Mizblog

TJ’s Thursday class. Feeling good. Started jogging, then shadow boxing, and a little shoulder tag. Moved into stretching, and then did bursting in punches with focus mitts. After that it was bursting in elbows with tombstones, then turning/bursting elbows to the rear with tombstones, and then front kicks. My thumb got dinged a few times.

We wrapped it up with gun defenses from front/back. Had to go in the back room to finish, as BJJ class was starting up. Had a surround drill with all level 1 chokes plus guns front and back.

I survived. Need to work on explosiveness of my defenses.

As I was getting ready for class, transitioning from KM37 to this class, Christian told me how to use my hand wraps to tie my thumb to my hand and pad it up. It really helped!

I guess on Friday they had another school come in and roll, and it showed up that our students were really vulnerable to the arm bar from guard. So we went over the arm bar setup from guard and how to do that, and then how to defend it and use it to pass the guard. I felt pretty good at doing that.

Then we rolled a bunch of times. I rolled with Tom, who had trained for a year (about 2 years ago) and was real rusty. I was able to take his back a couple times, and Mark had to stop us to show Tom how to get out of it. I wasn’t able to get a good choke because my hand was mummified.

I rolled with Daniel a couple times. He tapped me once with a crucifix Americana. Good work. Early on I was able to hit a half guard sweep on him every time, but he cleaned that up by the end and I was stuck. His side control was tough too. I learned a bunch.

I sat out the last roll. Mark was understanding. “Listen to your body.” He won’t be back until next Thursday.

I think Christian took my other hand wrap after showing me how to wrap it.

Christian taught this Tuesday morning class. I came in early to wrap my hands, but Christian said I wouldn’t need the wraps.

We started with partners, one holding the other’s single leg and moving around, so the “hopper” would have to hop around to keep balance until the timer dinged. Both people, both legs. Then we did the hip twisting hop, turning the hopping leg 90 degrees and pivoting the hip to turn the held knee in and down.

Next was thai pads, front kick, round kick, all the way down the mat and back, then switch pad holders. Then we did front kick, round kick, knee down and back. Then we switched stances and did it all again.

After that we did ground stuff. Pad holder bumps non-pad-holder, who falls and does a fall break, and moves into ground fighting stance. Pad holder walks around and grounded fighter has to track them. Pad holder moves in and grounded fighter throws a kick to the pad. Once, twice, thrice. Then grounded fighter does a get-up from the ground and becomes the pad holder.

Next ground drill was the same, but after throwing the first kick, the pad holder dropped the pad and mounted the grounded fighter, raining down punches. Mounted fighter does punch defenses and then bridges to knock them down. Buck, trap, and roll. Throw punches, break guard and get up. I dinged my thumb on Thomas’ knee throwing a fake groin punch while getting up. Ouch. I didn’t want to do that.

Lastly we did gun defenses, which was not fun with my injured right thumb. I held lefty. It went okay. Then I iced my thumb.

TJ’s Saturday morning class. I started with hand wraps. Typical jogging warm-up followed by shoulder tag. I was very careful with my right thumb. Susan gave me lots of sympathy (apparently she’s been hurt by Rick too) but Eric (Thor) chastised me for too much backing up. So I touched his shoulder and he touched mine and he was happier.

We did some focus mitt work. I paired with old man Mike, and he showed me some stuff and I got better.

The rest of the class was ground stuff. Getting up off the ground, and getting out from under the mount, and getting up from the guard. I really struggled with the nuances of getting up from the guard. I kept wanting to raise the front knee instead of the rear one. Gotta practice that.

Saranya waited for me, spending the hour doing 4 pages of Kumon and getting ahead of her KMX homework.

Just 3 in the class today: me, TJ and Daniel. So we did a bunch of quick drills of top/middle/out where two would start in a position while the other watched. First it was full guard, and later it was full mount, then prone, then prone with a choke. I hurt my jammed thumb, jammed my right big toe, and got hit in the mouth. Learned some good practicals, like mount escape and don’t trust your neck. TJ had to leave early so Daniel and I rolled for 6 minutes.

My rib held up fine, but my thumb and toe are dinged.

TJ taught the class. I barely made it. Feeling fragile and hungry going in.

Shadow boxing and shoulder tag. I jammed my right thumb again in shoulder tag. I need to tuck it in or something, because even wearing the hand wraps didn’t protect it at all.

I practiced holding focus mitts for a lefty (Melissa) again. I’m getting better at both ways, but it’s going to take a LOT of work.

We did elbow strikes. Meh.

We did a combo+elbow stress drill. Meh.

We learned full nelson defense, and my fingers didn’t get broken. :)