Meeting A Lioness

[CaptainL]

In setting up her next move, Astrid had taken the care to include several motions geared toward building momentum behind the strike - drawing her fist back and taking a step forward. This would slow her down and help telegraph to Joyce what she was about to do, giving her the opportunity to devise a counter and anticipate her motions. Astrid knew that her analytical approach to wrestling would be well-suited to assessing effective counterattacks, and it would give her the advantage against opponents who made similar actions. In addition, Astrid was careful to maximize the momentum behind her blow, ensuring that if Joyce was going to turn that back on her, it would be enough to take her down. If Joyce wanted to take on larger foes, it was pivotal that she understood how to utilize the laws of motion in order to give her the edge she needed, and she had to keep her eyes open for cues that it would work. And sure enough, Joyce took the bait, taking Astrid by the arm. At first, Astrid nodded to her with a smile. This was exactly what she'd hoped she'd do; all that was left was for the brunette to follow through on it.

However, it was to Astrid's disappointment when, rather than pull on her arm to bring her down, Joyce instead tugged her around in circles a few times, jerking her in different directions. Without the momentum of a charge behind Joyce's attempted takedowns, it was easy for Astrid to pull back each time, leveling her stance back out, and soon Joyce had left herself winded and vulnerable.

Astrid sighed, but she supposed that this was still a good opportunity for another lesson - namely, showing Joyce that she had left the blonde an opening for a counter of her own. The two of them were still joined at the arm - and when Astrid could take advantage of her strength and size, she would easily be able to pull back at Joyce's arm and swing in the other direction to send her toward the ropes in an Irish whip. If Joyce bounced off of it, Astrid would be ready to bend down and grab her when she shot back at her, but even if she didn't, she was sure the landing would wind her.

Either way, Astrid looked toward Joyce with a huff. "What was that for? You had everything set up, but you didn't follow through with the last step. You should have tried to take me down then and there, as soon as you grabbed my arm. Working with the motion, not against it. If you're going to run around in circles, it's just going to waste your energy," she explained.

[Joyce_Hilda]

Grabbed by Astrid, Joyce saw herself being roughly Irish Whipped to the ropes. Her legs stopped working by themselves, only running to the ropes, following the momentum. When she bounced on the ropes, she ended running towards that giant amazon. The same feeling of heat from before came back, as she found herself helpless, completely at the mercy of that giant blonde amazon.

"Oh my, that's it! I made a mistake and now that titaness is going to throw me like a ragdoll!" Joyce thought to herself.

However, something different happened. Joyce was just grabbed, so she could stop running and get halted on her motion. This made Joyce feel her legs extremely shaky, and ended up on an accidental clinch with her trainer, what made her blush viciously, specially with her trainer chastising her in such a motherly tone.

"Sorry, sorry, I'm so clumsy! That was exactly what I was trying to do, but I think I may have missed one step, while trying to do things fast. You know, I need to get used to do things quick and fast. Cannot hope my opponent will give me enough time to think on everything I'll do next."

[CaptainL]

Suddenly, just as she was about to come into the path of Astrid's grabbing arms, Joyce ground to a halt. Her heels dug into the mat, and she stopped there, just shy of the Norsewoman. Astrid had already leaned in, intent to get a hold of Joyce, but when she saw such control of her body she had to feel a little bit impressed. She stopped, letting her arms hang there in the air for a moment when she at first felt surprise that the brunette had it in her, but she would soon lean down to place her hands on Joyce's shoulders with a smile, steadying her - in the process, leaning in closer to bring their bodies that much more into proximity. Astrid had no idea what she was doing to Joyce in doing so.

She nodded her head to what Joyce said about her clumsiness. "I see, I see. Yes, you're definitely learning well if you can recognize what your weaknesses are. Your opponents definitely aren't going to wait for you to catch up, that's for sure. However, the next step is learning how you can overcome those weaknesses. I'm not the most swift or fast-paced of an opponent, I will admit, but you'll definitely want to practice more when it comes to thinking on the fly, if you want to stand up to them."

Astrid had cautioned Joyce about wasting her energy - but, after that, her expression softened a little. "That being said, though...you do show some impressive control over your body. Especially in the heat of a match, when everything's moving so quickly, not everyone can just stop the Irish whip like that. If you manage to keep that up, you might be able to have something going for you...question is, you think you can do that reliably?"

[Joyce_Hilda]

Joyce felt flattered with Astrid's words, even blushing a bit. As she adjusted her hair, she replied the norse woman.

"Well, thank you, Mrs. Ostberg. Answering your question: honestly, I don't know. I mean, I only was able to stop myself right there, right now, because the length you made me to run, on that Irish Whip, was long enough to allow me to regain the control. Also, I kinda made myself lose a bit of the momentum on the impact of the rope"

Joyce said, rubbing her back, which was a bit sore.

