is steady, yes. Quiet. But she's also relentless - even at half speed - quarter, really - Adam likely finds himself sweating. The staff is not light.

He glistens in the summer's early daylight.

When his arms start to tremble from holding the staff and his blocks begin to backslide, Dagmar calls it. "Enough for today, yeah?"

He nods, panting. "Good.... good workout....." Sam's breathing easily, nary a drop of dew on her skin.

"Yeah! You were getting the hang of it there. Want to come in and get something to drink?"

"Sure!" He's recovering quickly.

"Cool. We might have gatorade. I know we have tea and lemonade and water..." She leads him to the kitchen door.