"Usually, I'm not able to halt myself like this because my opponents usually hits me just a couple of seconds after I rebound on the ropes or the turnbuckle. For example: when I got myself rebounded on the ropes, I ran about 5 seconds until I got near of you, and I only was able to stop myself very close to you. If a real opponent had thrown me on that move, she would have hit me hard about 2 seconds after I rebounded on the ropes. Dang, I thing there are opponents that would be able to hit me even 1 second after the rebound"

[CaptainL]

"Hmm..." Astrid held her chin in thought, nodding her head to Joyce's explanation. Even now, she was showing her analytical capabilities - she was well aware of everything that had allowed her to control her momentum, and she could put it into words. That was a good sign - it showed that Joyce was keeping track of her surroundings at all times, and if she could recognize of all the information at her disposal, that would allow her to use it to her advantage if she knew how it all worked. For a style like hers, that was pivotal. "I see, I see. It's good that you can recognize that. But if you know where you can improve..." A grin flashed across Astrid's face as she straightened herself a little taller. "Then you should be able to make it happen, yeah?~"

Without giving Joyce a moment to think, Astrid moved to grab for Joyce's arm as she swung her weight to the side, moving to whip her across the ring once again! Perhaps she had gotten lost in her enthusiasm to help Joyce improve - but whether the brunette was ready or not, Astrid was out to see if she could do it again!

"Try seeing if you can beat me to the punch!~" If Joyce was to rebound off the ropes, Astrid would swing out with a forearm in her direction, looking to test the girl's reaction time!

[Joyce_Hilda]

Joyce didn't have any time to think straight, as soon as the norse amazon managed to grab her once again, she could only feel her body running to the ropes, against her will, and then rebounding back at Astrid. Joyce felt the same sense of helplessness she felt before. When Astrid came at her with her forearm extended, Joyce couldn't react in time, and ended up being hit, and falling on the mat, completely stunned.

[CaptainL]

Well, so much for that idea. Astrid let out a sigh, her shoulders slumping as she crossed her arms to glance down at Joyce, who was now plastered to the mat courtesy of the forearm she had just charged into. She knew that Joyce was still learning, but she couldn't help but be a little disappointed. She had, after all, outright given Joyce this one, and yet the brunette had still taken the punch head-on. "Really?" Astrid muttered. "I told you what to do, you know..."

All the same, the champion bent down to take Joyce by the wrist, looking to help her to her feet. "Don't worry, I'm not mad at you," she explained. Astrid knew that any flaw was just an opportunity for improvement - and, in fact, she felt she could see what the issue was. "It seems to me that you're freezing up when you see me bearing down on you, and that's making it hard for you to act when you should. I'm guessing this has to do with your hesitation around larger opponents?" Astrid crouched down to be at Joyce's level, looking her eye to eye. When giving feedback like this, she didn't want to look like she was judging her, and she felt that Joyce would be more receptive to the information if it was coming from an equal.

[Joyce_Hilda]

Astrid's gesture was something lovely, but this ended up having consequences a bit different than she probably planned. Joyce felt her heart beating faster as her trainer's face got so close of her, and she also started to talk on that motherly tone of hers. Astrid was just acting like herself and, still, this was enough to pull a lot of strings on Joyce, who thought that blonde amazon was gorgeous. Joyce wanted to look professional, even being a beginner on wrestling, but she was slowly starting to lose it.

"Y-Yes, you're right. I think I'm hesitating since you're a way larger opponent than me, mom-- I mean, TEACHER, teacher!" Joyce giggled nervously, as her face was starting to blush.

"Bitch, what the fuck is wrong with you? You just called Mrs Ostberg 'mommy'! What will she think about us now?" Joyce started to curse herself on her thoughts, after such gaffe

[CaptainL]

"Hmm..." Astrid tapped at her chin and nodded her head, thinking through the issue Joyce had presented her with. The key flaw in Joyce's approach to wrestling, as the Norsewoman had seen it, was that although she seemed well equipped to handle an opponent of comparable size to herself, she struggled when dealing with heavyweights like Astrid - and even when she tried to introduce her to that dimension of wrestling, she was struggling to keep up. Clearly, if Joyce's training was going to be effective, she was going to need to address that fact.

"I see, I see. Hm...I'm not sure if that's something I can help you with myself. But I may be able to help yet. Perhaps you'd feel less intimidated by it if I had you spar against an opponent closer to your size, and had you practice the same sorts of moves I'm trying to get you to use against me?" In waiting for her student's thoughts on the proposal, however, Astrid noticed something odd - and she blinked her eyes a few times.

"Wait, what did you just call me-"

[Joyce_Hilda]

"TEACHER, i called you 'teacher', because you're teaching me. Sorry, I should've just keep calling you 'trainer'." Joyce tried to disguise what just happened.

"So, yeah, I like your idea, we should definitely try it, but I still would like to keep practicing with you. I mean, isn't the whole purpose of our training to help me to adaptate my holds and moves on opponents bigger than me? Because I can already deal averagely good with the ones with the same size of me." Joyce finally gave jer opinion about Astrid's proposal.